Foxx is the third and last first baseman to make my inner circle of the top 55 players. The is the least of the position players. I have 4 third basemen and the other 6 positions have at least 5 representatives in the top 55. I never considered adding points to first basemen to get more in the inner circle. I did consider taking away points from first basemen. Why you say, because I have more first basemen in the top 1,000 players than any other position. To me that is good. If first basemen are last in the amount of position players in the inner circle and first in the number of the top 1,000, then that is good for the formula in fairness for each position. I think one reason that happens is that hitting is important and first base has a lot of great hitters. However, they don’t get much help with fielding so not many have made the elite inner circle but hit enough to be great or top 1,000 players.
Jimmy Foxx also managed the Fort Wayne Daisy’s in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. He is reported to have been a gentleman and had a good year there leading them to the playoffs. However, he was let go after one year. He did have a drinking problem after he retired, and it was probably noticed. Tom Hanks character was loosely based on Foxx. I read a book about the Women’s League and just remember a mention about Foxx. We probably won’t ever know the details of how he did as a manager in the league.
When I was a kid, I rated Foxx ahead of Lou Gehrig as the all-time greatest first baseman. My theory was that first base was a power position and Foxx had more career home runs than Gehrig. There might have been some anti-Yankee bias in there. Bill James taught me about park effects, which in part made it logical for Gehrig to be first over Foxx. Since that time, he has been passed by Albert Pujols.
One thing about Foxx that isn’t mentioned is his great and consistent post season play. In three World Series Foxx batted from .333 to .350. In each World Series he hit at least one home run. In his last World Series, the home run was his only extra base hit in seven games, but he reached base 14 times in 7 games. Even though the A’s were defeated in that World Series that still Is a great World Series.
