Top 10 Red Sox players enshrined in Baseball Hall of Fame
By Sean Penney
Jimmie Foxx
Year Inducted: 1951
He had a few All-Star appearances and two MVP awards with the Philadelphia A’s under his belt before he came to Boston but Jimmie Foxx continued to put up Hall of Fame-worthy numbers during his seven seasons with the Red Sox.
The Beast was sold to the Red Sox for $150,000 in 1936 when the A’s were struggling to pay their players in the wake of the Great Depression. Philly’s financial peril proved to be Boston’s gain.
Foxx hit .320/.429/.605 in seven seasons with the Red Sox. He ranks 19th on the all-time home run list with 534. He’s also ninth in MLB history with 1922 RBI and the 788 he tallied with the Red Sox ranks eighth in franchise history.
Foxx ranks third in Red Sox history with a .460 wOBA, fourth with a 15.9 BB%, sixth with 151 wRC+, and ninth with 222 home runs.
In 1938 with the Red Sox, Foxx earned his third MVP award. He won the batting title with a .349 average while leading the league with a .462 OBP, .704 SLG, 1.166 OPS, and 175 RBI. That massive RBI total still stands as a single-season franchise record. The 50 home runs Foxx blasted that season held the franchise record until David Ortiz broke it with 54 homers in 2006.
As one of the most feared sluggers of the first half of the 20th century, Foxx retired with several records that have since been broken. He trailed only Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list when his career ended in 1945 and he had the most career home runs of any right-handed hitter at the time. His 12 consecutive seasons with 30+ homers was an MLB record until 2004 when it was broken by Barry Bonds. Foxx is also one of nine players with three MVP awards on their resume, which is topped only by Bonds (seven).