Al Simmons ✝

Simmons was born in Milwaukee and grew up as a fan of the Philadelphia Athletics. In the fourth grade, he received a spanking from his father for insisting that he wanted to play professional baseball. When he persisted in asserting his desire to be a baseball player, his father replied that he had better become a good player. Simmons was known by his birth last name (Szymanski) until he was playing for a local minor league team and he was tired of hearing people mispronounce it. He saw an advertisement for a company named Simmons Hardware and decided to take on the last name of Simmons.\n', ' In 1925, his second season with Philadelphia, Simmons led the AL with 253 hits with a .387 batting average, 24 home runs and 129 runs batted in (RBI). He scored 122 runs, hit 43 doubles, and finished with a .599 slugging percentage. His 85 multi-hit games constitute a single-season MLB record. He earned the second-most votes for the league\'s Most Valuable Player Award. In the following three seasons, he hit .341, .392 and .351 and drove in 110, 108 and 107 runs in those respective years, while finishing fifth in 1926 MVP voting and fourth in 1927.\n', ' Simmons led the A\'s to the AL pennant in 1929 as Philadelphia went 104–46, finishing 18 games ahead of the New York Yankees. The A\'s went on to defeat the Chicago Cubs in five games to win the World Series. That season he hit .365 with 34 home runs and led the AL with 157 RBI. He also scored 114 runs, had 212 hits with 41 doubles and a .642 slugging percentage. In his first World Series Simmons batted .300 with 2 home runs, 5 RBIs and scored 6 runs.\n', '