(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Frank Thomas...
(1929 - 2023) |
 Former Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets-slugger Frank Thomas passed away
Nederlands
 PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (USA) -
Frank Thomas, who was a powerful hitter and had a long career, passed away on Monday, January 16 at age 93.
The outfielder/third baseman played in sixteen Major League-seasons (1951-1966) for seven different clubs.
Frank Thomas was a legendary slugger for Pittsburgh Pirates for whom he played in eight seasons.
In 1962, Thomas was one of the original players of the New York Mets for whom he played in three seasons.
One of his nicknames was 'The Original'.
Frank Joseph Thomas was born on June 11, 1929 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the son of a Lithuanian immigrant and an American mother.
Frank Thomas lived his entire life in Pittsburgh, but attended school in Ontario (Canada), where he initially studied to become a priest.
But his career clearly changed when he signed a professional baseball-contract with Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947.
Frank Thomas made his professional debut in 1948 when he played in 138 games in the Minor League for Tallahassee Pirates, the Pittsburgh-team at the so-called D-level.
From 1946 through 1962, Class-D was the lowest Minor League-level.
When a player moved up, he played in Class-C, Class-B, Class-A, Double-A and Triple-A en route to the Major League.
From 1963 on, Class-B and C became Single-A leagues and Class-D became the Rookie League.
In his first season, the righthanded hitter immediately made a name for himself.
He batted .295 and collected 176 basehits, including 39 doubles, eight triples and 14 homeruns, while batting in 132 runs and scoring 106.
In 1949, Thomas had another fine season.
This time, he played for three different teams, Waco Pirates, Davenport Pirates (both B-level) and again Tallahassee.
For these three teams combined, Thomas closed the season with a .319 batting average.
Amongst his 128 basehits were fourteen homeruns and he batted in 87 runs.
Frank Thomas also spent the 1950 season in the Minor Leagues for Pittsburgh, playing in Class-A for Charleston Rebels and Double-A for New Orleans Pelicans.
Again, he had a fine season, hitting .294 with fourteen homeruns.
In 1951, Thomas began the season with New Orleans (AA) for whom he batted .289 with 23 homeruns.
In August of this season, the powerhitter was added to the Major League-team of Pittsburgh Pirates, where he became a teammate of wellknown Ralph Kiner.
His fellow-outfielder, who was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1975, remained a teammate in three seasons.
Kiner would lead the National League in homeruns in seven consecutive seasons (1946-1952).
After Kiner had been trade by Pittsburgh after the 1953 season, Thomas became a real regular player.
Several years later, Thomas and Kiner re-united when both worked for New York Mets.
When Thomas was added to the Major League-team, Billy Meyer was the Manager, but a true baseball-legend was one of the coaches.
That was 77-year old Honus Wagner, who had played 21 seasons (1897-1917) in the Major League, the last 18 of them with Pittsburgh.
Wagner was the Playing Manager in 1917, then was one of the coaches since 1933.
Wagner (who passed away in 1955) retired after the 1951 season.
In 1936, the short stop was part of the inaugural group of players that was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, together with other legends Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Babe Ruth.
Thomas made his debut on August 17, 1951 in a home-game against Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh's former stadium Forbes Field.
Thomas was the starting centerfielder and batted third.
Thomas grounded out in his first at bat.
In the sixth inning, Thomas led off with a double and then scored when next batter and club-legend Ralph Kiner also doubled.
In his next at bat, Thomas contributed with a sacrifice fly in the 8-3 win for Pittsburgh.
On August 30, in an away-game against New York Yankees, Thomas hit his first Major League-homerun in the sixth inning off of starter George Spencer.
Thomas went on to play in 39 games for Pittsburgh and batted .264 with 39 basehits, including two homeruns and batted in sixteen runs.
Thomas played the majority of the 1952 season also in Double-A with New Orleans, hitting .303 with 35 homeruns.
This time, he briefly played in the Major League-team, as he appeared in only six games, all played in September.
