Bob Fothergill
Encyclopedia
Robert Roy Fothergill nicknamed "Fats" or "Fatty," was an outfielder
in Major League Baseball
who played twelve seasons with the Detroit Tigers
(1922–1930), Chicago White Sox
(1930–1932), and Boston Red Sox
(1933).
, Fothergill weighed 230 lb. at 5 ft. 11 in. and threw right-handed. He first played professional baseball in 1920 with Bloomington
. The Tigers then acquired him and sent him to Rochester
where he hit .338 in 1921. In 1922, he led the International League
with a .383 batting average and was called up to the big leagues. (David Porter, "Biographical Dictionary of American Sports:A-F," p. 494)
Despite being a consistent .300 hitter from 1922–1925, Fothergill was unable to win a starting spot in a star-studded Tigers outfield that featured Ty Cobb
, Harry Heilmann
, Bobby Veach
, and later Heinie Manush
. It was not until 1926 that Fothergill won a starting spot in the outfield, as Cobb's defensive play forced him to withdraw from his spot in center field.
Between 1926 and 1929, he was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. In 1926, he hit for a batting average of .367, 3rd highest in the American League behind Babe Ruth
and Harry Heilmann
. He also had a .421 on base percentage (7th best in the AL) and hit for the cycle on September 26, 1926. He finished No. 12 in the American League Most Valuable Player voting for 1926.
In , Fothergill had his best overall season, as he batted .359 (4th in the AL), drove in 114 RBIs (5th in the AL), had a .516 slugging percentage (7th in the AL), and scored 93 runs (7th in the AL). He was once again among the league leaders in batting with a .354 average in 1929 (6th in the AL).
For his career, Fothergill had a .325 batting average
-- the 40th best in major league history. He hit over .300 in 9 of his 12 major league seasons, including 5 seasons hitting over .340. He also hit 36 home runs, knocked in 582 RBIs, and had 1,064 hits.
During the latter half of his career, Fothergill became an accomplished pinch hitter. He is the only big leaguer to garner more than 200 pinch hits with a career batting average over .300. After Cobb's rookie season, Fothergill was the only batter to ever pinch-hit for Cobb. Fothergill holds the Detroit Tigers
team record for most hits in a season as a pinch-hitter with 19 in 1929.
Fothergill was fearless as a pinch-hitter, even when he was injured. Teammate Ed Wells
tells of a time when Cobb was looking for pinch-hitter in the 9th inning with men on base. Cobb looked down the bench and asked, "Who here can hit?" Fothergill had a badly sprained and taped ankle, but he volunteered, "I'll try." Cobb said, "My gosh, you can hardly walk." Cobb sent him in, and Fothergill hit a line drive into the right-field corner that should have been a double, but Fothergill fell about two-thirds of the way to first base. "He crawled the rest of the way and got a single. Just barely.... But that's the way we played ball back there and then." (Richard Bak, "Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit" (Wayne State 1993))
He finished his major league career playing for the Chicago White Sox
(1930–1932) and Boston Red Sox
(1933). He hit .344 in 28 games for the Red Sox, mostly as a pinch-hitter. He played his last major league game on July 5, 1933, was optioned to the Minneapolis Millers
, and retired at the end of the 1933 season. (David Porter, "Biographical Dictionary of American Sports:A-F," p. 494.
Fothergill's "official" weight was 230 pounds, but Tigers manager George Moriarty
once joked that it was a moral victory when the dieting Fothergill trimmed down to 256 pounds.
Fothergill's temper at being teased over his girth led to one of the classic baseball stories. According to Baseball's Greatest Managers (1961), Leo Durocher
, then an infielder with the Yankees, saw Fothergill at bat for the first time, called time and protested to the plate umpire that Fothergill was "illegal!" Everybody stopped, baffled at Durocher's words. He continued, "Both those men can't bat at once!" The umpires ordered Durocher to return to his position and stop delaying the game. But Fothergill was so angry he glared at Durocher and struck out on three pitches, chasing Durocher into the dugout at the end of the inning.
In 1926, columnist Joe Williams remarked: "His barrier to greatness is a Graf Zeppelin
belt line." The 1933 edition of Who's Who in Major League Baseball took this playful jab at the Tiger outfielder: "Fothergill gets over the ground with great agility for one of his peculiar architecture."
