Ted Cox, the first major league player with hits in his first six at bats, dies.

MtPleasant Paul

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With the Red Sox in September, 1977 when he hit .362. Sox had drafted him in the first round in 1973. They sold high on him, promptly sending him off to Cleveland that winter in the Dennis Eckersley trade.
 

DourDoerr

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2 other oddities:
His first and last name rhymed with Red Sox and he was also the first in AL to collect a GWRBI (game-winning RBI) - a stat which was official from only 1980 to 1988.
 

dirtynine

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2 other oddities:
His first and last name rhymed with Red Sox and he was also the first in AL to collect a GWRBI (game-winning RBI) - a stat which was official from only 1980 to 1988.
Greenwell set the league record for GWRBI in ‘88, which (it seems) will never be broken.
 
Jun 16, 2014
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In Bart Giamatti's "The Green Fields of the Mind", he extended the season, albeit briefly, with a seeing-eye single up the middle.

"Cox swings a bat, stretches his long arms, bends his back, the rookie from Pawtucket who broke in two weeks earlier with a record six straight hits, the kid drafted ahead of Fred Lynn, rangy, smooth, cool. The count runs two and two, Briles is cagey, nothing too good, and Cox swings, the ball beginning toward the mound and then, in a jaunty, wayward dance, skipping past Briles, feinting to the right, skimming the last of the grass, finding the dirt, moving now like some small, purposeful marine creature negotiating the green deep, easily avoiding the jagged rock of second base, traveling steady and straight now out into the dark, silent recesses of center field."
 

E5 Yaz

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So, back in 1983, the Patriots were on their way to get shellacked 30-0 by the Browns. Tony Eason had completed his first four NFL passes earlier in the season at Miami, and he came in to replace Steve Grogan.

Eason completed his first pass, and someone in the press box said "That's five for five" ... to which Bob Ryan responded: "One more and he ties Ted Cox."

Looking back, it was like being present for the birth of a meme
 

RoDaddy

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I thought he was a third, not first baseman for the Sox

I remember a friend telling me he was watching a Sox spring training game on TV and in what he called one of the most bizarre things he'd ever seen in baseball, Cox came running off the field in the middle of an inning - turned out he had just been traded!
 

ledsox

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According to Baseball Ref, he never played in the field for the Sox (reg season). 13 games at DH in 1977.
For the Indians, he played every position except P, C and CF (1 inning at SS). Mostly he was at 3B.
Traded to Cleveland March 30, 1978.
 

EddieYost

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Full trade was Cox, Paxton, Bo Diaz and Rick Wise for Eck and Fred Kendall. Still a great trade.
 

Humphrey

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The same week as the Eck trade, the Sox made a second trade with the Tribe, Rick Krueger for Frank Duffy. Both were out of baseball within a year.

Duffy was the backup infielder along with Jack Brohamer. He had been a starter in Cleveland, good field, no hit; but even his fielding went to hell sitting on the bench for long stretches. Believe he was in the starting lineup during a stretch in late July of that year when the Sox lost quite a bit of their big lead over the Yanks.
 

RetractableRoof

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My first ever Sox binky... at that age, all I knew was 6 for 6, and he was drafted before Lynn. I mean, he had to be good right? I was totally bummed that all the Sox got for him was Eck...
 

Buck Showalter

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I remember attending a Sox-Indians game shortly after the trade.....I was about 10 years old.

I watched Cox in batting practice and he was blasting the ball over the monster and into the (then) nets.

He must have hit 4 or 5 homers in a row at one point - I looked at my grandfather and I was in awe.....he said "means nothing - let's see what happens in the game".

I'm going to go look for the box score…..but I think he struck out 3 times that night.

In any case....RIP Ted Cox.....starting to feel old when my 'Topps rated rookies' as passing on.

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Ok - cut me some slack....I was 8 years old on 9-28-77....LOL

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197709280.shtml
It was prior to the Eck-trade.
 
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Plympton91

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I remember watching those games and that streak at my grandmothers house, in the all window living room designed by my grandfather. Those were good days.

Can’t believe how time flies. Ted is gone too young. But, given what’s coming if the world tries to continue hiding from a germ, maybe he’s one of the lucky ones.