So long, Frank: Getting over a big hurt

[greasywheels121]

GREAT article.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...tesox-headlines

 

So long, Frank: Getting over a big hurt

By Jon Baskin

 

As a lifelong White Sox fan who came of age during what should someday be known as the Frank Thomas era, I watched Paul Konerko's recent press conference with mixed emotions. Of course it was a good thing that the Sox signed Konerko. The Jim Thome trade also made the team stronger. Still, I had this gut realization that it was over: I would never see Frank Thomas--hunched low, predatory, ready to pounce with that vicious uppercut swing--in a Sox uniform again.

 

Apparently, not everyone thought this was such a big deal. In the days following the Konerko signing, Chicago columnists waxed lukewarm about Frank's legacy. But those of us who have followed and loved the Sox know that we're saying goodbye to the best pure hitter we're ever likely to see.

 

To watch Frank hit in the '90s was an event. You stopped what you were doing and studied the TV as he planted his prodigious back foot and waved those massive arms. The announcers' voices went taut with excitement. The pitcher's eyes widened. This was Mozart, Einstein. You were in the presence of a kind of genius.

 

There was no reasonable way for a pitcher to get Frank out back then. When he first came into the league in August 1990, I tried to explain his hitting philosophy to a friend (I was 10 years old): "The thing is, you can't throw him balls because he won't swing at them. And you can't throw him strikes, because he'll hit a home run."

 

It was a simplistic but devastating formula. For all the things columnists say about him now, they rarely say this: Frank Thomas was the greatest hitter in the most offensively prolific decade in baseball history. Between 1991 and 1997, Frank hit .331 and averaged 36 home runs and 118 runs batted in a year. (His best year, 1994, was cut short by the strike.) Frank was robbed of what should have been his third MVP in 2000 and, as recently as 60 games into the 2004 season, when he sustained an injury, Frank remained one of the most potent offensive forces in the steroid-juiced American League. He was, quite simply, the greatest offensive force to ever set foot in Chicago.

 

But what the columnists would have us remember is that Frank studied his stats in the clubhouse, didn't know enough about Jackie Robinson, built his house with non-union workers. He wouldn't do a running drill in spring training.

 

To be sure, Frank has never been a natural leader, and, occasionally, he has done inexplicably stupid things, like when he held out in spring training for six days in 2001. But can you imagine Bonds or Clemens being held to answer for such small crimes? Ruth? Williams? Somehow, in Frank's case--maybe it was his ineptitude at defending himself--these things stuck. Before long, it was common knowledge that he was viewed as being petulant, selfish, acid in the clubhouse.

 

Perhaps Frank was not quite made to be a superstar in today's sporting universe. He was really a "rain man" of sorts: Hitting was what he knew how to do. And that's what he did--fantastically, incomparably--for the better part of 15 years. Sox fans can at least take solace, as they mourn Frank's departure, that in his final year, struggling with injuries, a cynical media, declining bat speed, a team on which he was not supposed to fit, Frank nonetheless became what he had never seemed before: beloved.

 

Maybe you were at U.S. Cellular Field on Memorial Day, when Frank came off the disabled list. The stadium was uncharacteristically packed. A buzz was in the air, old feuds forgotten. What mattered was that Frank Thomas was in the lineup; he was going to hit. The crowd stood and held its breath every time Frank was to bat. With each monstrous swing came an eruption of hope: Something spectacular might happen--at any moment, he might launch one.

 

It was clear on that day that Frank was in bad shape. He could barely run. His swing was slow. He couldn't reach the outside pitch. Still, he laid out a rope to left and walked in three at bats.

 

The fans--can you blame them?--wanted more Big Hurt. They knew his days were numbered.

 

You say Konerko is the perfect White Sox, the first baseman of our dreams. I'm glad we signed him, but the best Sox first baseman I know will be playing elsewhere next year.

[Kyyle23]

Damn, I think we posted these a minute apart

 

edit: nevermind, beat you by a minute

 

I put mine in the end of the Frank Thomas thread though

Edited December 10, 2005 by kyyle23

[greasywheels121]

Damn, I think we posted these a minute apart

 

edit:  nevermind, beat you by a minute

 

I put mine in the end of the Frank Thomas thread though

 

Ha it's all good. This a solid read, I'm keeping it out here.

[gosox41]

GREAT article.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...tesox-headlines

 

 

Excellent commentary.