Another oft-repeated Fothergill story recounts Fothergill being called out on strikes while on a crash diet (complete with rubber suits and Turkish baths) in 1928. An argument ensued during which Fothergill bit home plate umpire Bill Dinneen
who then threw Fothergill out of the game, leading Fothergill to explain: "That's OK. That was the first bite of meat I've had in a month." (Nash & Zullo, "Hall of Shame"; Prime & Nowlin, "More Tales from the Red Sox Dugout" (Sports Publishing 2003), p. 52) The umpire biting story has even been reported on ESPN.com (in a column by Jeff Meron) and in a Washington Post column by Thomas Boswell
.
In Richard Bak's "Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit" (Wayne State Univ. Press, 1991), Charlie Gehringer
recalled his outsized teammate. "He had a time keeping his weight in shape, but he still ran pretty good. In fact, I remember we were in Philadelphia once and we were getting beat about 13-0 going into the last inning when he hit a home run. He's rounding the bases nice and easy--and then when he gets to third base he comes running like a freight train and does a complete flip in the air and lands on home plate! Never saw him do that before."
Gehringer told another story about Fothergill and owner Frank Navin
. Navin was constantly riding Fothergill about his weight problem. When Fothergill came to Navin's office in the winter to negotiate his contract, he wore a big, heavy overcoat to conceal the weight he had put on in the offseason. Navin figured out what Fothergill was up to and turned the heat way up in his office. Navin then sat back and engaged Fothergill in a long, drawn-out conversation about his family, hunting, and anything but the contract. As sweat poured off Fothergill, Navin suggested that he take off the coat, but Fothergill insisted he was comfortable. When the conversation finally got around to the contract, Fothergill wanted to get out of Navin's hot office so badly that he accepted Navin's first offer. Donald Honig, "Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the Twenties to the Forties..." (Nebraska Press 1993), pp. 43–44)
Gehringer also once said of Fothergill: "He was about as round as he was tall."
Fothergill once got into a beer drinking contest with Babe Ruth
and teammate Harry Heilmann
and won handily.
. He was hired as the coach of the baseball team at Lawrence Institute of Technology in January 1938, but he suffered two strokes and died in March. Fothergill was 40 years old when he died at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Detroit.
Outfielder
Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
who played twelve seasons with the Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
(1922–1930), Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
(1930–1932), and Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
(1933).
Playing career
Born in Massillon, OhioMassillon, Ohio
Massillon is a city located in Stark County in the U.S. state of Ohio, approximately 8 miles to the west of Canton, Ohio, 20 miles south of Akron, Ohio, and 50 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio. The population was 32,149 at the 2010 census....
, Fothergill weighed 230 lb. at 5 ft. 11 in. and threw right-handed. He first played professional baseball in 1920 with Bloomington
Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
. The Tigers then acquired him and sent him to Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
where he hit .338 in 1921. In 1922, he led the International League
International League
The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...
with a .383 batting average and was called up to the big leagues. (David Porter, "Biographical Dictionary of American Sports:A-F," p. 494)
Despite being a consistent .300 hitter from 1922–1925, Fothergill was unable to win a starting spot in a star-studded Tigers outfield that featured Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
, Harry Heilmann
Harry Heilmann
Harry Edwin Heilmann , nicknamed “Slug,” was a Major League Baseball player who played 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.Heilmann was a line drive hitter who won four American League batting crowns: in 1921, 1923, 1925 and...
, Bobby Veach
Bobby Veach
Robert Hayes "Bobby" Veach was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played fourteen seasons for the Detroit Tigers , Boston Red Sox , New York Yankees and Washington Senators ....
, and later Heinie Manush
Heinie Manush
Henry Emmett Manush , nicknamed "Heinie" due to his German heritage, was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964....
. It was not until 1926 that Fothergill won a starting spot in the outfield, as Cobb's defensive play forced him to withdraw from his spot in center field.
Between 1926 and 1929, he was one of the most feared hitters in baseball. In 1926, he hit for a batting average of .367, 3rd highest in the American League behind Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
and Harry Heilmann
Harry Heilmann
Harry Edwin Heilmann , nicknamed “Slug,” was a Major League Baseball player who played 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.Heilmann was a line drive hitter who won four American League batting crowns: in 1921, 1923, 1925 and...
