Jim Baxes
Dimitrios Speros Baxes (1928-1996)

Jim Baxes toiled in the minor leagues for several years before he played one – and only one – season in the majors, 11 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers and 77 games with the Cleveland Indians. He batted .246 and hit 17 home runs. He was an infielder who divided his time between second and third base. He made 17 errors and his .948 fielding average was – by far – the worst of any Cleveland player who appeared in 70 or more games.

However, he did do something special that season, as a member of the Dodgers. On April 15, he hit his first home run off future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, something that didn't seem significant at the time. After all, Baxes was the first player Gibson pitched to in the major leagues. Gibson gave up only three more home runs that season, then went on to a 17-year career and 251 victories for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Baxes' name always stayed with me, because of the X, but I didn't know until I did this project that his full name was so memorable.

Mike Baxes
Michael Baxes (1930- )

Younger brother of Jim Baxes, this infielder also spent more time in the minor leagues than in the majors. He played 73 games for the Kansas City Athletics in 1956, then spent the following season with the Buffalo Bisons and was the Most Valuable Player in the International League. That earned him another shot with Kansas City, and he played 73 more games with the A's in 1958, but his batting average got worse – from .226 to .217. Though he had hit with power in the minor leagues, Mike Baxes had only one home run in 337 at bats with Kansas City.

Jimmie Foxx
James Emory Foxx (1907-1967)

Foxx was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He's on this page because one of his nicknames was "Double X." (The other: "The Beast.")

There was a lot written earlier in 2006 about Josh Gibson and Babe Ruth, with whom Gibson was compared (he was often referred to as "the black Babe Ruth"). However, Gibson probably was more like Foxx. Both were right-handed hitters; Foxx also was a catcher for awhile; both were famous for tape-measure home runs, and both played in the shadow of Ruth.

Interestingly, Foxx originally had wanted to pitch or play third base, but when he signed with the Philadelphia Athletics he put his future in the hands of manager Connie Mack, who turned the 17-year-old Foxx into a catcher. "Double XX" had a 10-game tryout with the A's in 1925 and had six hits in nine at bats. He played several games for Philadelpha in 1926 and 1927, but it wasn't until 1928 that he became an A's regular, playing many of his games at third base. However, Mack decided that from then on Foxx would be his first baseman.

For the next several seasons Foxx terrorized American League pitchers. Twice he hit 50 or more home runs on his way to a lifetime total of 534. He led the league in home runs four times and twice had the highest batting average, .356 in 1933 and .349 in 1938, by which time Foxx had been sold to the Boston Red Sox for $150,000 when Mack went on one of his infamous budget-cutting binges.

Foxx was an imposing physical specimen, who intimidated pitchers by cutting off most of his sleeves to reveal his bulging muscles (something imitated years later by Cincinnati slugger Ted Kluszewski). New York Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez, who, like Foxx, was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, contributed to the "Double XX" legend with some memorable quotes.

When asked how to pitch to Foxx, Gomez replied, "I'd rather not throw the ball at all."

About Foxx's physique, Gomez said, "He has muscles in his hair." Gomez also said, "Foxx has muscles on his muscles."

In 1937, Foxx hit a ball off Gomez that went into the upper deck at Yankee Stadium. Someone asked Gomez how far it went, and the pitcher said, "I don't know, but I do know it took somebody 45 minutes to go up there and get it back."

Many years later, Gomez said, "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. It was a home run ball hit off me in 1937 by Jimmie Foxx."

In 1939, Foxx finally had his chance to pitch, going one inning for the Red Sox, allowing no hits or runs and striking out one batter. In 1945, finishing his career with the Philadelphia Blue Jays (as the Phillilies were called for a couple of seasons during World War II), Foxx pitched some more, making nine appearances, allowing only 13 hits in 22-2/3 innings. He won a game, suffered no losses, and had a 1.52 earned run average.

