Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1810930, member: 289"] FRANK THOMAS was Albert Pujols 1.0. Or Albert was Frank Thomas 2.0. Both were big strong first basemen who eventually became DH’s. They both had tremendous batting averages, a great eye at the plate, (and some admiring umpires), and great power with little speed. They both got off to incredible career starts and had great consistency for several years, then declined due to injuries and less admiring umpires. I recall specifically reading that Thomas was amazed that he wasn’t getting the calls he used to get and Pujols made the mistake of changing leagues in mid-career and thus having to deal with a new set of umpires. Thomas’ stats per 162 games from 1990-1997: .330BA 190H 132W 88SKO 37D 1T 39HR 3SB 129RBI 118RS 481 bases produced 208 runs produced Pujols from 2001 until he left the Cardinals after the 2011 season: .328BA 197H 93W 67SKO 43D 2T 42HR 8SB 126RBI 123RS 471 bases produced 207 runs produced. Thomas walked more. Pujols, before the injuries, had some speed and also won a couple of Gold Gloves at first base. His prime also extended a few more years, so he’s the better player. But in their primes, they were very similar. The rest of their careers, (including the 2016 season so far for Pujols): Thomas: .276BA 157H 102W 106S 32D 1T 34HR 2SB 111RBI 92RS 397 bases 169 runs Pujols: .263BA 167H 56W 83S 34D 0T 32HR 5SB 105RBI 85RS 358 bases 158 runs Both were still productive players and they could hit a mistake a long ways time had passed them by and baseball was about someone else now. The other thing I remember about Thomas was an article in Sports Illustrated after his decline had started. It detailed various financial and marital problems and how the game wasn’t so easy for him or the umpires so kind to him anymore. It almost made you feel sorry for a guy who had had so much success and made so much money. The article had a large picture of the house Thomas, who maintained a humble, pious image to the public, had had built for himself. It was atop a hill and was a classic “McMansion”, a turreted castle with dozens of rooms and nine large garages for his automobiles. There were expansive lawns, a small forest of trees around the property and multiple tennis courts. If you could take your eyes away from the mansion and the winding, tree-lined road that led to it, you could look down the hill and see that it was full of other houses. These were of a fairly substantial size themselves, big enough to likely require live-in help. They had circular driveways and high roofs suggesting 3-4 floors and “great rooms”. They were obviously the houses of highly successful people- corporate executives, doctors and always whose yearly income may not have been equal to Thomas, (but I’m not even sure of that), but whose career of earning money at that rate will surely last much longer, such that they will make a lot more money than he will in their lives. Yet he was living in this house, literally and figuratively looking down upon them. The caption to the picture informed us that, actually Thomas no longer lived in that big house. But his ex-wife did…. Later, I thought about that how my point of view was partially a result of my middle class values. If I suddenly came into the amount of money Frank Thomas was making, I would realize, (I think), that my earning power would never be as great as at that time of my life and that I was basically earning money for my entire life. So I would (I hope) adopt a lifestyle that I could maintain over my entire life with that money. From that point of view, Frank Thomas was fool. He’ll wind up broke and working for Parks and Recreation and wistfully recall the days when he lived in a bigger house than everybody else, above everybody else. But I realized that if I grew up in a black family in Georgia, (I’m assuming they were not well off but that’s another middle class assumption), I might have a different view. Maybe I would have an overwhelming need to show the world that I made it and to look down on people who had looked down on me, (in my perceptions, anyway). Perhaps, on some level, Frank Thomas realized that he could not have sustained such a lifestyle but it was enough to have achieved it, even temporarily. In any case, from reading his Wikipedia article, Frank is doing fine and isn’t doing any P&R work. He’s still a record company executive, which is what he was trying to be at the time. I don’t know who lives in the big house but maybe it just doesn’t matter anymore. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?