What? You never heard of Ferris Fain, the brawling Philadelphia Athletics first baseman and later marijuana grower who won the American League batting title in 1951 and 1952? Don’t feel bad. Apparently, his former team never heard of him either. Or at least that was the case in 1998, when I wrote to him care of the Oakland Athletics. I had a lot of luck that year writing to old-timers in care of their former teams. That time, however, my envelope was returned to me with a note that said they’d never heard of Fain.
Fain played for Philadelphia (1947-52), the Chicago White Sox (1953-54), Detroit Tigers (1955), and Cleveland (1955) in the majors, hitting .290/.424/.396, 48 HR, 570 RBI, and 121 OPS+ for his career. He was a five-time All-Star and received consideration for the AL Most Valuable Player four times. Fain was a contact hitter with a good eye. His OBP is the 15th-best in major league history. He struck out just 261 times in his nine years. His career 15.06 strikeout percentage ranks 299th in the majors. As of writing, with the major league debut of the Texas Rangers’ Winston Santos on July 1, exactly 23,700 players have played major league baseball.
Fain was also one of the game’s top defensive first basemen. He finished his nine-year career with 927 assists, placing him 71st all-time as of writing, despite playing 9,557.1 innings there. He’s the only player in the top 91 who toiled less than 10,000 innings at the position. Four times, he led the AL in assists at first base. Not surprisingly, given his superior range, he also led the AL in errors at the position five times.
Beginnings
Ironically, given the fact that he was unknown to the A’s, Fain was an Oakland boy. He was born in San Antonio on March 29, 1921, but at an early age, his family relocated to Oakland. Fain’s father was a jockey who finished second in the 1912 Kentucky Derby and later became a professional boxer. He died when Fain was young, and the family was poor. Fain played for Roosevelt High School on a team that sent seven players to professional baseball. There, a scout for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League noticed the left-handed-batting Fain, who was a good hitter, a slick fielding first baseman, and a hard-nosed warrior. Fain debuted with the Seals in 1939, when he was 18 years old and still in high school. The Seals paid him $200 per month, “under the table,” he told Herb Fagen of Baseball Digest in 1995. He was 7-for-33 that season. There’s no official record of how many of those seven hits were home runs, but Fain claimed that two home runs prevented him from being demoted.
Drafted Twice
Fain found the going rough at first, but in 1941, he hit a solid .310/.400/.399 for the Seals. After his numbers regressed in 1942, and with World War II raging, Uncle Sam drafted him. He was stationed in Hawaii, where he played on a service team that included major leaguers Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Wally Judnich, Mike McCormick, and Charlie Silvera. The team also included future major leaguer Bob Dillinger. Fain thought it was the best team he ever played on. “Playing service ball is what made the difference for me going to the major leagues,” he told Fagen. “That’s because I got a chance to play with and against all these guys. After a while, I said, ‘Shoot, I can compete with them.’”
Fain returned to the Seals for the 1946 season, during which he hit .301/.423/.431, 11 HR, and a PCL-leading 112 RBI, and even stole 24 bases. His manager, Lefty O’Doul, was so pleased that after the season, he rewarded Fain with a gift of a shotgun. The Seals then tried to sell Fain to a major league team for $100,000 (almost $1.8 million in today’s dollars). Showing the same financial acumen that would later cause News Corp. to purchase Myspace for $580 million in 2005, they turned down offers of $75,000 and held out for the extra $25,000 for so long that Fain was exposed to the major league draft. The Athletics got him for the $10,000 draft price. Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack sent Fain a contract calling for a $6,000 salary. The brash Fain countered, and said he had to have $6,500. Mack gave in.
Baseball’s Angry Man
With the A’s in 1947, it didn’t take long for Fain to be recognized as the game’s fiercest competitor. Quickly, he was known as “Baseball’s Angry Man” or “Fiery Fain.” In one game, on September 5 at Shibe Park, the Athletics hosted the Boston Red Sox. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Fain drew a walk against pitcher Mickey Harris. Buddy Rosar then smacked a double to left field. Rounding third, Fain stumbled over the foot of third baseman Eddie Pellagrini. It may have been an accident, but Fain wasn’t going to take the time to ask. He regained his balance, touched home plate, then pivoted and charged at Pellagrini. Fain was ejected after pulverizing the third baseman.
In 1953, he told Edgar Williams for a Baseball Digest story, “All I know is that I want to win, whether I’m playing baseball or pinochle. I don’t know how to play any other way than all-out, and if I get red-necked at times, I can’t help it. That the way I’m built.”
What impressed Mack about Fain was his defense. Those who played during Mack’s era believed they could never see a first baseman who could match the defensive prowess of Hal Chase. Now Mack wasn’t so sure. “He isn’t another Chase yet,” Mack told Williams, “but before he’s finished, he’ll be mighty close to it.” Mack especially marveled at the aggressive way Fain charged bunts and his incredible range. Yet, Fain drove his managers crazy with his zeal for attempting to throw out runners going to third on a bunt, which apparently was known as the “Hal Chase play” and appears to have been the only weak part of his defensive game. Jimmy Dykes became Philadelphia’s manager in 1951 after Mack finally retired at age 88. In 1967, Dykes said to Pat Harmon of the Cincinnati Post and Times-Star, “I think one season he tried the old Hal Chase play a half-dozen times, and the best throw Fain made hit a customer in the sixth row.”
