Sorry Walker...here's my favorite Texas Ranger

I was in a meeting last week when, no joke, someone said…“there’s a reason why it is called the ‘Midsummer Classic’ and it isn’t because it is played in February”.

Dumb statement? Perhaps.

But it wasn’t long after I heard that, that I realized that we were indeed on the cusp of being deluged with All-Star game hype.

Who is in?

Who is out?

Is it wrong to want to see Ken Griffey, Jr. out there for what might be one last time?

All valid topics of conversation and every single one of them was answered this past Sunday when the teams were announced a la the NCAA brackets. I mean, do we really need an All-Star Selection Show?

The answer is “no”…but I digress.

By now, we all know that this is the last All-Star game at “Historic Yankee Stadium”, the Tampa Bay Rays have no starters, Junior fell out of favor over the past week and Jason Varitek is somehow going to be part of the festivities.

All of those are stories that we’re going to hear ad nauseam, but there is going to be one name that we’re likely going to get sick of hearing by this time next week.

Josh Hamilton.

I know, I know…he is a former number one overall pick, struggled with injuries and drug addiction, was out of baseball for a few years and is now back living up to the expectations everyone had of him ten years ago.

I get it…it is a nice story.

All that aside, there is one tidbit about Hamilton that I took notice of…he is the first Texas Ranger outfielder to start an All-Star game since Juan Gonzalez in 1998 and only the third Ranger outfielder (Gary Matthews, Jr. was the other) to be selected in the last twenty years.

That’s not terrible company considering Gonzalez left his own injury filled career sandwiched between ANOTHER Junior, Cal Ripken, and should be Hall of Famer Andre Dawson on the all-time home run leader list.

That’s right, Gonzalez quietly finished his career with 434 bombs…good for 37th all-time. Matter of fact, including Dawson…there are only four Hall eligible players (Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Dave Kingman are the others) with MORE home runs than “Juan Gone”.

Drafted at 16 and taking his first Major League cuts at 19, Gonzalez was considered by many to be the best Puerto Rican baseball player since Roberto Clemente...and he could have been. Here was a slugger whose numbers at the plate seemed to mirror those of Griffey, Jr. but never did he garner the adoration “The Kid” received.

Starting in 1992, and setting the 1994 strike year aside, Gonzalez had 35 or more home runs in seven out of nine seasons. From 1992 to 2001, Gonzalez hit 365 home runs out of the yard...Griffey sent 400 packing.

Imagine if Gonzalez would have stayed healthy!

Here is a guy who MISSED twenty or more games in all but FOUR seasons in his seventeen year career. At the time, “Juan Gone” made Junior look durable!

In 1996, Gonzalez won the first of his two MVP awards with a career high .643 slugging percentage, .314 average, 144 RBI and a staggering 47 home runs. And why are 47 home runs staggering considering that it was only fifth best in the American League? Gonzalez sat out close to 30 games and STILL led the Rangers to the playoffs.

His impact was THAT great.

In the 1996 ALDS, Gonzalez tied Jeffrey Leonard's 1987 NLCS record by homering in four straight post-season games and joined Reggie Jackson and Griffey as the only players to hit five home runs in a single post-season series.

Two years later, Gonzalez once again brought home some hardware by hitting .316, 50 doubles, 45 home runs and knocking in 157 runs. Unfortunately, this MVP season was all but ignored on the national stage given McGwire and Sammy Sosa delighting the world with their best Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle impersonation.

But yet again, the Rangers lost to the Yankees in the playoffs and “Igor” was pretty much a shadow of his 1996 postseason self barely hitting my dog’s weight….083.

But if postseason play means anything (and it probably doesn't in this case), Gonzalez's four-year peak, contributed to the only three postseason appearances in the Rangers' history and he also contributed greatly to the Indians' 2001 division championship.

Juan Gonzalez was pretty much an RBI machine throughout the 1990s.