In those games, Thomas got 22 plate appearances and collected only two basehits.
But from 1953 on, Frank Thomas was a regular in the team of Pittsburgh.
In his first full Major League-season, the outfielder played in 128 games and batted .255 with 116 basehits, including 30 homeruns, and batted in 102 runs.
From this season on, Thomas hit 21 or more homeruns in six consecutive seasons while playing for Pittsburgh.
In the following season (1954), Thomas finished with a .298 batting average, which was to remain his career-high.
He led the team with 172 basehits, 32 doubles, 23 homeruns, 81 runs scored and 94 runs batted in and he also played in his first All-Star Game this season.
His batting average was the second-best in the team behind Sid Gordon (.306).
Frank Thomas also led the Pittsburgh-team in 1955 with 25 homeruns and 72 runs scored and he again played in the All-Star Game.
Another productive season followed in 1956 when he batted .282 with 25 homeruns and 80 runs batted in.
Thomas led the Major League with 157 games played in what was his first season as third baseman after having played in the outfield in the previous seasons.
His .282 batting average was third-best in the team.
Future Major League-Manager Bill Virdon led with a .334 average.
He was followed by Roberto Clemente, who played in his second Major League-season and batted .311.
For Clemente, this was the beginning of a long, successful and legendary 18-year career with Pittsburgh, which unfortunately ended prematurely.
On December 31, 1972, Clemente passed away when his plane crashed en route to delivering supplies to Nicaragua which was struck by a devastating earthquake.
In the next two seasons, Frank Thomas again finished high in the offensive categories of Pittsburgh.
He batted .290 in 1957 and led the team with 172 basehits, equaling his career-high of three years earlier.
Thomas also led with 72 runs scored, 23 homeruns and 89 runs batted in and shared the lead with 30 doubles (with Dick Groat).
In the 1958 season, Thomas batted .281, fourth-best behind Bob Skinner (.321), Dick Groat (.300) and Roberto Clemente (.289).
Thomas led the team with 35 homeruns and 109 runs batted in.
His 35 homeruns were second-best in the National League behind (future Hall of Famer) Ernie Banks and he finished fourth in the voting for Most Valuable Player in the National League.
During the season, Thomas played in his third (and last) All-Star Game.
This year, led by Manager (and former player) Danny Murtaugh in his first full season, Pittsburgh finished in second place in the National League (there were no Divisions back then), its highest standing since 1944.
Murtaugh was a teammate of Thomas in his debut-season 1951.
In January 1959, Pittsburgh traded Frank Thomas to Cincinnati Reds in a deal that included seven players, four from Pittsburgh, three from Cincinnati.
In the eight seasons Thomas played for Pittsburgh, pitcher Bob Friend a teammate of him the entire stay.
A teammate in six seasons was Dick Hall, who initially was an outfielder in the first four seasons, then became a pitcher, who continued to play through 1971.
Other longtime teammates were Roberto Clemente, Gene Freese, Dick Groat, Bob Skinner and pitchers Roy Face, Ron Kline and Vern Law.
Other teammates included Gus Bell, Joe Garagiola, Ted Kluszewski, Johnny Lindel, Dale Long, Jerry Lynch, Bill Mazeroski, Clyde McCullough, George Metkovich, Bill Virdon, Preston Ward and pitchers Murry Dickson and Dick Littlefield.
Clemente was posthumously elected into the Hall of Fame in 1973, Mazeroski in 2001.
In 1959, Frank Thomas played in 108 games in his lone season with Cincinnati Reds.
Due to an injury, he batted only .225 with twelve homeruns and 47 runs batted in.
In this season, he also played in the outfield again regularly, splitting action between third base and leftfield, while also playing at first base in some games.
At Cincinnati, Thomas was re-united with Gus Bell and Jerry Lynch.
Bell had been traded to the team by Pittsburgh in October 1952, Lynch came to Cincinnati in December 1956.
