Eric Fox

Eric Hollis Fox was born on August 15, 1963 in Lemoore, California. The 5'10", 180 pound former Major League Baseball player attended Fresno State University.

A switch hitter who threw left handed, Fox was taken in the 22nd round (566th overall) of the 1984 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. He failed to sign and re-entered the draft. In 1985, the Philadelphia Phillies took him in the 13th round, 330th overall. He did not sign. Finally, in the 1986 draft, the Seattle Mariners took him 5th overall in the 1st round, and he signed with them.

Fox spent three seasons in the Mariners organization before being released on March 29, 1989. On that same day, the Oakland Athletics quickly signed him. He spent the next few years in the Athletics' minor league system before making his major league debut on July 7, 1992, at the age of 28.

Fox's career highlight may have come on July 29, 1992, when Fox hit a game winning 3 run home run against the Minnesota Twins. That win put the A's into a first place tie with the Twins and catapulted them towards the division title that season while the Twins finished in 2nd place, 6 games back of the A's. Many Twins fan blame that game and his home run towards the downfall of the franchise through the rest of the 1990s, only one year removed from winning the World Series in 1991.

The minor league speedster did not live up to his 49-steal potential in the majors. In 116 career major league games, he stole only 5 bases (in 1178 minor league games, he stole 224 bases).

His final major league game was July 5, 1995, with the Texas Rangers. Throughout his big league career, he only had a .198 batting average.

After his final big league game, he still played minor league baseball until 1997, in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles organizations.

Trivia

*He sported two uniform numbers when with the Athletics - 28 (from 1992-'93) and 31 (1994). When he was with the Rangers, his uniform number was 18.
*Fox is a minor league coach in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
*Hit an Opening Day Grand Slam

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