Like many players of his era, Foxx got old before his time. At 34, his hitting tanked to .226, which was 99 points below his lifetime average. Some blamed alcoholism, some blamed a sinus condition.

According to Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, Foxx also managed the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. No year is mentioned, but I'd guess it was 1943 or '44. Supposedly the character Tom Hanks played in 'A League of Their Own' was based on Foxx, which, in retrospect, seems plausible, though when I was in the theater watching the film I thought Hanks was playing Hack Wilson. (That's because, in my ignorance, I was unaware Foxx had briefly played for the Chicago Cubs in the 1940s.)

Foxx was 59 when he died in Miami, apparently choking to death on a bone. It was a tragic end for a player who might have been baseball's best right-handed hitter.

Harvey (The Kitten) Haddix
Harvey Haddix (1925-1993)

Haddix was a left-handed pitcher who peaked early – winning 20 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953, his first full season, then coming back in 1954 to win 18.

However, he is best known for what has been called baseball's best pitching performance ever – on May 26, 1959 when Haddix retired 36 consecutive batters, which likely caused him to ask, "Just what the heck does a guy have to do to win a game?"

By 1959 Haddix was with his fourth major league team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and coming off two mediocre seasons (with Philadelphia and Cincinnati). Suddenly, he was perfect – through 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves. The good news: he was making major league history. The bad news: he was getting no support from his teammates who failed to score off the Braves' Lew Burdette.

Burdette kept his shutout in the top of the 13th inning. Felix Mantilla opened the bottom of the inning by reaching base on an error by Pirate third baseman Don Hoak. So long, perfect game, but the no-hitter was still alive. Mantilla was sacrificed to second base and Haddix intenionally walked Hank Aaron.

Up stepped Joe Adcock who hit the ball over the fence in right-centerfield. Game over; Haddix loses, but not without a bonehead play by Aaron, who trotted off the field after passing second base rather than finish running around the bases. Aaron was called out and Adcock's "home run" was reduced to a double. Final score: 1-0.

Haddix finished the season with 12 wins, 12 losses. A year later the Pirates won the National League pennant and beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Haddix picked up two wins, including Game Seven, when he came in to pitch the final inning in what generally is regarded as the wildest, most exciting World Series finale ever, won by the Pirates, 10-9, on a home run in the bottom of the ninth by Bill Mazeroski.

Haddix kept pitching until 1965, wrapping up his career with the Baltimore Orioles. He had a lifetime won-lost record of 136-113. Later he became a pitching coach.

He was nicknamed "The Kitten" because of his resemblance to St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Harry "The Cat" Brecheen, best remembered for his World Series heroics in 1946 when he chalked up three wins over the Boston Red Sox.

Si Pauxtis
Simon Francis Puaxtis (1885-1961)

Before I started poking around books and websites checking out interesting names, I'd believed that baseball players around the turn of the century were rowdy country boys with little education. It's an impression formed by a piece I read about Christy Mathewson, the Golden Boy who stood out in the early 1900s not simply because of his amazing pitching ability, but because he was handsome, cultured and very well-behaved, having graduated from Bucknell College.

Well, it turns out Mathewson wasn't so unusual, after all; at least, not in the education department. I've since come across several other college-educated players from the same era. Take Si Pauxtis, for example, who went from Lebanon Valley College to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was an all-American end on the football team and was still in law school when he made his major league debut as a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds in 1909. He played only four games, but his career in sports was just beginning.

He coached football and baseball at Dickinson College, was an assistant coach at Penn, then head coach at Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University) from 1916-29 and 1939-46. I also came across an item that said he played a little professional football.

And for 50 years he was a practicing attorney in Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia. Just reading about him made me feel like an underachieving schlub.

Xavier "Mr. X" Rescigno
Xavier Frederick Rescigno (1913-2005)

I could not ignore the player who actually had an X name, albeit in the wrong place. But his nickname certainly made him the most qualified person on my entire list.

