Former Cub Jake Fox starts second career, launches lifestyle brand

Former major-league player Jake Fox was known for his versatility rather than his fashion sense. But at 37, Fox finds himself taking a swing at a new business endeavor he never would have thought possible a decade ago.

In July, Fox, who played parts of two seasons with the Cubs in 2007 and 2009, and his friend Alexy Posner launched The Fox Code, an Athleisure clothing and lifestyle brand.

The goal of the brand is to capture the mentality behind baseball, though Posner said people who don’t play baseball also could be inspired by the brand.

The logo, featured on hats and some T-shirts, is a large greater-than sign in front of a small “B4.”

“We wanted to promote this idea to strive to be greater than you were the day before,” Posner said.

Fox played professional baseball for over 15 years. Early in his career, Fox, whom the Cubs selected in the third round of the 2003 draft, said he was constantly comparing himself to his teammates. This taxed him mentally, in addition to all the physical challenges of the sport.

“Guys always worry if they’ll play in A-ball, Double-A or Triple-A and all that,” Fox said. “The biggest thing I learned is you have to enjoy the journey, you have to be in the moment and you have to enjoy where you’re at. You have to put all your focus on what you’re doing in the moment and not what’s going on at other places.”

Though Fox was never a star in the majors, his best season came in 2009 with the Cubs.

“My time in Chicago was awesome,” he said. “It was probably one of the best times I had in my career and life.”

Fox’s favorite memory from his career is the Cubs’ win over the Mets on Aug. 29, 2009.

After not starting for several days, Fox said he convinced then-manager Lou Piniella to put him in the lineup after he promised to come through in a big way.

Piniella trusted Fox, who went on to hit his first career grand slam.

“I can’t even begin to tell you the feelings I had in that moment,” a giddy Fox recalled. “I felt like I was on top of the world, the whole stadium was going crazy, and I was the hero of the day. And that will be a feeling that’ll stick with me. That was one of the most vivid memories I still have from that experience.”

Fox, a career .237 hitter, didn’t have much major-league success. He was out of the majors by 2012 and went on to play for various minor-league teams and in Mexico and South Korea. His career came to a screeching halt after the 2017 season when his father-in-law was battling cancer.

“I realized I wanted to spend more time with my family and my kids because my kids were getting to that age when they need me more in their life,” Fox said.

Fox said he sold most of his belongings in Arizona and moved back to Michigan. Up until that point, he didn’t really think about life after baseball, and it took him awhile to adjust.

Fox eventually landed his current job as a hitting coach in the Giants’ farm system. He said he enjoys working and connecting with the young players. One of his favorite parts of the new gig is passing on the lessons he learned from his own career, which he calls his ‘‘code.’’

“Everybody’s progress, everybody’s process and development happens at a different phase,” Fox said he tells his players. “And so all you can do every day is show up and concentrate on how I’m going to get myself better, to get myself to be a player good enough for the major leagues.”