I was really happy to see Frank Thomas get elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Wednesday afternoon, and frankly it surprised me how pleased it made me feel. So much so that without hesitation I've dusted off this blog to post again after a semi retirement, a la Jordan switching to baseball. All that HOF stuff is something I've never cared for, and with all the cheating going on have little time for worshiping millionaires who carry a big stick.
But the Big Hurt was different, and the fact that he was known to be one of the few 'clean' superstars from that era just made me feel almost validated that he was my favorite White Sox player right off the bat from his rookie season in 1990. That year I was awarded one of those 'Good Attendance' vouchers for Sox bleacher tickets from my school, which were in abundance because -- like the Bulls before Jordan's primetime era -- the team really sucked and were playing in an empty aging relic of a stadium. (Which, for the record, I totally wish they had kept and renovated instead.) The selection of Frank Thomas as a first-round draft pick in '89 helped launch a new era to go along with some other big investments into the future, including sending veteran Harold Baines to Texas for a young kid named Sammy Sosa (whose reputation received only 7.2% of votes for the HOF in his second year of eligibility).
A smiling Sosa is seen sitting behind Thomas in the infamous Upper Deck card featuring Big Frank giving the middle finger, something I had no idea until yesterday that he did also a few years later in a Topps Stadium Club snapshot...
Thomas never seemed comfortable the media spotlight and during his playing days seemed to be bothered by the attention, except when it came from Letterman or even Al Bundy. After his acrimonious split with the Sox in 2005 when a World Series was brought to the South Side for the first time in 88 years, he seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder. Like he's always got something to prove. And that he did bouncing back in Oakland, hitting 39 homers at the age of thirty-eight, leading the A's to a deep playoff run a year after the Sox said he was all but done.
That could be where he'll be with his business ventures, or as a TV analyst in Chicago despite starting out there as a man of few words, just like his former Auburn and White Sox teammate Bo Jackson. It also could explain why someone of his caliber and statistical performance went to only 5 All-Star Games. But as Hawk Harrelson clarified (at the 2 minute mark of that clip) he was often "misquoted and misrepresented" in the press.
Someone who's always worth the quote is Tony LaRussa, who also got nominated for Cooperstown as a manager. He of course began his career in the dugout at Comiskey Park in 1979, and a 'winning ugly' pennant in '84 came along the way until the aforementioned Hawk Harrelson, then in the front office as GM, gave him the boot.
LaRussa is an interesting guy, and also just as mercurial as Big Frank. He's got a Law Degree from Florida State, and is multi-lingual. Fluent in Español, I tweeted that link last year and I remember SI's Grant Wahl then sharing the same clip a few hours later without giving me any 'H/T' of any sort. And how do I know that? Because he un-blocked me for some reason that same exact night, as he apparently did with some others who dared to kick the can down the road. But hey, I got nothing left to prove. I'm just happy to be back here.
But the Big Hurt was different, and the fact that he was known to be one of the few 'clean' superstars from that era just made me feel almost validated that he was my favorite White Sox player right off the bat from his rookie season in 1990. That year I was awarded one of those 'Good Attendance' vouchers for Sox bleacher tickets from my school, which were in abundance because -- like the Bulls before Jordan's primetime era -- the team really sucked and were playing in an empty aging relic of a stadium. (Which, for the record, I totally wish they had kept and renovated instead.) The selection of Frank Thomas as a first-round draft pick in '89 helped launch a new era to go along with some other big investments into the future, including sending veteran Harold Baines to Texas for a young kid named Sammy Sosa (whose reputation received only 7.2% of votes for the HOF in his second year of eligibility).
A smiling Sosa is seen sitting behind Thomas in the infamous Upper Deck card featuring Big Frank giving the middle finger, something I had no idea until yesterday that he did also a few years later in a Topps Stadium Club snapshot...
Thomas never seemed comfortable the media spotlight and during his playing days seemed to be bothered by the attention, except when it came from Letterman or even Al Bundy. After his acrimonious split with the Sox in 2005 when a World Series was brought to the South Side for the first time in 88 years, he seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder. Like he's always got something to prove. And that he did bouncing back in Oakland, hitting 39 homers at the age of thirty-eight, leading the A's to a deep playoff run a year after the Sox said he was all but done.
That could be where he'll be with his business ventures, or as a TV analyst in Chicago despite starting out there as a man of few words, just like his former Auburn and White Sox teammate Bo Jackson. It also could explain why someone of his caliber and statistical performance went to only 5 All-Star Games. But as Hawk Harrelson clarified (at the 2 minute mark of that clip) he was often "misquoted and misrepresented" in the press.
Someone who's always worth the quote is Tony LaRussa, who also got nominated for Cooperstown as a manager. He of course began his career in the dugout at Comiskey Park in 1979, and a 'winning ugly' pennant in '84 came along the way until the aforementioned Hawk Harrelson, then in the front office as GM, gave him the boot.
LaRussa is an interesting guy, and also just as mercurial as Big Frank. He's got a Law Degree from Florida State, and is multi-lingual. Fluent in Español, I tweeted that link last year and I remember SI's Grant Wahl then sharing the same clip a few hours later without giving me any 'H/T' of any sort. And how do I know that? Because he un-blocked me for some reason that same exact night, as he apparently did with some others who dared to kick the can down the road. But hey, I got nothing left to prove. I'm just happy to be back here.
