Oakland Athletics – (tie) Eddie Collins (1910) & Jimmie Foxx (1932)
Long before the Athletics franchise made the move out west, legendary manager Connie Mack helmed one of the charter members of the American League in the City of Brotherly Love. Under Mack, the team with the elephant logo was home to several of the most iconic players in Major League Baseball’s first half century.
While in the more recent past the A’s have been known for Rickey Henderson’s baserunning pyrotechnics, the Bash Brothers and Moneyball, the club’s best years arguably took place in Shibe Park, where five world championships were won and players like Eddie Plank, Al Simmons, Napoleon Lajoie and Frank “Home Run” Baker took the field.
The greatest season in the franchise’s history actually ends up in a tie between a pair of Hall of Famers in 3,000 hits club member Eddie Collins and one of the premier sluggers the game has ever known in Jimmie Foxx.
In 1910, Collins had a slash line of .324/.382/.418 with 16 doubles, 15 triples, 81 RBI and 81 stolen bases in leading the A’s to the franchise’s first World Series title. His 10.5 bWAR that season was equal to Ty Cobb’s for the best in the AL and was the greatest total he amassed in a career that still ranks 10th all-time in the metric.
Foxx was a very different player from Collins, playing in a new live ball era that suited his physical prowess. In 1932, Double-X won the first of his three MVP awards with the ridiculous stat line of .364/.469/.749 with 58 home runs, 169 RBI, 161 runs scored, a 1.218 OPS and a 218 OPS+ that all led the league. Historical accounts say that Foxx was fixated on breaking Babe Ruth’s single season mark of 60 homers that season, and he came as close as anyone would for 30 years, good for a 10.5 bWAR, and narrowly missing out on the triple crown, which he would win the following season.
Next: The opening act.