Class

[BamaDoc]

You win with class and lose with class. Our organization is now also representing all of baseball as MLB's champion. I am probably in the minority, but I wish Kenny would have responded differently. In public, I wish Kenny would have responded along the lines of "Frank was a great player for us and I hope to be there when he enters the Hall of Fame as a White Sox. Prior to injuries, he was a devastating hitter. We felt we were improving our team and I am sorry he hasn't returned our calls and I will contact him soon."

 

Taking the high road at Sox fest is different than in the national media. I would then have called him and talked to him. I would thank him for his contributions and discuss preliminary plans to honor his contribution to the White Sox when his playing days conclude. If his tone is still negative at the end of the call, I would explain that future comments would be "frank" and only tarnish his image.

 

I hope we move beyond the shoot from the hip one day and apologize the next. Why can't our stars return home and be welcomed ala the Yankees, Dogers, and Cardinals? Fisk, Ventura, and Black Jack should have open invitations to return.

 

I have no problem with Kenny breaking a door in private.

[KevHead0881]

You win with class and lose with class.  Our organization is now also representing all of baseball as MLB's champion.  I am probably in the minority, but I wish Kenny would have responded differently.  In public, I wish Kenny would have responded along the lines of "Frank was a great player for us and I hope to be there when he enters the Hall of Fame as a White Sox.  Prior to injuries, he was a devastating hitter.  We felt we were improving our team and  I am sorry he hasn't returned our calls and I will contact him soon."

 

Taking the high road at Sox fest is different than in the national media.  I would then have called him and talked to him.  I would thank him for his contributions and discuss preliminary plans to honor his contribution to the White Sox when his playing days conclude.  If his tone is still negative at the end of the call, I would explain that future comments would be "frank" and only tarnish his image.

 

I hope we move beyond the shoot from the hip one day and apologize the next.  Why can't our stars return home and be welcomed ala the Yankees, Dogers, and Cardinals?  Fisk, Ventura, and Black Jack should have open invitations to return.

 

I have no problem with Kenny breaking a door in private.

 

While I don't entirely disagree with you, Fisk, Ventura and Black Jack all have open invitations and have been back several times, be it calling ballgames or returning for tributes. And I'm not exactly sure when the Yankees, Dodgers and Cardinals became immune to unhappy ballplayers. They have all the same issues as we do.

[witesoxfan]

Ventura and Black Jack have both broadcasted some Sox games, haven't they?

[BamaDoc]

All left in messy situations. For what it is worth, back then the sox wouldn't go over three years on pitchers(Jack, Fernandez, Alvarez) and were correct. I don't want to change the thread away from the present. We need to take the high road.

[Dick Allen]

99.9% of problems between teams and players has to do with contracts. Frank is claiming his problem isn't with a contract, although he does mention money several times in the article, but with a lack of a phone call, calls that he admits to getting by conceding both KW and JR left messages. I agree that KW should have not gone off, I'm sure he regrets it right now, but I do find this soap opera adding a little intrique to spring training.

[jackie hayes]

99.9% of problems between teams and players has to do with contracts. Frank is claiming his problem isn't with a contract, although he does mention money several times in the article, but with a lack of a phone call, calls that he admits to getting by conceding both KW and JR left messages. I agree that KW should have not gone off, I'm sure he regrets it right now, but I do find this soap opera adding a little intrique to spring training.

He does say that the problems started over a contract.

That's when the bitterness started, and it was over a contract. You're damn right.

[Felix]

I understand where you are coming from, but Frank is seriously acting like a 2 year old. He didn't get an offer to come back after struggling through injuries for the past few years. He's 37, he's not going to get healthy enough to play again.

 

Keeping him around hurts the team, and requires roster spot has to be dedicated for him. IIRC, he showed last year that he doesn't like to split time with someone (Carl Everett), and to keep him happy, he would have to be the teams only option at DH. Since he's so injury prone, it would be a stupid thing for the White Sox to do. Thomas goes down a week into the season, and they are stuck having Joe Borchard DH.

