James Henry Viox (December 30, 1890 – January 6, 1969) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player who played for five seasons in the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

from 1912 to 1916, all of them with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. He played

second base In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the infield, between second and first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and feet, needs the ability to get rid of the ball quickly, and must ...

for much of his career, and played in the middle infield with

Honus Wagner Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner ( ; February 24, 1874 – December 6, 1955) was an American baseball shortstop who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1897 to 1917, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nicknamed "the Flying Dutc ...

during the latter's final seasons.

Professional career

Viox made his major league debut on May 9, 1912. In 33 games that season, he hit .186 while spending time in the field at

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

and

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

. The following season, in 1913, Viox became the team's regular second baseman, replacing Alex McCarthy at that position. In his first full season, he hit .317, setting a rookie record for batting average by a second baseman that was not matched until 2007 when

Dustin Pedroia Any addition of 2018 will be reverted. Only players who were on a winning team's active roster during a World Series are listed as "World Series champions" in this context. Note that this is the same criterion as is used by Baseball-reference.com ...

also hit .317. His

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

of .399 remains a record for a rookie second baseman as of the 2020 season. During the season, Viox finished in the top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage,

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted bal ...

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

s, and

sacrifice hit In baseball, a sacrifice bunt (also called a sacrifice hit) is a batter's act of deliberately bunting the ball, before there are two outs, in a manner that allows a baserunner to advance to another base. The batter is almost always put out, a ...

s. His batting average fell over the next two seasons, to .265 in 1914 and .256 in 1915. He showed a good batting eye during those seasons, however, as in both years he was ranked among the top 10 in walks. In his final season in the major leagues, he played in only 43 games and batted .250; his time with the Pirates ended when the club made major changes to its roster.

Post career

After his playing days were over, he managed for a time in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

. During this time, he won two

Virginia League The Virginia League was a minor league baseball affiliation which operated in Virginia and North Carolina from 1906 to 1928. It was classified as a "C" league from 1906 to 1919 and as a "B" league from 1920 to 1928, folding in June. The most fa ...

championships in 1920 and 1921 while managing Portsmouth.

Personal life

Viox was wedded to Nell Buckner Lovely during the 1914 season and were married for 54 years until his death from lung cancer on January 6, 1969, in

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Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viox, Jim 1890 births 1969 deaths People from Lockland, Ohio Major League Baseball second basemen Baseball players from Hamilton County, Ohio Pittsburgh Pirates players Minor league baseball managers Lexington Reds players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Portsmouth Truckers players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Lexington Colts players 20th-century American sportsmen