September 24, 1940: Jimmie Foxx finally hits 500th home run

In mid-August of 1940, Jimmie Foxx went on a homer-hitting spree, banging out four-base hits five games in a row, hitting seven home runs in a seven-day stretch from August 13 through 19. On August 16 he hit a home run in the first inning and another – a game-winner– in the bottom of the 10th. Those two homers pushed him past Lou Gehrig to second place on the all-time home-run list, second only to Babe Ruth. The run of seven homers in seven days increased his total to 497 homers in the course of his long career. Then he hit only one more in the rest of August (number 498) and another on September 4 (499). He’d hit in 30 games trying to get from 497 to 500, and after number 499 he’d gone 15 games with hitting one out. There were only eight games left on the schedule.

In the first 10 games of September, Foxx’s versatility in the field was evident. The team captain caught the first 10 games of the month, then played six games in succession at first base. On September 19 he played third base. On the 22nd he pinch-hit. There was no game on the 23rd. He was back at first base on September 24.

It was perhaps fitting that it was in Philly that Foxx finally hit number 500. He had, after all, begun his big-league career there in 1925. Had there not been a Depression, and had Connie Mack not found the team in desperate straits, he almost certainly would never have dealt one of his biggest stars to wealthy young Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey in December 1935.1 Foxx had already hit 302 homers and driven in 1,075 runs for the Athletics.

When he stepped into the Shibe Park batter’s box shortly after the 1:35 P.M. start on Tuesday afternoon, September 24, he was still stuck on 499. Right-hander Ed Heusser was on the mound for the Athletics. Foxx led off the top of the second inning with a single, then moved to third base on Bobby Doerr’s single. The Red Sox loaded the bases and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Johnny Peacock. His was the first of two Red Sox runs scored in the inning.

Next time up, Foxx flied out to the first baseman, but Boston had run its lead up to 5-0. Starting in the fourth, George Caster replaced Heusser on the mound, Heusser having been removed for a pinch-hitter. Even though the pinch-hitter struck out, the Athletics pushed three runs across in the third.

Against Caster, Ted Williams hit a two-out, two-run homer, making it 7-3. Foxx was up next but flied out to left.

Joe Cronin hit a leadoff homer in the fifth.

In the sixth inning, Caster seemed to start grooving them. Dom DiMaggio was up first; he tripled. Doc Cramer flied out to left, and Dom tagged up and scored. 9-3. With the bases empty, Ted Williams hit his second home run of the game, over the right-field fence. 10-3. Foxx, still longing for number 500, stepped up and hit it into the left-field pavilion. Home run 500. 11-3. He had joined Babe Ruth as the only two batters in history to reach the 500 mark, and he was still just 32 years old.

Joe Cronin was next; he homered, too, “bouncing the ball off the leftfield roof.”2 The three consecutive home runs tied the major-league mark at the time. 12-3. Cronin was 4-for-5 in the game.

It was Bobby Doerr’s turn next, and he rounded the bases, too – but he’d “only” tripled, off the left-field stands (he hadn’t missed another home run by much), coming all the way to score on an errant wild throw by Athletics first baseman Dick Siebert (because of the carom the ball had taken, the Associated Press noted, “observers thought he could have got an inside homer.”)3 13-3. Next up was Jim Tabor. He homered onto the roof on top of the left-field stands.4 And Dom DiMaggio doubled in another run. 15-3.

In the sixth inning, Caster had faced seven batters and given up two triples and four solo home runs. That was enough. It was 14-3. Les McCrabb relieved. He finished the game, giving up just one more run. The Athletics scored five times in the bottom of the eighth, off Red Sox starter Joe Heving, who was left in to go the distance, but the final score was 15-8.

Despite a total of 38 base hits (23 by the Red Sox, 6 of them home runs), two walks, and four errors, the game didn’t even take two hours to complete. The time of game was 1:55. Foxx was replaced by Tony Lupien, who played first base in the eighth and ninth.

Foxx played the second game of the day’s doubleheader, collecting one single in four at-bats and scoring one run. The Red Sox won, 4-3.

There were only an estimated 1,500 fans present.

Foxx played in six more games in 1940, with seven base hits, but none were home runs. He finished the season, satisfied with 36 homers for the season and 500 in his career. His total of 36 home runs in 1940 accomplished something no one had ever done before – including Ruth and Gehrig. Foxx had homered 30 or more times for 12 consecutive seasons.

The five doubles, three triples, and six homers gave the Red Sox 14 extra-base hits in the game, reported by the Boston Globe as having set a new major-league record.5 Their 52 total bases were one shy of the American League mark.

Foxx hit 19 more home runs in 1941, and five more for the 1942 Red Sox before he was placed on waivers and selected on June 1 by the Chicago Cubs. He hit three homers for the Cubs in 1942 and seven more during the war year of 1945 when he was signed as a free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies, for a career total of 534. The Phillies also played their home games at Shibe Park. Home run number 532 was the last one Foxx hit at Shibe, on August 20, 1945. It provided the Phillies their second run in a 4-3 win over the visiting Cincinnati Reds. In all, he hit 181 of his home runs at Shibe Park.

In 1951 Jimmie Foxx was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Before the 1953 season, the ballpark he’d called home for most of his career was renamed Connie Mack Stadium.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Mark R. Milliken, Jimmie Foxx: The Pride of Sudlersville (Lanham, Maryland & London: Scarecrow Press, 1998), Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org.

NOTES

1 The trade netted Mack $150,000 in cash.

2 “Red Sox Tie Major Home Run Record,” Boston Globe, September 25, 1940: 25.

3 “Red Sox Wallop A’S Twice,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 1940: 22.

4 John Drohan, “Foxx Crashes No. 500, Sox Equal Homer Mark,” Boston Herald, September 25, 1940: 28.

5 Boston Globe.