This Frank Thomas Stat Always Makes Me Shake My Head in Disbelief
Talk about being a product of the era you played in, right?
When looking at individual performance, there isn’t much that legendary slugger Frank Thomas didn’t accomplish during his 19 seasons in the big leagues.
He was a five-time All-Star and a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner. Thomas also won a batting title, the 1995 Home Run Derby, and earned two AL MVP Awards that sit on his mantle at home.
Oh, and let’s not forget that he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Thomas earned 83.7% of the vote during his first year of eligibility in 2014.
The Big Hurt was a terrific hitter. He finished his career with a .301/.419/.555 triple slash. His 521 homers are tied for 21st all-time with Willie McCovey and Ted Williams.
But there is one individual accomplishment that eluded Thomas during his career, and it’s surprising considering how dominant he was every year.
Frank Thomas Never Led The League in Homers
We’ve already established that Thomas is one of baseball’s best power hitters. He obviously had to rack up plenty of homers on a yearly basis to finish his career with 521 taters.
And that’s exactly what he did. Thomas surpassed the 30-homer plateau nine times. He didn’t just stop at 30, either—five of these seasons surpassed the 40-homer plateau.
Thomas hit at least 40 homers three times between 1993 and 1996 (41 in ‘93, 40 in ‘95, and ‘96). After a few years without reaching that mark, the right-handed slugger hit a career-high 43 homers with 143 RBI in 2000 before hitting another 42 in 2003.
But despite these gaudy home run numbers, The Big Hurt never once led the league in home runs during his Hall of Fame career. That’s what happens when most of your time in the big leagues comes at the height of the steroid era.
This always cracks me up, though—Frank Thomas was more likely to win an MVP than lead the league in homers during his career. It’s one of those things that you probably wouldn’t fully believe until you physically saw the proof.
Thomas Did Most of His Work in the Windy City
Before finishing his playing days with the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays, Thomas spent the first 16 years of his career with the Chicago White Sox. So, it’s not surprising that most of his stats and individual accomplishments were compiled while playing on the South Side.
The Big Hurt slugged 448 of his 521 homers and 1,465 of his 1,704 RBI with the White Sox. He also almost collected the same number of doubles (447) as he did homers, which speaks to just how good of a hitter he was.
Thomas is also prominently featured on Chicago’s single-season and all-time home run leaderboards. Albert Belle (49 in 1998) and Jermaine Dye (44 in 2006) sit ahead of Thomas on the single-season leaderboard.
However, he’s the all-time White Sox home run record holder with those 448 taters. It’s a record that’s probably safe for a while, too. Paul Konerko is second with 432 homers, but the next closest is Jose Abreu, who finished his White Sox career with 243 homers.
Single-Season HR Performances | Career HR Performances | Postseason HR Leaders | HR Derby Performances
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The Big Hurt was so fun to watch -- but dang, I would've loved to see him as an NFL Tight End. Just for fun, let's say the Raiders drafted him and Bo Jackson never got hurt. That Raiders team would've been good in September, but once the White Sox season ended, Bo and Big Hurt move to L.A. to plow through defenses from October through January!!!!!