Eight times, Gonzalez knocked in more than 100 runs and for his career, he knocked in a hefty 1404…more than Hall of Famers Orlando Cepeda, Johnny Bench, Duke Snider and only ten less than McGwire. Along with McGwire, there are only seven players eligible for the Hall that have more RBI than Juan Gonzalez.

In 1998, his 101 RBI at the All-Star break was the second most in history. Hank Greenberg had 103 at the intermission of the 1935 season. By comparison, the afore mentioned Josh Hamilton is leading the free world this year with 85 RBI…twenty more than the next closest hitter in the American League.

But let’s get back to McGwire (and I do so ONLY because there is that faction out there that believes he should be enshrined) and compare him to Gonzalez.

As I’ve said before…take away McGwire’s home run total and you’re basically left with nothing. Compared to Gonzalez, “Big Mac” has roughly 500 more plate appearances, but 300 less hits. “Juan Gone” finished just shy of 2000 for his career…McGwire had 1626.

Gonzalez bests McGwire in career batting average (.295 compared to .263), but does far short in both on base percentage and slugging (.343 and .561 versus .394 and .588).

McGwire blows Gonzalez out of the water with his OPS+, but honestly, he has 150 more home runs…he should. Gonzalez’s 132 OPS+ is better than Hall of Fame sluggers Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray and Carl Yastrzemski though.

When Cooperstown comes a callin’ (and I’m suggesting that maybe the writers take a longer look at Juan Gonzalez than they did, say, Albert Belle), it’ll be easy to dismiss him considering some of the talent he played against, the era he played in (his teammates at one time in Texas DID include Jose Caseco and Rafael Palmeiro) and the fact that he played in the Lone Star State for a majority of his career. He had one great year outside of Arlington, but outside of that…the guy is one of the best Texas Rangers to ever walk this Earth.

Sorry Walker.

Is it the end?

"22 years ago June the Boston Red Sox picked a Freshman Pitcher from Yavapai Junior College (the best JC team in the nation btw!) in the 2nd round of the (Last!) January Draft. 3 World Series rings, 3k innings plus later, there’s a chance it’s all over."

THAT is what greeted Red Sox Nation when they logged on to Curt Schilling's website this morning.

Admittedly, when I read earlier in the week that Schill's rehab had reached a "plateau"...I was optimistic. I mean, here's a guy who seemingly has looked career ending injuries in the face and much like how he treated the 2001 (or 2004 for that matter) Yankees, did what he always has done...he threw the ball.

Hard.

Schilling has met nearly every challenge put in front of him and I had no reason to think that this one would be any different. I wrote the following last October...PRIOR to Game Two of the Red Sox-Rockies game. I think it is a fine time to relive it...whether Curt's career over or not.

Curt Schilling was scheduled to take the bump. Prior to the 2004 season, Schill was brought in to do EXACTLY what Josh Beckett was brought in to do a couple years later. HOWEVER…the media, for some reason, was pretty much writing him off. Apparently his blood soaked star had fallen.

Memo to newswriters...Schilling was Josh Beckett BEFORE Beckett was Beckett.

He was the NLCS MVP in 1993 with the Philadelphia Phillies. Almost ten years later (in 2001), he followed it up by being named the World Series Co-MVP alongside Randy Johnson. I won’t even mention the “bloody sock” (maybe) or his postseason winning percentage.

Curt is good…DAMN good.

That being said, is he Hall of Fame good?

My buddy E talks about the “smell test”. Does a player pass the Hall of Fame smell test? If so, you look deeper and see whether or not he is worthy. EXAMPLE: a guy like Tim Raines smelled like a Hall of Famer at one point…now he smells of Kenny Lofton. Since we’re talking lead off hitters (for some reason) a Rickey Henderson smells like fine wine aged to perfection.

That being said…Schilling smells like a rose.

