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06-29-2007, 09:41 AM
Big homer for Big Hurt
Friday, June 29, 2007CHARLES GOLDBERGNews staff writer
AUBURN --
It didn't take former Auburn University baseball coach Hal Baird long to know Frank Thomas was someone special.
"He was the best college hitter I ever had and the best one I had seen from the first day he walked on campus," Baird said. "By the middle of his freshman year, he was charted toward greatness."
Thomas' celebrated baseball career lit up the college game in the 1980s, led to two American League MVP awards in the 1990s and reached one of baseball's revered milestones Thursday when he blasted his 500th major league home run for the Toronto Blue Jays. He hit a three-run shot off Minnesota's Carlos Silva in an 8-5 loss at Minneapolis. To also mark the occasion, he got ejected for arguing a strike call in the ninth.
The state can now claim four men in the 500 home run club: Thomas, who also played for the Birmingham Barons; Mobile native and home run king Henry Aaron; fellow Mobilian Willie McCovey; and Fairfield's Willie Mays. Two other members of the club, Reggie Jackson and Mark McGwire, made minor-league stops in Alabama along the way.
Thomas' big-league career with three teams - the White Sox, who drafted him seventh overall in 1989, Oakland and Toronto - is rivaled by few. He is the only big-league player to hit at least .300 with at least 100 walks, 100 runs, 100 RBIs and 20 homers for seven straight seasons. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname "The Big Hurt" from White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson.
Only five players in history - Aaron, Mays and three other Hall of Famers - can match Thomas' career combination of batting average and homers.
Turns his back on football:
Thomas may have been bound for baseball greatness, as Baird observed, but football coach and Athletics Director Pat Dye thought Thomas was headed for greatness in another sport.
Dye predicted Thomas, who came to Auburn on a football scholarship in 1986, would become his sixth straight tight end to play in the NFL after a solid freshman season. But what about Thomas' 21 freshman homers?
That tug-of-war ended after a year when Frank and his dad showed up in Baird's office.
"They wanted to know what kind of baseball player he could be," Baird said. "There was no question with Frank. He thought he would be in the Hall of Fame, and he will be. His dad wasn't as sure. He said, `Coach, can he make a living in baseball?' I said, `Mr. Thomas, I don't have a crystal ball, but he's the best I've ever coached and he'll be a first-round pick.'"
Friday, June 29, 2007CHARLES GOLDBERGNews staff writer
AUBURN --
It didn't take former Auburn University baseball coach Hal Baird long to know Frank Thomas was someone special.
"He was the best college hitter I ever had and the best one I had seen from the first day he walked on campus," Baird said. "By the middle of his freshman year, he was charted toward greatness."
Thomas' celebrated baseball career lit up the college game in the 1980s, led to two American League MVP awards in the 1990s and reached one of baseball's revered milestones Thursday when he blasted his 500th major league home run for the Toronto Blue Jays. He hit a three-run shot off Minnesota's Carlos Silva in an 8-5 loss at Minneapolis. To also mark the occasion, he got ejected for arguing a strike call in the ninth.
The state can now claim four men in the 500 home run club: Thomas, who also played for the Birmingham Barons; Mobile native and home run king Henry Aaron; fellow Mobilian Willie McCovey; and Fairfield's Willie Mays. Two other members of the club, Reggie Jackson and Mark McGwire, made minor-league stops in Alabama along the way.
Thomas' big-league career with three teams - the White Sox, who drafted him seventh overall in 1989, Oakland and Toronto - is rivaled by few. He is the only big-league player to hit at least .300 with at least 100 walks, 100 runs, 100 RBIs and 20 homers for seven straight seasons. His hitting prowess earned him the nickname "The Big Hurt" from White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson.
Only five players in history - Aaron, Mays and three other Hall of Famers - can match Thomas' career combination of batting average and homers.
Turns his back on football:
Thomas may have been bound for baseball greatness, as Baird observed, but football coach and Athletics Director Pat Dye thought Thomas was headed for greatness in another sport.
Dye predicted Thomas, who came to Auburn on a football scholarship in 1986, would become his sixth straight tight end to play in the NFL after a solid freshman season. But what about Thomas' 21 freshman homers?
That tug-of-war ended after a year when Frank and his dad showed up in Baird's office.
"They wanted to know what kind of baseball player he could be," Baird said. "There was no question with Frank. He thought he would be in the Hall of Fame, and he will be. His dad wasn't as sure. He said, `Coach, can he make a living in baseball?' I said, `Mr. Thomas, I don't have a crystal ball, but he's the best I've ever coached and he'll be a first-round pick.'"