Al Simmons

Aloysius Harry Simmons, originally named Alois Szymanski, was born on May 22, 1902, in Milwaukee. Growing up, he rooted for the Philadelphia Athletics, and in the fourth grade, he got a spanking from his father for insisting he wanted to play pro ball. When he kept at it, his father told him he’d better become a good player. Simmons went by his birth name until he got tired of hearing it mispronounced while playing for a local minor league team; he spotted an ad for Simmons Hardware and adopted that surname.

Simmons played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball as an outfielder, earning the nickname "Bucketfoot Al." His peak years came with Connie Mack’s Athletics from the late 1920s into the early ’30s, winning two World Series with the club. He also suited up for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Boston Bees, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Red Sox. After retiring, he coached for the Athletics and the Cleveland Indians. A career .334 hitter, he entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.

In 1925, his second season in Philadelphia, Simmons led the American League with 253 hits and 392 total bases, batting .387 with 24 homers and 129 RBIs. He scored 122 runs, smacked 43 doubles, and posted a .599 slugging percentage. His 85 multi-hit games that year remain a single-season MLB record. He finished second in MVP voting. Over the next three seasons, he hit .341, .392, and .351, driving in 110, 108, and 107 runs, and placed fifth and fourth in MVP races.

The Athletics won the AL pennant in 1929 with a 104–46 record, finishing 18 games ahead of the Yankees, then beat the Chicago Cubs in five games for the World Series title. That season, Simmons hit .365 with 34 homers, led the league with 157 RBIs, scored 114 runs, collected 212 hits with 41 doubles, and slugged .642. In the World Series, he batted .300 with two homers, five RBIs, and six runs.

His best year came in 1930, when he won his first of two straight batting titles, hitting .381 with 36 homers, 211 hits, 41 doubles, and 16 triples. He slugged .708, drove in 165 runs, and scored 152 in 138 games. The A’s won the pennal again at 102–52 and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals for back-to-back World Series wins. Simmons hit .364 with two homers and four RBIs in that series, slugging .727.

In 1931, the A’s took their third straight pennant, going 107–45 and finishing 13.5 games ahead of the Yankees. Simmons won his second batting title, hitting .390 with 22 homers, 128 RBIs, 100 runs, 200 hits, 37 doubles, 13 triples, and a .641 slugging percentage in 128 games. He finished third in MVP voting behind teammate Lefty Grove and Lou Gehrig. The A’s lost the World Series in seven games to the Cardinals, with Simmons batting .333, two homers, and eight RBIs.

In his final Athletics season, 1932, Simmons led the AL with 216 hits, batting .322 with 35 homers, 151 RBIs, and 144 runs. Over his nine seasons in Philadelphia, he hit .356 with 209 homers, 1,179 RBIs, and 969 runs in 1,290 games. He drove in 100 or more runs every year and scored 100 or more in five. In three World Series with the A’s, he hit .333 with six homers, 17 RBIs, and 15 runs in 18 games.

In late September 1932, the Athletics sold Simmons, Mule Haas, and Jimmy Dykes to the Chicago White Sox for cash. The amount wasn’t disclosed, but it was called the largest cash purchase ever by the White Sox and possibly in AL history. Newspapers speculated that Connie Mack might be breaking up his successful team.

In his first season in Chicago, Simmons hit .331 with 14 homers, 119 RBIs, and 200 hits. In 1934, he batted .344 with 18 homers, 104 RBIs, 102 runs, and 192 hits in 138 games. After a disappointing final White Sox season—.267 with 16 homers and 79 RBIs in 128 games, his first time under .300 and 100 RBIs—he rebounded in 1936 with Detroit, hitting .327, 13 homers, 112 RBIs, and 96 runs.

In 1937 with Washington, he struggled again, batting .279 with 8 homers and 84 RBIs in 103 games. He bounced back in 1938, hitting .302 with 21 homers and 95 RBIs in 125 games, becoming the first Senator to hit 20 homers in a season. The Boston Bees bought him from Washington in December 1938; the price wasn’t revealed, but Simmons was said to not get along with Senators owner Clark Griffith.

The Cincinnati Reds purchased him from the Bees on August 31, 1939. The Reds won the NL pennant that year, and Simmons played in his final World Series, going one-for-four with a double and a run in one game. He stayed in the majors until 1944, finishing his career back with the Philadelphia Athletics. He died on May 26, 1956.