Talk:Frank Thomas (AL baseball player)

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Is is too early to post a player's career stats, if they are still active?

Contents

[edit] Career Statistics as of early 2004

G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI BB IBB SO SH SF HBP AVG OBP SLG
1,851 6,611 2,048 428 11 418 1,255 1,390 1,386 159 1,077 0 105 65 .310 .428 .568

Not at all, be our guest. Meelar 06:30, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Origin and Meaning of Nickname

Could anyone please explain his nickname? I know, some reporter named him that way. But that does not explain much, does it? Cheers.

It's just a Hawkism for you, I guess. Maybe because he was sort of prone to injury. 67.175.112.107 06:38, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

--ACTUALLY, Hawk named him "the big hurt" b/c he could put a "hurt" on the ball! he was relatively injury free in his first 7 years.

Okay, cool, that's what I was looking for. How about putting both explanations on the main side? (And now I even know, how to sign... hopefully... Thorsten 23:29, 23 August 2006 (UTC) Yes! :-)


Can someone tell me when and for what reason he earned the nickname Frank "The Tank". I have followed Frank his entire career and have never heard anyone (broadcaster, player, or fan) use this nickname.TeganX7 00:49, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

No one has ever called Frank Thomas "The Tank". He was never associated with the movie Old School. Whoever decided to edit the page that way might as well list any made up nickname he or she deems fit for any player. Instead of "Junior" or "The Kid" I think "Kenny The Jet" should be added to the Ken Griffey Jr page because that's an existing Ken nickname and I feel like applying it to any Ken. Seriously ridiculous.Quazvin 16:46, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] POV

I removed the line in "See Also" which claimed that he was widely regarded as the greatest player in club history. That may be the case (I agree, actually), but the White Sox have had some very good players who could give Thomas a run for his money. Shoeless Joe Jackson comes to mind, as do Luis Aparicio and even Harold Baines. When the DHL Hometown Heroes winners are announced, maybe then it makes sense to put that fact up (assuming, of course, that Frank wins). Otherwise, the claim seems speculative 67.175.112.107 09:18, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Steroids?

While I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Frank Thomas' career, I'm a fairly active baseball fan and I've never heard anyone express suspicions about him and steroids. On the contrary, he seems to typically be one of the examples of players considered to be clean. I don't want to simply delete the section, but I'm wondering if the author (or anyone else) can provide any links backing up this assertation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.135.34.40 (talk • contribs) 06:19, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I do not see a section on steroids in the article. There also have been no public suspicions of steroid use on Thomas' behalf (at least that I can't find any...ANYWHERE). Its inclusion would be speculative, opinion based (not fact), and essentially libel so I'd be careful what you write people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.224.148.169 (talk • contribs) 00:49, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
Frank Thomas is regarded among baseball-heads as a "clean crusader" -- somebody who's actively campaigned against them, always been open to tests, etc. I don't have any reliable source but it's been mentioned many many times in broadcasts, and I've certainly never noticed any steroids accusations against him, and I've been following baseball passionately since before he was drafted. -- KirinX 01:39, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

I think there SHOULD be a section for Thomas about steroids, but one pointing out that he's long been a vocal opponent of their use, has willingly gone to Mitchell to talk about his concerns, and very likely lost the MVP award in 2000 because he wouldn't use. I'm willing to bet that as more and more players fall under suspicion, Thomas is going to look more and more like a true role model. 160.39.213.109 (talk) 09:24, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lots o' Boxes

I added the (upon reflection) large number of succession boxes with his awards. It may be too much, and even if they are not, they might be made more colorful. Please don't delete entirely without comment, but I wanted to put them up and see what people thought. TeganX7 18:18, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The teammate of Bo comment.

I'm going to change that. Bo and Frank were not on the same Auburn team (football or baseball) Bo's first season was 1982 and he finished up at Auburn in 1985, Thomas didn't come in until a year later. Millec4 (talk) 23:49, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page move

The article had been at Frank Thomas (AL baseball player) for a long time; there was no reason to move it, especially since DH isn't really a position. The clearest way to distinguish the two Frank Thomases is by league, since the earlier one never played in the AL and this one will likely never play in the NL. MisfitToys (talk) 00:42, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Distinguishing it by league is stupid. What is the difference in playing in the AL and the NL except for the designated hitter rule? --Street20 (talk) 01:11, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
The levels of disambiguation are generally (baseball) and then ([position]) if it's needed to go farther. Position is used in mostly all cases in which disambiguation between two baseball players is needed. As for the "it has been this way for a long time" argument, that doesn't really make much sense. Just because something has been a certain way for a while not only doesn't make it the best way, but that doesn't make it the standard. Generally, the standard is that position be the primary disambiguation between two players of the same name. Ksy92003(talk) 01:35, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
I changed it back and please see the talk page on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball. --Street20 (talk) 01:58, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
However, DH is not a position. Anyway, about 90% of the links went to the old title, and widely linked articles shouldn't generally be shifted unless there's a particularly compelling reason to do so (such as when someone changes the name by which they're primarily known). MisfitToys (talk) 01:34, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] re: White Sox World Series roster

There seems to be a very small issue developing over this. As far as I can tell, Thomas was on injured reserve. This does not make him an "on the playing roster" guy, but I think most people consider IR players as de facto roster players. He was given a ring and a full share of the World Series money. While it is true that he was not in uniform for any games, and was not on the actual active roster, I think IR guys are considered by most people to be "rostered players" in this regard. I'm not sure if anyone has more definitive information on this. LonelyBeacon (talk) 15:28, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

There's no issue, just Blue Jay fan vandals causing trouble. You're completely right. Furthermore, following this logic, do we now have to expunge from Wikipedia every player who was injured during the season and didn't play in the World Series? Googie man (talk) 17:46, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
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[edit] Picture issue

Picture should be either:

1) Removed, due to its size. or 2) Inserted into a more convenient section of the article, so it does not leave a long blank of space in between sections.

There. Like this better? Better than you giving me the F-word isn't it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hootie86u (talk • contribs) 01:06, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] 2008 updates

An anonymous editor is updating virtually everything that Thomas is doing this year. I'm a big fan,. but in the spirit of an encyclopedia, none of this information is truly important for an encyclopedia. It is information of relatively short term importance. If I am missing something, please note it here and keep on editing.LonelyBeacon (talk) 00:24, 7 April 2008 (UTC)