Other teammates included Ed Bailey, Eddie Kasko, Roy McMillan, Joe Nuxhall, Vada Pinson, Frank Robinson, Johnny Temple and pitchers Don Newcombe and Claude Osteen.
Newcombe had been a longtime pitching-ace for Brooklyn Dodgers, before he had joined Cincinnati in 1958.
Osteen later would become an ace for Washington Senators and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Robinson, who also went on to become a Manager, was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1982.
In December 1959, Cincinnati traded Frank Thomas to Chicago Cubs for three players.
In the 1960 season, Thomas was a regular again and played in 135 games for Chicago.
His batting average rose somewhat to .238, belted 21 homeruns and finished with 64 RBI's.
In 1961, Thomas started the season with Chicago, but after having played in only fifteen games, he was traded in early May to Milwaukee Braves (which is the current Atlanta Braves).
In this season, he played the majority of his games again in the outfield.
At Chicago, amongst his teammates were club-legends Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Billy Williams.
Banks played his entire 19-year Major League-career for Chicago Cubs, Santo played for the team in fourteen of his fifteen seasons and Williams did the same in sixteen of his eighteen seasons.
All were inducted into the Hall of Fame, Banks in 1977, Santo in 2012 and Williams in 1987.
Another future Hall of Famer with whom Thomas played at Chicago was Richie Ashburn, who played the majority of his 15-year career for Philadelphia Phillies.
Other teammates included George Altman, Earl Averill, Don Zimmer and pitchers Don Cardwell, Moe Drabowsky and Dick Ellsworth.
Zimmer would become a wellknown Major League-Manager and led Chicago Cubs in four seasons (1988-1991).
Another teammate at Chicago was Jerry Kindall, who was in his fourth of five seasons with the team.
Kindall later became a very successful college-coach.
As Manager of the baseball-team of the University of Arizona, Kindall participated in the 1974 and 1976 Haarlem Baseball Week, winning the international event in Haarlem (Netherlands) in 1976.
Kindall passed away in December 2017.
After being traded by Chicago, Thomas played in the remainder of the 1961 season for Milwaukee Braves, appearing in 124 games, most of them as leftfielder.
He batted .284 with 120 basehits, 25 homeruns and 67 runs batted in.
On June 8, 1961, Frank Thomas became part of baseball-history.
In an away-game at Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee trailed 10-2, but then rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh inning.
These runs were scored on four consecutive homeruns.
This was the first time in history that a team belted four homeruns in a row in one inning.
Frank Bolling led off with a single.
Thereafter, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas all homered.
But it was not enough, as Cincinnati won 10-8.
Again, Thomas played with some legendary players: Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.
These club-legends all played the majority of their long careers for the Braves-organization.
Aaron in 19 of his 21 seasons, Mathews in 15 of his 17 seasons, both when the team played in Milwaukee and Atlanta.
Spahn played in 20 of his 21 seasons for the club when it was located in Boston and Milwaukee.
All three were elected into the Hall of Fame, respectively in 1982, 1978 and 1973.
Other teammates included Joe Adcock, Frank Bolling, Felix Mantilla, Billy Martin, Lee Maye, Roy McMillan, Joe Torre and pitchers Lew Burdette, Tony Cloninger, Moe Drabowsky (who also was a teammate at Chicago), Claude Raymond and Carl Willey.
Martin and Torre both became legendary Major League-Managers.
Torre was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.
After the 1961 season, another transfer followed in the career of Frank Thomas.
In November of that year, the outfielder was traded by Milwaukee to New York Mets, which would make its Major League-debut in 1962.
In the inaugural season of New York, Thomas initially again was a teammate of Gus Bell, with whom he also played at Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds.
Bell was selected by the new club in the expansion draft in 1961.
However, in May of the 1962 season, Bell was sent to Milwaukee Braves as the 'player to be named later' in the Thomas-trade.
Frank Thomas went on to play in two full seasons for New York Mets, before being traded again in 1964.