. He also had a .421 on base percentage (7th best in the AL) and hit for the cycle on September 26, 1926. He finished No. 12 in the American League Most Valuable Player voting for 1926.
In , Fothergill had his best overall season, as he batted .359 (4th in the AL), drove in 114 RBIs (5th in the AL), had a .516 slugging percentage (7th in the AL), and scored 93 runs (7th in the AL). He was once again among the league leaders in batting with a .354 average in 1929 (6th in the AL).
For his career, Fothergill had a .325 batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
-- the 40th best in major league history. He hit over .300 in 9 of his 12 major league seasons, including 5 seasons hitting over .340. He also hit 36 home runs, knocked in 582 RBIs, and had 1,064 hits.
During the latter half of his career, Fothergill became an accomplished pinch hitter. He is the only big leaguer to garner more than 200 pinch hits with a career batting average over .300. After Cobb's rookie season, Fothergill was the only batter to ever pinch-hit for Cobb. Fothergill holds the Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
team record for most hits in a season as a pinch-hitter with 19 in 1929.
Fothergill was fearless as a pinch-hitter, even when he was injured. Teammate Ed Wells
Ed Wells (baseball)
Edwin Lee Wells , nicknamed "Satchelfoot" , was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played 11 seasons in the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers , New York Yankees , and St. Louis Browns . Wells was a left-handed pitcher, with a hard fastball and a slow curve...
tells of a time when Cobb was looking for pinch-hitter in the 9th inning with men on base. Cobb looked down the bench and asked, "Who here can hit?" Fothergill had a badly sprained and taped ankle, but he volunteered, "I'll try." Cobb said, "My gosh, you can hardly walk." Cobb sent him in, and Fothergill hit a line drive into the right-field corner that should have been a double, but Fothergill fell about two-thirds of the way to first base. "He crawled the rest of the way and got a single. Just barely.... But that's the way we played ball back there and then." (Richard Bak, "Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit" (Wayne State 1993))
He finished his major league career playing for the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
(1930–1932) and Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
(1933). He hit .344 in 28 games for the Red Sox, mostly as a pinch-hitter. He played his last major league game on July 5, 1933, was optioned to the Minneapolis Millers
Minneapolis Millers
The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, until 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League.The team played first in Athletic Park and later Nicollet Park.The name Minneapolis...
, and retired at the end of the 1933 season. (David Porter, "Biographical Dictionary of American Sports:A-F," p. 494.
The "Fats" Fothergill Legend
While he was a tremendous hitter in the 1920s, Fothergill is remembered more for his girth than his batting. Numerous books contain stories about the man who was known as "Fats" Fothergill. Fothergill enjoyed life to the fullest and died of a stroke at age 40. Baseball author Lee Allen wrote of Fothergill: "He was one of the last of those rare spirits who appeared to play for the fun of it, and he seemed to be able to extract the fullest amount of pleasure from life. After the game, you could find him with a thick porterhouse steak and a seidel of beer, and he would chuckle to himself and mumble out of the side of his mouth, 'Imagine getting paid for a life like this!'" (Lee Allen, "A Study in Suet," in "The Complete Armchair Book of Baseball (Sterling 1997), p. 3)Fothergill's "official" weight was 230 pounds, but Tigers manager George Moriarty
George Moriarty
George Joseph Moriarty was an American third baseman, umpire and manager in Major League Baseball from 1903 to 1940. He played for the Chicago Cubs, New York Highlanders, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox from 1903 to 1916.Moriarty was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up near the Union...
once joked that it was a moral victory when the dieting Fothergill trimmed down to 256 pounds.
Fothergill's temper at being teased over his girth led to one of the classic baseball stories. According to Baseball's Greatest Managers (1961), Leo Durocher
Leo Durocher
Leo Ernest Durocher , nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,009 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history. Durocher still ranks tenth in career wins by...
