Although he’s often over-shadowed by the more ebullient Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx was just as prolific a hitter as The Babe. He’s the only player during Ruth’s playing days to challenge his 60 home run record when he hit 58 in 1932. Along with Al Simmons and Eddie Cochran, Foxx and Co. were the big guns behind Connie Mack’s 1929-1931 Philadelphia A’s - considered by most baseball historians as the greatest club ever assembled.

     For more than a decade, Foxx hit 30 or more home runs and drove in more than 100 runs. At the age of 32 in 1940, Foxx became only the second player in history to reach 500 career home runs. This bat dates from 1928, only the third season of Foxx’s career. The bat shows outstanding use with a stabilized handle crack. The left, right and back barrel has many ball marks and a light coat of pine tar is still present on the handle. Most significantly, the left barrel has been planed and “FOXX 9-25-28” is written in pencil. An additional line is present but illegible, however, PSA/DNA has opined that the phrase may be “38 oz” which corresponds to the bats current 38.1 ounce weight.

     Louisville Slugger factory records show that on 2-21-28 Foxx had sent a Carl Mays model bat to the factory to match and create his own signature model. This was called “His 2-21-28” model bat in order records and match the side written bat offered here. “Side written” bats were broken or worn out bats that players sent back to the manufacturer so they could make duplicates that match the specifications of their old bat. These bats were then carefully catalogued and stored at the factory for later reference. Today, these unique bats offer a direct provenance to specific players at precise points in their careers. In Foxx’s case, the side written date tells us that the slugger used this bat during the 1928 season. The 1928 A’s are significant in that the team had an incredible seven future Hall of Famers on the roster and came within 2 1/2 games of stealing the pennant from the Yankees’ famed Murderer’s Row. Another point of interest with this bat is that Foxx was ordering duplicates that he would most likely use during the 1929 season, the beginning of three consecutive AL pennants for the A’s and the first of back to back World Championships. An incredible bat used by Jimmie Foxx at the very beginning of his Hall of Fame career that comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA (1B12369) for the game use and has been given a grade of perfect GU 10.