The Best I've Ever Seen: DH Frank Thomas

The Best I've Ever Seen: DH Frank Thomas
Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Big Hurt doesn't cause as much pain as he once did. He's looked every bit

of 39 years old this season while making his way around the bases in an ex aggerated hop, skip and jump for Toronto. It's the best he can do on a surgically repaired left ankle that will ache for the rest of his life.

Running never paid the bills for Frank Thomas. Hitting still does.

He's the best designated hitter I've ever seen because of that. Thomas spent his first 16 seasons with the Chicago White Sox. When he stepped into the batter's box at U.S. Cellular Field, it reminded me of the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago with a bat in its hands.

Thomas wasn't quite 110 stories tall, but at 6-5 and pushing 280 pounds, he was plenty big enough.

Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn installed the DH in the American League in 1973 to put muscle and runs back in a pitching-dominated game. Kuhn probably had a hitter like Thomas in mind when he did it.

Nobody starts out as a DH. Players either get thrown into the job when they're young while management tries to create an opening for them elsewhere, or they back into it because of injury or age.

Then again, maybe they just can't catch the baseball.

In 1991, Thomas' first full season in the big leagues, he was Chicago's regular DH. He soon moved to first base and won consecutive AL MVP awards in 1993 and 1994. By 1998, Thomas was the White Sox's regular DH.

Thomas went into this weekend with 1,240 games at DH and 971 at first base.

DHs come in all shapes and sizes.

Edgar Martinez, regarded by some as the best DH ever, wasn't a big man at 5-11 and 210 pounds. A third baseman by trade, Martinez played 1,412 games at DH for Seattle. Over 18 seasons, he hit .312 with 309 homers and 2,247 hits.

Paul Molitor, 6-0, 185, came from the same mold. Molitor, the first Hall of Famer to play more games at DH than any other position, ended his career with 3,319 hits and 234 homers. Molitor appeared in 1,174 games at DH.
When I think of the DH, I think of power, not singles.

Guys like Thomas, David Ortiz, Andre Thornton, Travis Hafner, Don Baylor and Cecil Fielder are my idea of a DH - big guys who can dent a baseball and carry a team. General managers can move hitters like that into the middle of the lineup and not worry about them for the next five years.

Thomas certainly has that kind of power. On June 29, he became the 21st player to hit 500 homers. Through Friday he was at 513 and counting.

"I'm going to stick around until I hit 600," he told Toronto reporters in June.

Thomas brings more to the plate than a big swing. He has great knowledge of his strike zone, which makes him even more dangerous. Thomas has walked 100 or more times in 10 seasons, while striking out 100 or more times in just three seasons.

In Chicago, his managers used to get mad at him. They wanted him to be more aggressive, but he knew what worked for him.

Thomas has a career .303 batting average, .421 on-base percentage and .561 slugging percentage.

When Thomas was at his peak, the White Sox went to the postseason once, getting swept by Seattle in the 2000 division series. In 2005, when Chicago won the World Series, Thomas spent most of the season on the disabled list because of an ankle injury.

It was suggested the reason the White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 was because Thomas' prickly personality was no longer at the center of the clubhouse.

Be that as it may, when Thomas left the club after that year to sign with Oakland, he did so as best hitter in White Sox history. He's the franchise leader in homers, RBI, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.