216 victories, 3116 strikeouts, FOUR top five finishes in the Cy Young voting, six All-Star games…not too shabby for a kid out of Anchorage, Alaska. When it comes to his strikeout to walk ratio…only one pitcher was better and he last toed the rubber in 1884. He died, ironically enough, in Boston.

All that said…if you look closer, Schilling, like Raines, doesn’t smell as good as you would initially think.

True, his postseason stats are phenomenal…but you can’t induct him on that alone. Sure, they warrant mention, but induction based SOLELY on that…um, no. If so…open the doors to Bernie Williams, Cooperstown!

216 wins, while impressive, only ranks him eighth among all active pitchers. Four of the seven ahead of him on the list (Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson) are WAY ahead and certain Hall of Famers. The other three (Mike Mussina, David Wells and Jamie Moyer) couldn’t pass the “smell test” if they carried Pedro Martinez around in a headlock.

Add to the 216 wins that Schilling’s win percentage is .597 and you’ve got, over the span of his career, a very good pitcher…not a great one.

Strikeouts. Schilling’s four years of 290-plus Ks are crazy good. Of the 13 pitchers with MORE than Schilling’s 3116, only Bert Blyleven is not in the Hall, while Unit, Clemens and Maddux will surely go in when the time comes. Consider that 1228 of his strikeouts came in the afore mentioned four 290-plus years, and that he’s only got ONE 200 K season outside of that…the 3116 seems kinda suspect.

What I’m saying is this…give me 12 to 15 years of 200 or more strikeouts and I’d be MORE impressed than Curt’s five years of 200-plus scattered over a twenty year span.

I liken to Schilling to Sandy Koufax…kinda. Both of their legend has been based on a handful of select years. Koufax, however, did his in consecutive years at the end of his career before he fell victim to an arthritic wing.

Schilling spread his out over a couple of decades.

He was a stud in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2004 (an 83-30 record and 1031 Ks)…but that was about it. You COULD make an argument that outside of the win/loss record (8-9), Schilling was on his way to a GREAT 2003 season before he got injured...which happened WAY too often.

Curt was, undoubtedly, MUCH better over the second half of his career compared to the first. Hell, he’d even agree to that and he doesn’t like ANY of the unfavorable press he gets!

Koufax, over his last four seasons, notched a 97-27 record and 1228 strikeouts. So, yeah, not EXACTLY the same, but Sandy had nearly 200 more innings pitched than Curt.

Watching Curt Schilling work, he carries himself like a sure-bet Hall of Famer who is winding down a great career…but so did Jack Morris. Putting him into perspective, he starts to come across like many of the pitchers that have made it into the Hall over the last 20 years…he’s a guy with some longevity, a handful of years of greatness and some postseason success. And that's not a TERRIBLE thing...just ask Don Sutton, Phil Niekro or Gaylord Perry.

Arguably, he wasn’t always the best pitcher on his staff and only a few times would he have been considered one of the most dominant pitchers in the league. He never brought home the hardware that Cooperstown LOVES to look at (a la Robin Yount’s TWO MVP awards), but he was solid. He has a respectable ERA (3.46) a couple of World Series rings and is a great character.

First ballot guy…probably not. He’ll be competing (potentially) with the likes Clemens, Maddux and Glavine as far as starting pitchers go. Take into account that there will be a slew of position players also vying for their enshrinement and it might take Schilling a while to get through the doors.

Let me know what you think…how does Schilling smell? Does he pass the test or just get tossed aside like some bloody, old sweatsock?!?

***Note: In October when I first asked "is Curt Schilling a first ballot Hall of Famer?" here were the results...Yes-10%, No-90.***

It finally happened, kids!

I'll admit it, I thought it was pretty cool last year when Jim Thome, Frank Thomas and Alex Rodriguez all hit number 500, but in the past two weeks…we witnessed, arguably, something more impressive.

Of course I am talking about Manny Ramirez quietly hitting number 500 and, finally, Ken Griffey, Jr. doing what we’ve been waiting for for the last twelve years…hitting home run number 600.

