A most valuable Fox

Ten years and a month after being the headliner in one of the worst trades in Connie Mack’s half-century tenure as the Philadelphia Athletics’ manager, second baseman Nellie Fox is named the American League’s most valuable player 65 years ago today.

The 1959 MVP award comes after Fox – traded by the A’s to the Chicago White Sox after the 1949 season for career backup catcher Joe Tipton – leads the Sox to the American League pennant.

For the ’59 season, Fox hits .306 in 156 games for the White Sox, while also playing Gold Glove defense at second base.

Fox, the pride of St. Thomas, Pa., eventually is elected to the Hall of Fame in 1997.

“Nellie Fox first made the (Athletics) team in 1947, when he was 19, but it wasn’t until 1949 that he got any significant playing time at second base,” A’s shortstop Eddie Joost later says. “For some unknown reason, Mack wasn’t impressed with him.”