Nellie Fox

Nellie Fox
Fox in about 1953
Second baseman
Born: (1927-12-25)December 25, 1927 St. Thomas Township, Pennsylvania
Died: December 1, 1975(1975-12-01) (aged 47) Baltimore, Maryland
Batted: Left	Threw: Right
MLB debut
June 8, 1947 for the Philadelphia Athletics
Last MLB appearance
July 24, 1965 for the Houston Astros
Career statistics
Batting average	.288
Hits	2,663
Home runs	35
Runs batted in	790
Teams
Philadelphia Athletics (1947–1949) Chicago White Sox (1950–1963) Houston Colt .45s/Astros (1964–1965)
Career highlights and awards
1959 AL MVP 15× All-Star (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1959², 1960, 1960², 1961, 1961², 1963) 3× Gold Glove Award (1957, 1959, 1960) Chicago White Sox #2 retired
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1997
Vote	Veterans Committee

Jacob Nelson "Nellie" Fox (December 25, 1927 – December 1, 1975) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a second baseman on three teams, primarily the Chicago White Sox, from 1947 through 1965. He was the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1959 and was an American League All-Star for 12 seasons (15 games). Fox was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.^[1]

[edit] Baseball career

Fox was born in St. Thomas Township, Pennsylvania. He began his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1947, though he was never a full-time starter during his three seasons with the team. Fox was a member of the 1949 Philadelphia Athletics team that set a major league team record of 217 double plays, a record which still stood as of 2012.^[2] He appeared in 77 games that season and contributed to 68 of the team's double plays.^[3] Traded to the White Sox October 29, 1949, Fox's career took off. He spent 14 seasons with Chicago, making 10 All-Star teams. He played his final two seasons (1964–65) with the Houston Colt .45s and Astros.

With the White Sox, Fox played next to a pair of slick-fielding Venezuelan shortstops, Chico Carrasquel (1950–55) and Luis Aparicio (1956–62). Fox won Gold Gloves in 1957, 1959 and 1960.

Only 5-foot-9, he made up for his modest size and minimal power — he hit only 35 home runs in his career, and never more than six in a single season — with his good batting eye, excellent fielding, and baserunning speed. Fox was perennially one of the toughest batters to strike out, fanning just 216 times in his career, an average of once every 42.7 at-bats which ranks him 3rd all-time. He led the league in most at-bats per strikeouts a phenomenal 13 times in his career. A solid contact hitter (lifetime .288 batting average), he batted over .300 six times, with 2,663 hits, 355 doubles, and 112 triples. He also led the league in singles for seven straight years, in triples once, and in hits four times.

After his playing career, Fox was a coach for the Astros (1965–67) and the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers (1968–72).

Fox died of skin cancer in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1975. He was not selected to the Hall of Fame in his initial period of eligibility. In his final opportunity, 1985, he gained 74.7 percent of the vote, just shy of the 75 percent required for election by the Baseball Writers Association of America. However, in 1997, the Veterans Committee elected him to membership in the Hall.

[edit] 1959

Fox's best season came in 1959, when the White Sox won their first pennant in 40 years. He batted .306, had an on base percentage of .380 and won his second Gold Glove. The Al Lopez-managed White Sox had the best record in baseball, going 94-60 to finish five games ahead of the Cleveland Indians and a surprising 15 ahead of the New York Yankees. It was one of just two seasons the Yankees would not win the pennant between 1949-1964 (the Indians won it in 1954).

In the World Series, Fox batted a team-high .375 with 3 doubles, but the Sox lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. In Game 5 Fox scored the only run when Sherm Lollar hit into a double play in the fourth inning. (This was only the second time that a World Series game did not have an RBI.) It was Fox's only postseason experience, and the White Sox would not make it back to the World Series until they swept the 2005 World Series from the Houston Astros.

[edit] Major League highlights

• Major League record: 798 consecutive games at second base (Aug. 7, 1956—Sept. 3, 1960)

• American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) (1959)
• American League leader in hits (1952, 54, 57, 58)
• American League leader in triples (1960)
• American League leader in singles (1952) (1954 through 1960)
• American League leader in sacrifice hits (1961, 64)
• American League leader in fielding average (1949, 56, 59, 62, 63)

• 12-time American League All-Star (15 games)
• 3 Gold Glove Awards

[edit] Achievements

Nellie Fox's number 2 was retired by the Chicago White Sox in 1976.

Fox was the first White Sox player to be elected American League MVP.

Fox was major-league baseball's first Gold Glove winner at second base.

Fox had 216 career strikeouts in more than 9,200 at-bats: the 3rd best percentage in MLB history.

Between 1959 and 1960 the Aparicio-Fox middle infield duo each won the Gold Glove Award for their respective position, starting a select list of eight shortstop-second baseman combinations who have won the honor in the same season while playing together.

1976: Fox uniform number 2 was retired by the White Sox.

2006: Two bronze statues of Fox and Luis Aparicio were unveiled on the outfield concourse of U.S. Cellular Field. Fox's statue depicts him flipping a baseball toward Aparicio, while Aparicio is depicted as preparing to receive the ball from Fox.

[edit] See also

	Biography portal
	Baseball portal

• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball triples champions
• MLB consecutive games played streaks
• Chicago White Sox all-time roster

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Nellie Fox at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Nellie Fox at Find a Grave
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Baseball Library
• Bigelow, Robert W. and Zminda, Don “Nellie Fox” in Don Zminda, ed. Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox, (Skokie, IL: ACTA Publishing, 2009) reprinted at SABR Bio Project