Nellie Fox

Jacob Nelson Fox stood five feet nine, weighed 150 pounds, chewed a wad of tobacco that looked larger than his batting average, choked up on a thick-handled bat that Doc Cramer suggested because it gave him more barrel, and struck out 216 times in 9,232 career at bats, a ratio so absurd that in 1951 he hit 12 triples and struck out only 11 times. Fox batted .288 with 2,663 hits across 19 seasons, won the 1959 AL MVP while anchoring the Go-Go White Sox alongside Luis Aparicio, earned 12 All-Star selections, won three Gold Gloves including the inaugural award at second base in 1957, and taught a young Joe Morgan the elbow flap that became Morgan's trademark for the next 22 years. Al Lopez, who managed Fox through the White Sox' peak years, said, "If you had eight Nellie Foxes, all with his spirit and determination, I think you'd have a winning team." Fox fell two votes short of the Hall of Fame on his final BBWAA ballot in 1985, the smallest margin in the history of the vote, and died of cancer at 47. The Veterans Committee elected him posthumously in 1997.

St. Thomas

Fox was born on Christmas Day 1927 in St. Thomas Township, Pennsylvania. His father Jake was a carpenter who played town baseball, and Fox's mother Mae wrote a letter to Connie Mack expressing concern that her son was neglecting school for the game. The letter earned an invitation, and in May 1944, Jake drove his 16-year-old son to a tryout in Frederick, Maryland. Earle Mack struggled to find a uniform small enough to fit the boy. Connie Mack liked what he saw and offered a minor league contract. Fox reported to Lancaster of the Interstate League, hit .325 in 24 games, and became the youngest player in Athletics camp the following spring. He appeared in 98 games over three seasons in Philadelphia before the Athletics traded him to the White Sox in October 1949 for catcher Joe Tipton, one of the most lopsided deals in franchise history.

Fox broke through in 1951 with a .313 average and his first All-Star selection, beginning a run of 12 selections in 13 years. He led the league in hits four times, led AL second basemen in fielding percentage in three consecutive seasons, and recorded 798 consecutive games from August 1956 through September 1960, an AL record at the position.

The Go-Go Sox

The 1959 White Sox went 94-60 and won the American League pennant, the franchise's first since the 1919 Black Sox scandal, 40 years earlier. Fox hit .306 with a .380 on-base percentage and batted .383 with runners in scoring position, and he won the AL MVP over teammate Aparicio. Fox and Aparicio formed the first shortstop-second baseman duo to win Gold Gloves in the same season, and Lopez called them the finest keystone combination he ever managed. In the World Series against the Dodgers, Fox batted .375 with three doubles and scored the lone run in a 1-0 Game 5 victory over Sandy Koufax. The White Sox lost the Series in six games. It was Fox's only postseason appearance.

Fox spent his final two seasons with the Houston Colt .45s, and his greatest contribution in Houston involved a 22-year-old second baseman named Joe Morgan. Morgan's back elbow dropped during his swing, and Fox told him to flap it before each pitch to keep it elevated, "like a chicken." Morgan adopted the tic and wore it for the rest of his career. At Morgan's Hall of Fame induction in 1990, Morgan said, "I played with him, and I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for what I learned from him."

St. Thomas Again

Fox coached for the Astros, the Washington Senators (under Ted Williams), and the Texas Rangers after retirement, and he never managed in the major leagues despite coming close multiple times. He was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1973, and by October 1975 the cancer had metastasized. Bill Veeck visited and reportedly wept afterward, telling Fox he wanted him to manage the White Sox once Veeck repurchased the team. Fox died on December 1, 1975, at the University of Maryland's Baltimore Cancer Research Center, 24 days before his 48th birthday. Jim Lemon, his friend and former teammate, said the cancer "had to be incurable, because if it wasn't, Nellie would have beat it."

Fox fell two votes short of the 75 percent threshold on his final BBWAA ballot in 1985, 74.7 percent, the most agonizing near-miss in HOF history. A grassroots Nellie Fox Society grew to 600 members, including the governor of Illinois and columnist George Will, and the Veterans Committee elected him in 1997, 22 years after his death. The White Sox retired his number 2 in 1976, and in 2006 the team unveiled statues of Fox and Aparicio outside the ballpark, sculpted in the act of turning a double play together.