Frank Thomas

Did You Know?

• Thomas used greenies early in his career but stopped after the collective bargaining agreement regulated travel schedules.
• He was the only active baseball player to be interviewed voluntarily for the Mitchell Report.

Early life and college

Thomas grew up in Columbus, Georgia, and went to Columbus High School, where he stood out in both football and baseball. As a sophomore, he was the cleanup hitter for a baseball team that won a state title. During his senior year, he batted .440, earned All-State honors as a tight end in football, and played forward on the basketball team. He desperately wanted a professional baseball contract but went undrafted in 1986, a shock that left him feeling scarred by people who had always doubted him.

That fall, he took a football scholarship to Auburn University, but his passion for baseball led him to the school's baseball team. Coach Hal Baird quickly saw his talent, and as a freshman Thomas hit .359 and led the Tigers in RBIs. In the summer of 1987, he made the U.S. Pan American Team but left the Games to return for football practice, where he suffered two early-season injuries. The next summer, he played for the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod Baseball League, hitting three homers in one game and another that cleared the 434-foot sign in center field at Eldredge Park.

He was later named to the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 2000. Despite his football injuries, Auburn kept his scholarship, and he focused solely on baseball. He was cut from the final U.S. Olympic team for the 1988 Games. By the end of his junior season, he had 19 home runs, 19 doubles, a .403 average, and an .801 slugging percentage.

He finished his college career with a school-record 49 home runs and was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in May 2011.

Professional career

The Chicago White Sox selected Thomas with the seventh pick in the first round of the June 1989 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major league debut on August 2, 1990, against the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium, going 0-for-4 but driving in a run on a fielder's choice. On August 28, he hit his first career home run off Gary Wayne at the Metrodome. He played in 60 games in 1990, batting .330 with seven home runs and 31 RBI.

In his first full season, he finished third in MVP voting with a .318 batting average, 32 home runs, 109 RBI, and 138 walks, winning his first Silver Slugger Award and leading the league in on-base percentage. In 1993, he batted .317 with a club-record 41 home runs, 128 RBI, 106 runs scored, and 112 walks, joining Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Ted Williams as the only players to eclipse .300 with more than 20 home runs and more than 100 RBI, runs, and walks in three straight seasons.

He collected all 28 votes for a unanimous AL Most Valuable Player award, the first by a White Sox player since Dick Allen in 1972, and led the team to its first AL West crown in 10 years. He repeated as MVP in the strike-shortened 1994 season, batting .353 and leading the league in slugging percentage and runs. In 2000, he posted career highs of 43 home runs and 143 RBI, losing a close MVP vote but being named AL Comeback Player of the Year. Later in his career, foot injuries and minor ailments reduced his productivity and often limited him to designated hitter.

In 2005, his final season in Chicago, he was limited to 34 games after starting the year on the disabled list and fracturing a bone in his foot near a surgical repair site; he did not play in the postseason while the White Sox won the World Series. He spent his last three years with the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays, hitting his 500th home run with the Blue Jays, before returning to the A's for part of 2008. He signed a one-day contract with the White Sox in 2010 and announced his retirement.

Playing accomplishments

Frank Thomas was a five-time All-Star from 1993 through 1997 and earned four Silver Slugger Awards, in 1991, 1993, 1994, and 2000. He reached a major milestone on June 28, 2007, when he hit a first-inning home run at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, becoming the 21st player in major league history to reach 500 career home runs. He belongs to an exclusive group of players who have both 500 home runs and a career batting average of .300 or better, a list that includes Hall-of-Famers Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, as well as later additions Manny Ramírez and Miguel Cabrera. Thomas is also one of only six players to hit 500 home runs and draw at least 1,600 walks, alongside Ruth, Ott, Mickey Mantle, Williams, and Barry Bonds.

He was the first player ever to win two Silver Slugger Awards at two different positions, taking the honor at first base in 1993 and 1994 and as a designated hitter in 1991 and 2000. Thomas was the 11th player in history to win consecutive Most Valuable Player Awards, and the first American Leaguer to do so since Roger Maris in 1960 and 1961. He became the third player, after Hank Aaron and Eddie Murray, to collect 500 home runs and 120 sacrifice flies; Albert Pujols later matched that feat. In 1991, his 138 walks were the most by any American League player in the 1990s and the highest single-season total in the league since Harmon Killebrew walked 145 times in 1969.

During the strike-shortened 1994 season, Thomas posted a .729 slugging percentage, the best in the American League since Ted Williams’ .731 in 1957, and only Mark McGwire’s .730 in 1996 has been higher since. That same season, his .494 on-base percentage was the highest in the AL since Williams’ .528 in 1957, a mark no AL player has surpassed. He retired as the all-time leader in home runs by a designated hitter with 269, a record later broken by David Ortiz. Thomas is the only player in major league history with over 100 sacrifice flies and zero sacrifice bunts, and the only one with more than 10,000 plate appearances without a single sacrifice bunt. The Chicago White Sox retired his uniform number 35 on August 29, 2010, during a ceremony for “Frank Thomas Day.”

Retirement

The White Sox unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Thomas on July 31, 2011, on the outfield concourse at U.S. Cellular Field, the eighth statue on that concourse. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 with 83.7% of the vote in his initial year of eligibility and was inducted as a member of the White Sox on July 27, 2014. He was the first player inducted who played more games as a designated hitter than as a position player.

Thomas appeared in the 1992 film Mr. Baseball as a rookie named Ricky Davis. During the 1994–95 MLB strike, he appeared as himself in a November 27, 1994, episode of Married... with Children. In 1995, a video game titled Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball was released, followed by All-Star Baseball '97 Featuring Frank Thomas in 1997. Also in 1995, Premier Technologies created a pinball machine titled Frank Thomas' Big Hurt; Thomas appeared in the documentary The History of Pinball discussing similarities between baseball and pinball.

The pinball machine was later added to The Pinball Arcade in July 2016. In 2007, he appeared in a promotional advertisement for the Blue Jays involving a pillow fight with children, which drew criticism from the Television Bureau of Canada, leading to a disclaimer. The Blue Jays scheduled a "Frank Thomas Kid's Pillow" promotion for September 2, 2007. In 2012 and 2013, he participated in the Pepsi MAX Field of Dreams games.

On June 24, 2017, he gave a speech during Mark Buehrle's White Sox number retirement ceremony. He appeared as a guest analyst during TBS's coverage of the 2007 MLB playoffs.