Jimmie Foxx and the A’s - A Lost Philadelphia Legend

Imagine a time when there was two Major League baseball teams in Philadelphia. How many people even know that at one point there were two teams? One National, one American. Phillies vs the Athletics. If they were both still around, who would you root for? As a lifelong Phils fan, it would pain me to say that if the A’s were still in town, Lord knows I would probably be rooting for them.

Often known as the “departure without dignity” Connie Mack’s Elephants fled Swampoodle like a racehorse at the gate, feeling trapped by the iron bars of low attendance and failing seasons, only to rush haphazardly to the quick money and the prospects of Western expansion at the end of the track. So did the Dodgers and the Giants from New York, so did the Braves from Boston. Those were just the times.

From 1901 to 1954 the Athletics that you know today as Oakland’s team were born and raised in the northern outskirts of Philadelphia at 21st & North Lehigh Avenue in a once predominately Irish neighborhood known as Swampoodle. Shibe Park (eventually renamed to Connie Mack Stadium) saw competition from the likes of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and a hundred other baseball legends. The beauty of the A’s did not only live in the fact that they brought outside American League talent to Philadelphia for all to see. The beauty was that the A’s could welcome that same talent to town, and then swiftly whoop them after doing so. 9 American League pennants. 5 World Series victories. One of the country’s first whole city-block-wide, smack-dab-in-the-middle of a neighborhood ballpark where players often lived in the row homes and tiny tenements that lined the outfield walls. The blue and grey uniforms with the white elephant on the chest, doing battle with the black and white pinstripes of the Murder’s Row Yankees. If you were a Phillies fan in those days you were a secondhand citizen. An A’s ticket at Shibe was the hardest/most sought after ticket in town.

A new picture went up in Dean’s Bar today. I bought the picture as a 6th grade student in Cooperstown on a baseball trip. Jimmie Foxx, the A’s hall of fame first baseman, squats in the on deck circle at Shibe with his rain gear-long sleeves under his shoulder-high jersey. He used to keep the shoulder sleeves of his jersey tailored high enough to where the opposing pitcher would be intimidated by his arm muscles when he gripped his popular H&B (Hillerich & Bradsby) model lumber. Often considered one of the best first basemen to ever enter the white lines, Jimmie the Foxx with two XX’s was a Philadelphia legend long before the likes of Wilt or Chase Utley. He was a hero to many a Philadelphia kid. Now hardly anyone knows who he is.

Below is an excerpt from the description of the portrait that I bought in Cooperstown. I found it fitting because the years talked about are the years Dean’s got its start (1933-34). There is no doubt that conversations about Jimmie Foxx and the A’s took place long ago at the foot of Dean’s Bar, just as conversations still erupt today about all of our teams and our heroes. Let’s never forget the early heroes like Jimmie Foxx.

“Certificate of Authenticity”

This image from early 1934 features slugging first baseman Jimmie Fox of the Philadelphia Atheltics as he prepares to defend the Triple Crown he won in 1933. In 1934 he hit .334 with 44 home runs, 130 R.B.I, approximately his average totals for the dozen season from 1929 - 1940. He swatted 534 home runs in his career, runner up to Babe Ruth until Willie Mays passed him in 1966. This photograph is a faithful replication of an image from the permanent collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

-J.H

Jimmie on deck - 1934.