, then an infielder with the Yankees, saw Fothergill at bat for the first time, called time and protested to the plate umpire that Fothergill was "illegal!" Everybody stopped, baffled at Durocher's words. He continued, "Both those men can't bat at once!" The umpires ordered Durocher to return to his position and stop delaying the game. But Fothergill was so angry he glared at Durocher and struck out on three pitches, chasing Durocher into the dugout at the end of the inning.
In 1926, columnist Joe Williams remarked: "His barrier to greatness is a Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German built and operated passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship which operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. It was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a Graf or Count in the German nobility. During its operating life,...
belt line." The 1933 edition of Who's Who in Major League Baseball took this playful jab at the Tiger outfielder: "Fothergill gets over the ground with great agility for one of his peculiar architecture."
Another oft-repeated Fothergill story recounts Fothergill being called out on strikes while on a crash diet (complete with rubber suits and Turkish baths) in 1928. An argument ensued during which Fothergill bit home plate umpire Bill Dinneen
Bill Dinneen
William Henry Dinneen, alternately spelled Dineen , was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who followed his 12-year career from 1898 to 1909 with a highly regarded tenure as an American League umpire from 1909 to 1937...
who then threw Fothergill out of the game, leading Fothergill to explain: "That's OK. That was the first bite of meat I've had in a month." (Nash & Zullo, "Hall of Shame"; Prime & Nowlin, "More Tales from the Red Sox Dugout" (Sports Publishing 2003), p. 52) The umpire biting story has even been reported on ESPN.com (in a column by Jeff Meron) and in a Washington Post column by Thomas Boswell
Thomas Boswell
Thomas M. Boswell is an American sports columnist.Boswell has spent his entire career at the Washington Post, joining it shortly after graduating from Amherst College in 1969. He became a Post columnist in 1984. Writing primarily about baseball, he is credited with inventing the total average...
.
In Richard Bak's "Cobb Would Have Caught It: The Golden Age of Baseball in Detroit" (Wayne State Univ. Press, 1991), Charlie Gehringer
Charlie Gehringer
Charles Leonard Gehringer , nicknamed “The Mechanical Man,” was a German-American Major League Baseball second baseman who played 19 seasons for the Detroit Tigers...
recalled his outsized teammate. "He had a time keeping his weight in shape, but he still ran pretty good. In fact, I remember we were in Philadelphia once and we were getting beat about 13-0 going into the last inning when he hit a home run. He's rounding the bases nice and easy--and then when he gets to third base he comes running like a freight train and does a complete flip in the air and lands on home plate! Never saw him do that before."
Gehringer told another story about Fothergill and owner Frank Navin
Frank Navin
Francis Joseph Navin was the principal owner of the Detroit Tigers in Major League Baseball for 27 years, from 1909 to 1935. He also served as vice president and acting president of the American League....
. Navin was constantly riding Fothergill about his weight problem. When Fothergill came to Navin's office in the winter to negotiate his contract, he wore a big, heavy overcoat to conceal the weight he had put on in the offseason. Navin figured out what Fothergill was up to and turned the heat way up in his office. Navin then sat back and engaged Fothergill in a long, drawn-out conversation about his family, hunting, and anything but the contract. As sweat poured off Fothergill, Navin suggested that he take off the coat, but Fothergill insisted he was comfortable. When the conversation finally got around to the contract, Fothergill wanted to get out of Navin's hot office so badly that he accepted Navin's first offer. Donald Honig, "Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the Twenties to the Forties..." (Nebraska Press 1993), pp. 43–44)
Gehringer also once said of Fothergill: "He was about as round as he was tall."
Fothergill once got into a beer drinking contest with Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
and teammate Harry Heilmann
Harry Heilmann
Harry Edwin Heilmann , nicknamed “Slug,” was a Major League Baseball player who played 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.Heilmann was a line drive hitter who won four American League batting crowns: in 1921, 1923, 1925 and...
and won handily.
Later years
After leaving baseball, Fothergill played sandlot baseball in Detroit and worked for the Ford Motor Company in Highland Park, MichiganHighland Park, Michigan
- Geography :According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land.- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 16,746 people, 6,199 households, and 3,521 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,622.9 per square mile . There were 7,249...
. He was hired as the coach of the baseball team at Lawrence Institute of Technology in January 1938, but he suffered two strokes and died in March. Fothergill was 40 years old when he died at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Detroit.