Batting Champion Twice
From 1947-50, Fain hit .279/.418/.389 for the A’s, striking out just 148 times. He became a better hitter in 1951 by happenstance. In spring training, he developed blisters on his hands. Not wishing to miss any batting practice, he choked up on the bat. That forced him to swing with ease, and line drives started jumping off his bat. At that point, he became a “choke hitter.” On July 15, 1951, in the fourth inning of the first game of a doubleheader at Comiskey Park, Fain popped out to the shortstop. Furious, he kicked the first base bag and chipped a left metatarsal bone in four places. Despite having to miss 37 games, he had his finest season and won his first batting title, hitting .344/.451/.471.
For the 1952 season, Fain turned down the first contract tendered to him and demanded a raise commiserate with how a batting champ should be compensated. “The Athletics are on a shoestring, so I’m told,” said Fain, according to United Press International, “and I’m sorry for that. But if they can’t pay the going wages, then they should get out of baseball.” What Fain eventually settled for isn’t known.
To repeat as the batting champ, Fain had to rebound from an early-season slump. He didn’t get a hit until the seventh game of the season. On May 1, he was hitting .111. But his average steadily climbed, and on June 15, he began a 24-game hitting streak that saw him go 37-for-99. He won his second batting title with a .327/.438/.429 slash line. Meanwhile, all season long, Fain was the subject of trade rumors. Teams pursuing a deal for Fain was nothing new. However, fed up with Fain’s excessive drinking and barroom brawling, this time the A’s began to listen.
Off to Chicago
On January 27, 1953, the Athletics dealt Fain and minor leaguer Bobby Wilson to the White Sox for Joe DeMaestri, Ed McGhee, and power-hitting Eddie Robinson. It was the first time since 1902 that a batting champion was dealt. That time, it was Nap Lajoie whom the Athletics sold to Cleveland. The White Sox finished third in 1952. Their general manager, Frank Lane, couldn’t conceal his glee over getting Fain. Lane told the Associated Press that Fain fit “with the definite program we’ve been planning for years in getting a pennant winner.” That was music to Fain’s ears; the A’s had never finished higher than fourth during his time there. “This year it looks as though the Sox have a good chance for the pennant,” said Fain. “I think big Comiskey Park will be helpful for me. I’m a line drive hitter, not a fence buster. I’ll have more room to hit.”
The Rejected Cut-In
In August 1953, the White Sox were in the nation’s capital for a three-game series against the Washington Senators. One night after curfew, Fain wandered into a Maryland restaurant and inn. According to writer Al Stump of True, Fain “was never known as a chaser.” Not knowing any different, we’ll take Stump’s word for it, while noting that in those days, the press generally protected the players they were covering. Fain noticed a woman at a nearby table, sitting alone, and approached her, and asked her to dance. As the couple danced, James Judge, who apparently was acquainted with the woman, asked if he could “cut in.” She refused. According to Judge’s $50,000 lawsuit against Fain, after the dance, Fain came to Judge’s table, slugged him, and knocked out a tooth. Judge got in some blows, too. His petition stated that five other teeth would have to be extracted. Fain missed the August 3 game at Griffith Stadium and skipped town before he could be served with process. He was seen with a patch over one eye and a bruise on his left hand. Said Lane, “Well, he hired him to hit. So, this is encouraging.” Fain was hitting just .269 at the time. He missed 24 games with a fractured finger. He had his worst year in the majors, hitting .256/.405/.345, with opposing bench jockeys taunting him with “Wanna dance, Ferris?” His White Sox finished third again.
More Stops on the Ferris Wheel
On June 27, 1954, Fain injured his knee sliding into Red Sox catcher Sammy White. The injury limited Fain to 65 games in 1954. Although he hit .302/.399/.417, the White Sox had enough of him, too. On December 6, 1954, they traded Fain, Leo Cristante, and Jack Phillips to the Tigers for Walt Dropo, Ted Gray, and Bob Nieman. What a difference two years can make. When the White Sox acquired Fain, they were talking pennant. This time, Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs, Sr. was quoted by the AP, strangely, as saying, “I think they got the better of it, but we simply had to make a deal.” They had to make a deal in December? Opening Day was more than four months away.
Come spring training 1955, the Tigers weren’t happy campers. Fain’s knee still hadn’t healed, although he had assured them otherwise in December. He played on Opening Day anyway, but by July 4, when the Tigers completed an unusual seven-city, 21-day road trip, he was hitting .264, and manager Bucky Harris decided to give the first base job to newly acquired Earl Torgeson. On the road trip, Fain was involved in altercations with Torgeson and Tigers reserve outfielder Charlie Maxwell in Chicago and Tigers trainer Jack Homel in Cleveland. Harris wanted him out. The Tigers waived Fain on July 7. The official explanation was that Fain couldn’t help the team with a bum knee.
A few days later, Cleveland claimed Fain on waivers, but he hit just .254 there and was waived again after the season. He spent the 1956 season with the Sacramento Solons of the PCL before retiring as a player. But there was one more amusing chapter.
Reefer Madness
In September 1985, Fain, then 64, was arrested at his rural Georgetown, California home for cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale, both felonies. The AP reported, “Deputies searching his home said they found a large quantity of dried marijuana, two growing rooms, a large drying room, and containers for small plants.” The following February, Fain was placed on five years’ probation and house arrest. However, deputies returned to his home in March 1988 and found more than 400 plants of the wacky tobacky, a two-story barn that contained an irrigation system and growth lights, and accounting records detailing sales. Lieutenant Howard Wilson of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s office told the AP, “He increased his operation incredibly since 1985.” Deputies also searched a nearby rental property of Fain’s and found 90 more plants. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Fain lived to be 80 years old. He passed away in his Georgetown home on October 18, 2001, from kidney failure.
