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Frank Thomas: I could be the White Sox hitting coach.


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Frank Thomas offers himself to White Sox — as hitting coach

 

By Joe Cowley [email protected] October 24, 2011 10:36PM

 

Chicago White Sox's Frank Thomas watches his home run in the fourth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, N.Y. on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003. (AP Photo/Bernie Nunez)

 

Updated: October 25, 2011 2:10AM

 

 

ARLINGTON, Texas — What do 521 home runs, 2,468 hits and a .301 career batting average get you these days?

 

Not even a phone call.

 

But Frank Thomas is willing to wait patiently and see if that changes.

 

Before Game 5 of the World Series on Monday, Thomas — who is working the Fall Classic for MLB.com — said that not only could he be a hitting coach, he could be the hitting coach for the White Sox. But he doesn’t seem to be in their plans.

 

‘‘Of course I can be a hitting coach, but who knows if this is the right time for it or not,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘We’ll see later. [General manager] Kenny [Williams] and them, they’ve got their own plan going on. You heard all the names being mentioned. They’ve got their own clique, their own nucleus that they’ve been working with. Do I fit? Who knows. Bottom line is they’ll make the right decision they need to make.’’

 

Considering what Thomas did at the plate for 19 seasons — 16 with the Sox — tapping into his knowledge would seem to be a no-brainer. But not many people could hit the ball like Thomas.

 

So how would he translate that to an average hitter?

 

‘‘No doubt I can look at the swings of other players and see things,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘My style was my style, but the bottom line is getting the hands in the right position, the body in the right position, putting your head on the ball and making a good swing. I don’t care if you’re two feet, one feet, hands up, hands down. You just have to get to that same spot and make it work.’’

 

Thomas came from the Walt Hriniak hitting school, where keeping your head on the ball was the emphasis. So was swinging down on the ball, which often meant taking the upper hand off the bat. Critics believed that took power away, but it never seemed to bother ‘‘The Big Hurt.’’

 

New Sox manager Robin Ventura also followed Hriniak’s philosophy, and a few hitters in his lineup could use some help.

 

Thomas said he watched the awful seasons of Adam Dunn and Alex Rios and believes he could make a difference.

 

‘‘I think Adam will be back,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘Adam was done by the halfway point and just couldn’t get out of that funk mentally. But the guy hit 40 home runs for six straight years. You just don’t lose that overnight. His confidence is shaken, I’m sure, and he just has to be fixed. Time will fix it and a lot of hard work.’’

 

Whether that includes Thomas remains to be seen.

 

But his phone is on.

 

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/wh...ting-coach.html

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QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:02 PM)
Before anyone jumps on Frank for this, after reading the article twice, it seems pretty clear that Cowley went to him and finagled an answer out of him and turned it into "Frank is asking to be the hitting coach and the Sox aren't listening."

 

Oh I agree with this 100000%. The agenda Joe has it what is embarrassing.

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QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:02 PM)
Before anyone jumps on Frank for this, after reading the article twice, it seems pretty clear that Cowley went to him and finagled an answer out of him and turned it into "Frank is asking to be the hitting coach and the Sox aren't listening."

I do not blame Big Hurt it is Cowley being Cowley!

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QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:02 PM)
Before anyone jumps on Frank for this, after reading the article twice, it seems pretty clear that Cowley went to him and finagled an answer out of him and turned it into "Frank is asking to be the hitting coach and the Sox aren't listening."

Exactly.

 

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QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 03:28 PM)
Anything that put Frank in a Sox uniform again would make me happy. If Big Mac can do it, then the Big Hurt could certainly do it.

My question for Frank would be more whether he wants to do it. It would take some severe personal sacrifices from him, including forcing him to a certain type of personality, to be effective at the job...and I really don't want to convince yet another person to take a job on this team's coaching staff just because.

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I agree that the article is nothing more than Cowley going to Frank Thomas and asking him if he could be the hitting coach for the Sox. What's Frank going to say? "No, I'm not cut out to be a hitting coach. I'd rather market my own beer." It's like if someone came to me and asked if I think I could be the department manager? Duh.

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QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 03:37 PM)
In the history of coaching, no one who was an asshole was ever any good at it. Is this what I am to take from your point?

I would say that in this particular position, if the person were to come off as too much of an asshole, he would likely alienate several players and wind up failing.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:45 PM)
I would say that in this particular position, if the person were to come off as too much of an asshole, he would likely alienate several players and wind up failing.

 

Greg walker comes off as an asshole to me and everybody seems to love the guy?

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:45 PM)
I would say that in this particular position, if the person were to come off as too much of an asshole, he would likely alienate several players and wind up failing.

Yeah, but I would say, in this particular position, you really probably have no idea what Frank's coaching style will look like. Writing him off because he was sometimes distant or a prick 10-15 years ago when he was on top of the game is silly.

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If hitting coaches truly matter and I'm not sure they do, then Frank would be perfect.

The man's style of hitting is my favorite of all time.

He had great great patience at the plate. He hit home runs but he also hit line drives and smashed it to all fields.

 

I would LOVE for him to be Sox hitting coach.

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QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 03:11 PM)
If hitting coaches truly matter and I'm not sure they do, then Frank would be perfect.

The man's style of hitting is my favorite of all time.

He had great great patience at the plate. He hit home runs but he also hit line drives and smashed it to all fields.

 

I would LOVE for him to be Sox hitting coach.

 

He had a really good eye for balls and strikes and he hit with his back foot off the ground.

 

The first thing isn't really something you can teach and the second thing isn't something you probably should teach.

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