Fothergill was officially listed in major league records as being tall and weighing , but Tigers manager George Moriarty once joked that it was a moral victory when the dieting Fothergill trimmed down to . Baseball author Lee Allen wrote of Fothergill: "He was one of the last of those rare spirits who appeared to play for the fun of it, and he seemed to be able to extract the fullest amount of pleasure from life. After the game, you could find him with a thick porterhouse steak and a seidel of beer, and he would chuckle to himself and mumble out of the side of his mouth, 'Imagine getting paid for a life like this!'"
