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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Familiar Faces / Strange Places: Frank Thomas / Athletics

Some day Frank Thomas will be enshrined in Cooperstown, and when he does, he will join a long list of Hall of Famers that ended their careers in a strange uniform.

A former college football player, "The Big Hurt" spent 19 years in the big leagues, the first 16 in the Southside of Chicago playing for the White Sox. He is one of four players to have at least a .300 batting average, 500 home runs, 1,500 RBI, 1,000 runs and 1,500 walks in his career -- Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Mel Ott are the others. From 1991 to 1997, he finished in the top 10 of the MVP voting every year.

When his run with the Sox was over, he signed to play for Oakland for the 2006 season. His first HR for the A's was in Chicago against his old team, and he was given a standing ovation by the Sox crowd. That season he hit 39 HRs and drove in 114 runs and helped deliver a AL West championship to the Bay Area.

After proving he could still play, he signed a two year deal with Blue Jays for $18M. Hit hit his 500th career home run in a Blue Jay uniform. The next season, after a very slow start, he was released by the Jays and agreed to return to Oakland again before retiring for good. The Sox retired his #35 last season.

2 comments:

Steve Gierman said...

This is definitely one of your best efforts. The colors just pop! I love the old school uniform on Frank.

Anonymous said...

I love the card of Frank. I was at that game when he hit the home run. The fans did boo him though after he hit his second home run that night off Garland. Chicago fans like to honor you, but don't try and single handedly beat our team.

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