Ferris Fain, 80; Baseball All-Star of ‘50s

Ferris Fain, the American League batting champion in 1951 and 1952 and a five-time baseball all-star whose career was plagued by injuries and his own explosive nature, has died. He was 80.

Fain died Oct. 18 at his home in Georgetown, Calif. He had been suffering from leukemia and a number of other ailments for several years.

Fain played most of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Sox. He was on the American League All-Star team from 1950 to 1954. His final season, 1955, which he spent with Detroit and Cleveland, was marred by a nagging knee injury.

Fain’s fiery disposition was evident from the start. In 1947, his rookie season, he was suspended for throwing punches at an opposing player.

“Ferris Fain was his own worst enemy,” Eddie Joost, a teammate of Fain, told a reporter several years ago. “He had a lifestyle of his own and would do exactly what he wanted to do.”

Born in San Antonio, Fain grew up in Oakland and developed into a slick-fielding first baseman by the time he was in high school. As a high school senior, he was not only the class president, he was also playing professional baseball at the triple-A level with the San Francisco Seals. At age 20, he led the Pacific Coast League in runs, with 122, and runs batted in, with 112. He hit .319 for the Seals before entering military service, where he continued to play baseball.

After his discharge, Fain returned to the Seals, hitting .301 for a team that won the league championship in 1946. He was acquired that year by the Philadelphia Athletics, run by Connie Mack.

Fain hit .291 in his rookie year with the A’s, playing in 136 games. He put up respectable numbers over the next four years, but never topped .300. He did so in 1951, hitting .344 after he changed his hitting style in spring training, choking up several inches to compensate for a minor hand injury. As a result, he became a much more consistent line-drive hitter.

He played with the A’s through 1952, when he was traded to the White Sox. Although the deal was hailed in the Chicago press, it failed to bring a pennant to the Sox. Fain was with the team for two injury-marred years, during which his performance was far below what he had achieved in Philadelphia.

In 1953, Fain was out of the lineup after breaking his hand in a barroom fight in Washington, D.C. The next year, he suffered a season-ending knee injury in June when sliding into third base in a game against Boston.

He left the majors after nine seasons with a .290 batting average and returned to the Pacific Coast League briefly as the player-manager for the Sacramento Solons.

His post-baseball career included work as a building contractor and as a farmer in Georgetown.

His name didn’t make the newspapers again until the late 1980s, when he was convicted of growing marijuana along with plums, peaches and nectarines. He served 18 months in state prison.

Fain is survived by his wife and two adult children.