...Ralph Kiner (right) and Bob Murphy...
...address the attendance on April 5, 1993...
...during New York Mets Opening Day...
...at Shea Stadium, New York (USA)...
...Kiner was a teammate of Thomas...
...at Pittsburgh Pirates in 1951-1953...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
At New York, Thomas was re-united with Ralph Kiner, who had been his teammate at Pittsburgh Pirates in 1951-1953.
Kiner had retired after the 1955 season.
In 1961, he was a broadcaster for Chicago White Sox.
From 1962 on, Kiner was a TV-announcer for New York Mets, together with Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy.
Kiner was New York's broadcaster for 53 seasons through 2013.
In the 2013 season, Kiner was the oldest broadcaster in the Major League at age 90.
Ralph Kiner passed away in 2014 at age 91.
In his first season in New York, Thomas played in 156 of the 161 regular-season games.
New York Mets finished in tenth and last place in the National League (Divisions were introduced in 1969) with a 40-120 record.
One game ended in a tie, as it ended due to a 7 PM curfew-rule.
Thomas batted .266 and collected 152 basehits, including 34 homeruns and batted in 94 runs.
Thomas led the team with his homeruns and runs batted.
His 34 homeruns were the club-record until 1975 when Dave Kingman broke it by hitting 36.
In the 1963 season, Frank Thomas batted .260 with fifteen homeruns.
The following year, he played in 60 games for New York and batted .254, hitting three homeruns.
In its first four seasons, New York Mets was led by legendary Manager Casey Stengel, who retired after the 1965 season.
At that moment, Stengel had been a Manager for 25 years, including thirteen with New York Yankees, with whom he won seven World Series.
Stengel was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1966.
In his first two seasons at New York, Frank Thomas played together with veteran player Gil Hodges, who had played in sixteen seasons for Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, before closing his career with the new Mets-team.
Hodges, who passed away at age 47 in 1972, later became a Manager and he was elected posthumously into the Hall of Fame in December 2021 by the Golden Days Era Committee.
During the 1963 season, two other wellknown players were teammates of Thomas, Jim Piersall and Duke Snider.
Piersall only played part of the season for New York and appeared in 40 games.
Overall, Piersall played in 17 Major League-seasons, most of them for Boston Red Sox.
For Snider, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, this was his first season with a new club after having played in sixteen seasons for Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.
At New York, Thomas also played again together with former teammates Richie Ashburn, Felix Mantillla, Roy McMillan and Don Zimmer.
Amongst his other teammates were Chris Cannizzaro, Chico Fernandez, Jim Hickman, Ron Hunt, Ed Kranepool, Charlie Neal, Joe Pignatano, Norm Sherry, Marv Throneberry, Gene Woodling and pitchers Galen Cisco, Roger Craig and Al Jackson.
Early August 1964, Frank Thomas was traded by New York Mets to Philadelphia Phillies for two players.
In the remainder of that season, he batted .294 with seven homeruns.
In the 1965 season, Thomas played in 35 games for Philadelphia, hitting .260.
But then, another tranfer followed.
...Interview with Frank Thomas by Howie Rose...
(Video: New York Mets) |
On July 3, 1965, before a home-game against Cincinnati Reds, Thomas got into an argument with teammate Dick Allen, which led to a fight.
According to some sources, it was reported that Thomas hit Allen with a bat.
In the game, Allen hit a 3-run homerun, Thomas a pinch-hit solo-homerun.
After the game, Thomas was put on waivers by Philadelphia and a week later, his contract was purchased by Houston Astros.
Amongst his teammates at Philadelphia were Dick Allen, Ruben Amaro, Johnny Callison, Pat Corales, Wes Covington, Clay Dalrymple, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, Dick Stuart, Tony Taylor, Bobby Wine and pitcher Jim Bunning, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996.
After a 17-year Major League-career, Bunning went into politics in his home-state Kentucky and was a Member of the US House of Representatives for twelve years, then a US Senator in the following twelve years.
