Jimmie Foxx, the Red Sox slugger known through-out baseball as "Beast," had an intimidating effect on opposing pitchers. With arms like tree trunks and power to spare, he was a pitcher's worst nigsource.htmare. Yankee hurler Lefty Gomez once faced him in a key situation at Fenway. Gomez shook off the first sign from catcher Bill Dickey. He shook off the second sign and the third. Finally Dickey called time and strode purposefully to the mound. "I've gone through every pitch you have! What do you want to throw to him?" the Hall of Fame receiver demanded. "If you want to know the truth, Bill," said Gomez. "I was kind of hopin' he'd get bored and go home."

Gomez once described a tremendous homer that Foxx had hit against him. "It went into the third deck at Yankee Stadium," he said with a hint of pride in his voice. "Why, you couldn't walk out there in an hour." When Yankee manager Joe McCarthy inquired about what pitch Double X had hit, the reply was: "It was the greatest pitch I ever threw-for the first 60 feet." Unfortunately, the distance to home plate is 60'6".

Lefty Gomez once admitted: "Jimmie Foxx could hit me at midnight with the lights out."

"Pitching to Foxx is easy," said Gomez. "I just give him my best pitch and then run to back up third base." Later in his starry career, Gomez admitted: "I'm throwing as hard as ever, but the ball isn't getting there as fast."

Jimmie Foxx was known by his Red Sox teammates as a low-ball hitter and a high-ball drinker.

In 1938, Jimmie Foxx had a banner year at the plate, winning two-thirds of baseball's Triple Crown. He led the American League with a .349 average and drove in a league best 175. In most seasons, his 50 home runs would have made him a runaway leader in that category as well, but Hank Greenberg chose that same year to hit 58. In an early season game against the St. Louis Browns that year, Foxx was running a high fever and should have been home in bed. However, because the Red Sox lineup was decimated by injuries, Foxx agreed to play. He later admitted that he was barely able to see the ball, let alone hit it. But this was Jimmie Foxx, and luckily his reputation alone was worth something. In six trips to the plate, Foxx failed to offer at a single pitch and was walked six straight times, setting a major league record in the respect category. He walked a total of 119 times that season.

Even the great Ted Williams was in awe of Foxx's brute strength: "It sounded like cherry bombs going off when Foxx hit them. Hank Greenberg hit them pretty near as far, but they didn't sound that same way. They sounded like firecrackers when Mantle and Foxx hit them. At Fenway, I remember him hitting this long, long homer over the Wall into the teeth of a gale, and I remember looking at all those muscles as he trotted around the base and shaking that huge hand of his as he crossed the plate-and feeling almost weak. I was a skinny guy anyway, and I felt weak in comparison to Jimmie Foxx."

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