Nellie Fox ✝

Fox was an American League (AL) All-Star for twelve seasons,[a] an AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) for one season, and an AL Gold Glove winner for three seasons. He had a .288 major-league career batting average with 2663 hits, 35 home runs, and 790 runs batted in. He hit .300 or more six times, and led the AL in singles eight times (seven consecutive seasons) and in fielding average six times as a second baseman. His career fielding percentage was .984. In 1959, when the "Go Go" Chicago White Sox won the American League Pennant championship, he hit .306 with 149 singles and 70 RBI. He coached for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers after his playing career. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.\n', ' Fox was born on Christmas Day 1927 in St. Thomas Township, Pennsylvania, a rural area just west of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in south central Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of three sons born to a carpenter who grew up on a farm and liked to play town baseball in St. Thomas. Despite his short stature, with the help of his father, he distinguished himself as a baseball player at a young age, even playing with his father on their St. Thomas team.\n', ' Fox at age 16 in 1944, thought that he had a good chance to sign on with a professional baseball team due to player shortages from World War II. His mother wrote a letter on her son\'s behalf to Connie Mack the owner/manager of the Philadelphia Athletics which enabled him to attend an open tryout that spring for the Athletics in Frederick, Maryland. Fox caught the attention of Mack who signed him to a professional contract.\n', '