 

I first felt sorry for Frank. He was a great player, and defined this franchise for many years, but now he's just being whiny. He thinks he's in his prime? He'll be hurt in less than a month, book it. He thinks he's a better option than Thome? Last year was Thome's first year of injuries. He's only 35, and has shown in recent years (2003 and 2004) that he can still hit 40 HR and 100+ RBI while posting a high .900's OPS and staying healthy. Has Frank shown that? No.

[jackie hayes]

I understand where you are coming from, but Frank is seriously acting like a 2 year old.  He didn't get an offer to come back after struggling through injuries for the past few years.  He's 37, he's not going to get healthy enough to play again.

 

Keeping him around hurts the team, and requires roster spot has to be dedicated for him.  IIRC, he showed last year that he doesn't like to split time with someone (Carl Everett), and to keep him happy, he would have to be the teams only option at DH.  Since he's so injury prone, it would be a stupid thing for the White Sox to do.  Thomas goes down a week into the season, and they are stuck having Joe Borchard DH.

 

I first felt sorry for Frank.  He was a great player, and defined this franchise for many years, but now he's just being whiny.  He thinks he's in his prime?  He'll be hurt in less than a month, book it.  He thinks he's a better option than Thome?  Last year was Thome's first year of injuries.  He's only 35, and has shown in recent years (2003 and 2004) that he can still hit 40 HR and 100+ RBI while posting a high .900's OPS and staying healthy.  Has Frank shown that?  No.

I'm not sure, are you responding to me?

 

I never said the Sox did the wrong thing in letting Frank go. Part of me did hope that he could somehow stay, damn the logjam, but I never criticized the decision, and I was a fan of the Thome trade. I wasn't happy about it, but I knew it was probably the right thing to do.

 

But here you have a player whining about respect, treatment, yadda yadda yadda -- just like a billion other players have, INCLUDING Ozzie and Fisk. So he's wrong, so what? There's no reason to go apes*** like that. Especially when he's only saying that he would have been happy with any arrangement, and that he just really wanted to be on this team next year.

 

And, not that it matters, but his case is clearly better than Oz's and Fisk's -- both of whom were clearly washed up.

[Felix]

I'm not sure, are you responding to me?

Nope, the original poster, sorry

 

I never said the Sox did the wrong thing in letting Frank go.  Part of me did hope that he could somehow stay, damn the logjam, but I never criticized the decision, and I was a fan of the Thome trade.  I wasn't happy about it, but I knew it was probably the right thing to do.

Well, Frank seems to be whining because he was mistreated, and let go when he could produce just as much as Thome. I was just countering that.

 

But here you have a player whining about respect, treatment, yadda yadda yadda -- just like a billion other players have, INCLUDING Ozzie and Fisk.  So he's wrong, so what?  There's no reason to go apes*** like that.  Especially when he's only saying that he would have been happy with any arrangement, and that he just really wanted to be on this team next year.

Yes, KW overreacted, but he said nothing but the truth. Sometimes teams need to stop kissing up to players and just tell it like it is, and I think that this is one of those instances.

[rventura23]

I'm glad Kenny said something, Im not sure if he should have used words like "idiot" because the media will exploit what he says to create more controversy.

Frank is just being whiny and hes not worth the risk anymore. The white sox gave him lots of recognition at the end of last year when he was injured even letting him suit up in the playoffs. Kenny is an outstanding GM and I think hes been great to previous players. I remember Ventura got an invitiation for practically any job in the sox organization when he retired, but he turned it down to be with his family.

[jackie hayes]

I can't disagree more about there being a "need" for this. I read Thomas's words and thought nothing of them. They were petulant, but not fighting words at all. The whole thing would have faded away, but Kenny just wanted a fight.

 

The GM of a team shouldn't be picking a big fight with the greatest player in that team's history over minor bickering. And then to claim that he's just doing it b/c Reinsdorf is apparently incapable of speaking his own mind is childish.