Queen Anne’s County’s Baseball Hero: Super Slugger Jimmie Foxx

October 7, 2025

On October 22, 1907, one of Major League Baseball’s all-time greatest hitters, Jimmie Foxx, was born in Sudlersville to tenant farmers Dell and Mattie Foxx.

Nicknamed “Double X” (likely based on his last name) and “The Beast” (because of his extraordinary batting power), Jimmie Foxx was in his day second only to Babe Ruth in number of career home runs. He has remained in the top 20 of Major League Baseball career home run leaders, currently ranked at number 19 just behind Mickey Mantle.

In addition to his 534 home runs and finishing his 20-year career with an elite .325 batting average, Jimmie Foxx won three Most Valuable Player awards. During part of one season, he batted over .400 (meaning Foxx hit a single, double, triple, or home run 40 percent of the time at bat), a rare occurrence. He once hit a ball completely out of Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

When Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, he and all the space scientists were puzzled by an unidentifiable white object. I knew immediately what it was. That was a home run ball hit off me in 1933 by Jimmie Foxx. – Pitcher Lefty Gomez

Back home at Sudlersville High School, farm boy Jimmie Foxx excelled in soccer, track, and baseball, and was offered a track and field scholarship to the University of Maryland. Instead, he met Frank “Home Run” Baker, a Talbot County native and former third baseman for the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics (today’s Oakland A’s). Baker managed the minor league Easton Farmers and in 1924 offered 16-year-old Foxx a $100 a
month contract.

Before the season ended, Foxx attracted the attention of the Yankees and the Athletics. He signed with Philadelphia, hitting his first major league baseball home run three years later. In 1929, as the Athletics’ first baseman, Foxx hit 33 home runs, helping the team win the World Series on October 14. Earlier in the year, in July, Foxx made the cover of Time magazine. The town of Sudlersville held a banquet honoring their hometown hero. Connie Mack, owner of the Athletics, and “Home Run” Baker, along with teammates, joined the celebration.

Some of Foxx’s relatives talk today of how he purchased a farm for his parents near the southeast corner of Route 301 and Sudlersville Road. They later lived in town (their home was demolished years ago). But as the country fell deeper into economic collapse in 1930, Foxx continued his winning streak, batting .335, hitting 37 home runs, and pushing his team to another World Series victory, something that must have provided a welcome distraction for so many in such dark times while creating a sense of intense pride, especially locally.

The following year, although Foxx experienced injuries, he hit 30 home runs. He doubled that in 1932, tying Babe Ruth’s record, although two runs were erased due to rainouts. Foxx won his first Most Valuable Player title that year and captured his second in 1933. Sudlersville held another banquet.

In a 1934 playoff game, Jimmie Foxx suffered a concussion from a pitch, an injury that would greatly impact his life, as it reportedly resulted in persistent and severe sinus headaches and blurred vision. The next year, as the Depression lingered, Connie Mack traded some his players due to financial pressures. The Boston Red Sox acquired Foxx’s contract for $150,000—one of the biggest major league transactions at the time, valued at approximately $3.5 million today.

Foxx won his third and final MVP title in 1938, hitting another 50 home runs. In 1940, although he continued to struggle with medical issues, he hit his 500th career home run—the youngest player to do so until 32-year-old Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th in 2007.

Foxx was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 1942, then returned to the Phillies in 1945. He ended his Major League Baseball career that year at the age of 37.

Jimmie Foxx Career Highlights

Seven appearances in Major League Baseball All-Star games
Three MVP titles
One Triple Crown win (leading his league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in)
Twice leading the American League in batting average
.325 Career Batting Average
534 Home Runs
2,646 hits across 2,317 games
National Baseball Hall of Fame induction (1951)

Following retirement, Foxx worked briefly as a sports radio announcer and managed minor league teams. In 1952, he coached the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, inspiring the character of Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks in the movie A League of Their Own. He also coached the University of Miami baseball team in 1956 and 1957.

By the end of the decade, Foxx was experiencing serious financial problems brought on partly through bad investments, excessive generosity and spending, and reported drinking. Unfortunately, he retired from baseball two years before pension plans were provided and seven years before he would have been eligible to participate. Although his extraordinary success did not carry him through retirement as it should have, it is said that Foxx continued to be a kind, giving person.

He returned to Maryland in August 1966 and surprised a fan, Gil Dunn of Kent Island, with sports memorabilia—some of his uniforms, equipment, and trophies. Jimmie Foxx, with his beloved brother, Sam, then visited his hometown of Sudlersville.

Jimmie Foxx died on July 21, 1967 in Miami, Florida. Sam died just a few weeks later. While the brothers are buried in Miami, their parents were laid to rest in the Sudlersville Cemetery.

It would be years before the hometown hero began to receive much-deserved posthumous recognition. The Sudlersville Train Station Museum, located at 101 South Linden Street (at the train tracks) pays tribute to Jimmie Foxx, displaying memorabilia. The museum, open the first Saturday of each month May – December 10:00 – 2:00, also celebrates October as Jimmie Foxx Month. The bronze statue of “The Beast,” erected in 1997, stands nearby at the corner of Main and Church Streets.

Look for the new QACTV story on Jimmie Foxx at qactv.com and youtube.com/QACTV later this month.

Happy Birthday, Jimmie Foxx!

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