It was Game 5 of the 1930 World Series and the top of the ninth inning.

The scoreboard read 0-0. If the Philadelphia Athletics had plans to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, this was a good time to start.

With one man on, A's star Jimmie Foxx turned to his teammates and said, "I'm going to break this one up right now."

He was facing Burleigh Grimes, who hadn't allowed a run the whole game and was known for two things: tossing spitballs and pitching inside. The pitcher said his idea of an intentional walk was four shots at a batter's head.

Scared? Hardly. Foxx handled Grimes by swatting the ball out of the park for a 2-0 Philly lead. The A's went on to win by that score and wrap up the Series the next game.

Foxx never let tough situations — or much else — bother him, and he could shrug off pain. He was one of the most feared sluggers of his era.

And yet Jimmie Foxx may be one of the least famous great players.

Before Hank Greenberg and Roger Maris, he came closest to breaking Babe Ruth's home run record.

He held the record for homers by a right-handed hitter until 1998, when Mark McGwire broke it.

Foxx was one of three players to drive in more than 100 runs for 13 seasons. The other two were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

One of the most consistent hitters of the 1930s, Double X finished with a .325 lifetime batting average and 534 home runs. That total was second only to Ruth until Mickey Mantle hit his 535th homer in 1968.

Hit And Catch

Born in Sudlersville, Md., in 1907, Foxx made his major league debut in 1925, when he signed with the Philadelphia (now Oakland) A's as a pinch hitter and backup catcher.

He did well in his first 10 major league games, but saw little playing time until 1927. That's when manager Connie Mack started building a team that would contend for the pennant over the next six seasons and win two World Series, in 1929 and 1930.

In 1928, Foxx went on the attack, hitting .407 in June and finishing with a .323 average. The A's fell just short of the pennant, but Foxx solidified his place at first base, where he would play most of his career.

Bobby Doerr, a second baseman who played for the Boston Red Sox with Foxx from 1937 to 1942, says Double X probably got his power from growing up on his parents' farm. As for Foxx's consistency, that came from his ability to think positive and keep playing.

"I don't remember him being hurt much," Doerr, 89, told IBD.

Doerr recalled a game at Cleveland's old Municipal Stadium. The wind was coming in off the lake at a bitter pace. "I said, 'There won't be any home runs here,' " Doerr said. Foxx countered that he would prove him wrong. He did.

Foxx always maintained that left-handed hitters such as Ruth didn't have a monopoly on huge homer totals — and was delighted that right-hander Willie Mays turned into the pre-eminent power hitter late in Foxx's life.

That pride was one of the drivers of Foxx's run at the Babe's season record of 60 homers. Double X was playing for the A's when he parked his 58th in the last week of the 1932 season — six years before Greenberg duplicated the 58, and 29 years before Maris yanked out his 61. Fox was hampered by a wrist injury he suffered in August — but as usual he kept playing.

Baseball experts have said had it not been for screens erected in the outfields of the parks in St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit, Foxx might have beaten the Babe.

As it was, Foxx kept banging the long ball. He hit the 30-homer mark in 12 straight seasons, a record broken only in 2004 by Barry Bonds. Not even Ruth could produce more than eight straight 30-homer campaigns.

Foxx's career was in many ways the converse of Ruth's.

Aside from the lefty-righty difference, Ruth started his career as a pitcher and ended it as a pinch hitter. Foxx started splitting time between catcher, first base and the outfield, and ended as a pitcher.

In 22 1/3 innings as a reliever for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945, he racked up a 1.59 earned-run average, 1-0 record and 10 strikeouts. He even came through as an emergency starter on Aug. 19 that year, pitching five shutout innings.

Doerr credits Foxx's versatility and athleticism for his high production over two decades. "He could hit, he could throw good, he could run," the former teammate said.

After 11 years with the A's, Foxx landed in Boston after a trade in time for the 1936 season. That's where he gained a reputation as a leader among young players.

Ted Williams, the last man to hit over .400, peppered Foxx with questions about hitting.

Charlie Wagner, who died in 2006, recalled that Williams would drive Foxx crazy, but the veteran still provided answers.

Foxx and Williams, a left-hander, made a powerful pair of bats from either side of the plate. They stayed friends until Foxx's death.

Johnny Pesky, who played with Foxx in 1942, remembers Foxx's strength.

"He was a big guy," Pesky, 87, told IBD. "I remember once on the train to Philadelphia for a game, I was trying to get into the upper berth of the sleeping car. Foxx lifted me up and put me there."

Doerr says a big plus for Foxx was his ability to relax and help other players do so.

That was despite Foxx's sinusitis condition, which might have come from getting hit in the face by a pitch in an exhibition game in 1932. Batting helmets were nonexistent then, and doctors didn't have the technology to diagnose his nasal problem.

Foxx kept going to the ballpark. But even the man who Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez said "had muscles in his hair" couldn't perform up to his standards.

The sinus pain started as a nuisance. But it got worse each year. Eventually the pain and chronic nosebleeds made it tough for him to see the ball.

Foxx went from 144 games played in 1940 — average for him — to 135 the next year. In 1942, when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs, he played in only 100 games, then the number sank to 104 over the next two years.

While in Boston he hit 50 home runs in 1938, a team record that stood until 2006, when David Ortiz hit 54.

After his last season of 1945, Foxx couldn't hit winning numbers off the field. He invested in several businesses that failed, and what started as an occasional night out as a player became a more serious drinking problem in his retirement. Still, Nanci Foxx Canaday, Foxx's daughter, says he never was depressed.

Staying In The Game

He even had a few successes in the postwar years, notably as a manager in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1953. Tom Hanks' character, Jimmy Dugan, in the film "A League of Their Own" is loosely based on Foxx.

Foxx also spent a year managing the Minneapolis Millers, a Red Sox farm team, in 1958. The players looked up to him, and he became something of a father figure to some, including Bill Monbouquette, who four years later would pitch a no-hitter for the Sox.

That was Foxx's last job in baseball. Canaday says her father always held out hope that he would return to the big leagues in some capacity.

Foxx died in 1967 at the age of 59, choking on a piece of food at dinner.

BY JESSE EMSPAK