Wellknown Gene Mauch was the Manager.
Thomas played in 23 games for Houston, hitting .172 with three homeruns and nine runs batted in.
On August 31, Thomas hit two homeruns in a 4-3 win in an away-game against his former New York Mets-team.
These were to be the final homeruns in his long career.
His stay with Houston was shortlived, as he was traded in September to his former team Milwaukee Braves.
Amongst his teammates at Houston were Bob Aspromonte, Ron Brand, Jim Gentile, Bob Lillis, Lee Maye, Rusty Staub, Jim Wynn, future Hall of Famer Joe Morgan (inducted in 1990) and pitchers Danny Coombs, Mike Cuellar, Turk Farrell, Dave Giusti, Claude Raymond and legend Robin Roberts, who was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1976.
In the remainder of the 1965 season, Thomas played in 15 games for Milwaukee Braves, his third team this season.
He batted only .212 and collected seven basehits, including three doubles.
At Milwaukee, Thomas was re-united with Hank Aaron, Frank Bolling, Tony Cloninger, Eddie Mathews, Lee Maye and Joe Torre, with whom he earlier played at Milwaukee.
Other teammates included Sandy Alomar, Felipe Alou, Rico Carty, Ty Cline, Mack Jones, Gene Oliver, Woody Woodward and pitchers Wade Blasingame and Phil Niekro, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.
After the 1965 season, Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta.
On April 5, 1966, a week before the start of the new season, Thomas was released by Atlanta Braves.
A month later, the outfielder was signed by Chicago Cubs, another former team.
Thomas played in only five games for Chicago and was 0-for-5 with one strikeout.
Three weeks after he had signed, Thomas was released on June 4.
He also played in 25 games in Chicago's Triple-A team.
At Chicago, Thomas again played together with Ernie Banks, Dick Ellsworth, Ron Santo and Billy Williams.
Other teammates included Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley, Don Kessinger and pitchers Ken Holtzman and Ferguson Jenkins (Hall of Fame 1991).
In his sixteen Major League-seasons (all in the National League), Frank Thomas played in 1,766 games.
He collected 1,671 basehits, including 286 homeruns and also 262 doubles and 31 triples.
Thomas scored 792 runs and batted in 962 and finished his career with a .266 batting average.
Throughout his career, Frank Thomas played with several legendary players and future Hall of Famers.
But he also became a legendary and powerful player himself.
Thomas has always been known for voicing his opinions, whether it was regarding salaries, arguing with club-management or other things.
After his career had ended, Thomas remained involved in baseball.
As he lived in the Pitttsburgh-area, Thomas played in several Old Timer Games of Pittsburgh Pirates, but also attended activities of New York Mets.
In August last year, Frank Thomas participated in the 60th anniversary the inaugural season of the club during Mets Old Timers' Day Weekend.
Frank Thomas also regularly was a guest instructor of coach.
For instance in 1983 when Netherlands big league-club Amsterdam Pirates organized its first edition of the Amsterdam Baseball Series, which was an international (youth)tournament in which the Netherlands B-Team also was one of the participating teams.
Also one of the participating teams was Little Pirates, a team with young and talented players that was associated with the Pittsburgh Major League-club and also played in the same uniforms.
During the tournament in Amsterdam, Frank Thomas was the Hitting Coach of Little Pirates, which was nicknamed 'Baby Bucs'.
When other games were played, Thomas mostly was standing behind the backstop, observing the players of the other participating (American) teams.
Little Pirates won the tournament by outscoring the Netherlands B-Team with scores of 9-4 and 6-3.
Travis Williams, President of Pittsburgh Pirates, said in a statement on its website:
,,Frank was proud to call the city of Pittsburgh home not only as a member of the Pirates but also as a person who spent his entire life here.
He was also a proud family man who was always involved with our alumni association events.''
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to the family and friends of Frank Thomas and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(January 20)
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