Rescigno was from a different era, but he, too, was a college man, graduating from Manhattan College in 1937. He was a pitcher who spent some time in the New York Yankee organization before joining the Pittsburgh Pirates. He spent three seasons with the Bucs (1943-45), perhaps because his age or his draft status kept him out of World War II. Whatever, he was available and the Pirates put him to good use.

He made 129 appearances, including 21 starts, in those three years, winning 19 games, losing 22. His best season was 1944 when he had a 10-8 record and the Pirates finished in second place.

In 1946 Resigno went to the Pacific Coast League and remained there for several seasons.

Louis Sockalexis
Louis M. Sockalexis (1871-1913)

Much as been written about the unjust treatment of African-Americans during the first 70 years of professional baseball. Though there were several blacks playing minor league baseball in the 1870s and early 1880s, only two – Fleet Walker and his brother Welday – made it to the majors before members of their race were banished in the late 1880s. That ban remained in effect until 1946.

There was no ban against Native Americans, but those who played were poorly treated, perhaps none more than Sockalexis, an enormously gifted athlete who played the outfield for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League for parts of three seasons (1897-99). He got off to a promising start, hitting .338 in 66 games his first year, but two seasons and 28 games later, Sockalexis was finished as a major leaguer. What went wrong has been creating controversy ever since.

Along the way Sockalexis has become a mythic character, much like the early stars of the Negro leagues who are credited with feats that may be more than slightly exaggerated.

Sockalexis was born on the Penobscot Indian reservation near Old Town, ME, where the legend began with tales of him throwing a baseball 600 feet across the Penobscot River. This is almost 200 feet further than anyone has thrown a baseball since, which is why the caution flag went up when I began reading the various Sockalexis stories available online.

He attended both Holy Cross and Notre Dame, starring on baseball teams at both colleges. One of his home runs reportedly traveled an estimated 600 feet; one of his outfield throws supposedly was measured by two Harvard professors, who calculated it traveled 414 feet. (Don't know about the home run, but this throw, at least, sounds reasonable. See Glen Gorbous.)

There's another story that he ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat, wearing his baseball uniform. That's possible, I suppose, but doubtful.

No doubt Sockalexis was taunted by fans who shouted every insult and racial slur imaginable. Taken out of the context of the times, this seems unusual cruel treatment. However, prejudice and insults knew no bounds in those days. There was no such thing as being politically correct. Jewish, Italian and Irish players were easy targets, too, though the Irish often had numbers of their side since many of the early baseball superstars were Irish-Americans (King Kelly, Ed Delahanty, Tip O'Neill, Jim O'Rourke, Tommy McCarthy, etc.).

Like several other Indians who followed him into the majors, Sockalexis was singled out with a stereotypical nickname: Chief. Unfortunately, he had a weakness for alcohol that also fit a stereotype. For all practical purposes, his career ended on July 4, 1897, when he got drunk and jumped from a second-story window of a brothel, injuring his ankle and cutting short what had been a successful rookie season.

Reportedly he returned to the Penobscot reservation after 1899 and coached baseball. He died of heart failure in 1913, at age 42.

Sockalexis is often mentioned when people protest the Cleveland Indians and the team's refusal to change its nickname. Some even claim the American League team – which began as the Blues, then became the Naps to honor its first star, Nap Lajoie – changed its name to the Indians in 1915 to honor Sockalexis. Or dishonor him, as the case may be.

Cleveland Indians officials have always denied this, claiming the name was suggested by Lajoie, who was never a teammate of Sockalexis. More likely the nickname was influenced by the 1914 Boston Braves, known as "The Miracle Braves," who came from way back and won 60 of their final 76 games, taking the National League pennant. Then they swept the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. Their unexpected success captured America's heart.

I think Lajoie was hoping the Indians nickname might work some magic on the Cleveland team, which in 1914 finished eighth, which in those days was last place.

And it did, sort of. In 1915, the brand-spanking new Cleveland Indians moved all the way up to ... seventh.

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