Since he reached his milestone first…we’ll talk about Ramirez first.

Manny has quietly been one of the best (if not THE best) hitters in the game for each of his fifteen seasons. Considering he’s NEVER hit less than .290 in any full season that he’s played (incidentally, Ramirez has the fourth highest career batting average of anyone in the 500 Club)...I’m not sure why he gets such a bad rap.

Tell me it is because he’s a bad fielder and I’ll tell you that if I can get a guy with the potential to hit 40 home runs, knock in 120, hit .320 AND allow my team to get an equally dangerous bat in the lineup at DH…and I’ll take his fielding every day of the week.

Tell me he’s a bad teammate and I’ll point out the watch he gave Dustin Pedroia for winning the American League Rookie of the Year last year.

Tell me the guy is flighty and I’d agree. I’ll follow it up by reminding you that he is durable, keeps his mouth shut, absolutely a monster in the clutch AND certain to be the first dreadlocked player in Cooperstown.

Now…on to the other guy.

Unless you lived under a rock, you know that Ken Griffey, Jr. became the sixth player to hit 600 home runs. Of course, as mentioned before…you would have been hard pressed to find substantial press leading up to it.

Maybe the mainstream media was keeping it “hush hush” so Junior wouldn’t be jinxed. Maybe they just forgot about “The Kid”.

Junior’s list of accomplishments are sick and I could go on and on…but I’ll leave that to SportsCenter. They’ve spent the last couple of weeks NOT building up to number 600…perhaps now they can spend some time appreciating it.

Take his durability out of the conversation, and you really can’t come up with a reason to NOT call him one of the best all around players of the last 20 years.

Of the other 23 members of the 500 Club, Griffey’s .289 career average is better than Eddies Murray and Mathews, Willie McCovey and eight others.

His 1729 RBI puts him eleventh among those with more than 500 bombs. Compare him to contemporaries Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and they pale in comparison.

Remarkably, the once slender Griffey hit 40 or more home runs in seven seasons. Memo to world…Frank Robinson did it once, Reggie Jackson twice.

Junior will bring a ton of Gold Gloves with him to Cooperstown as well…ten to be exact. He won one EVERY year in the 90s and among the others in the 500 Club, only Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt have as many.

Put both Ramirez and Griffey together and you’ve got a duo that rivals very few that have played at the same time. We’re living in a fortunate age right now…let’s hope it stays this way for some time.

Reminder...the Kid is good

***Note: E is back. Check out his normal ramblings HERE!***

It must be the Year of Apathy in baseball.

First, you have Frank Thomas, the greatest player to ever call himself a DH gets shuffled around so much in a week that no one knows (or cares) what team he plays for.

Then, Mike Piazza, possibly the greatest hitting catcher ever, retires, and no one notices.

Now, Ken Griffey, Jr., the player with the greatest potential in the history of baseball, gets within a home run of 600, something only five (six if you care to count Sosa, and I don't) players have done, and no one outside of Cincinnati seems to care. I think part of the problem may be that I don't think people realize that Junior is still playing.

No one noticed when Sosa passed 600 for the same reason.

And while these would appear to be similar cases of inflated number apathy, they're not. Sosa is, well, frankly, a dirty player. You don't go from a guy who hit 60 home runs in his entire tenure with the White Sox and Rangers to a guy who hit nothing but 60 home runs a year with the Cubs without being dirty.

When asked before Congress if he had used steroids, he replied, "F*** GASPAR GOMEZ AND F*** THE F***ING DIAZ BROTHERS! F*** 'EM ALL!!" He may not have actually said that, but it's more entertaining than the "No hablo Ingles" bit he actually used. This from a guy who, two years earlier, got suspended for using a corked bat.

That is one shifty mother.

Junior, on the other hand, has always had a clean record.

He's never been named in any of the random gossip that seems to implicate players on a weekly basis. Everything Junior has done appears to be due to talent, not only as a hitter, but as a fielder, having won a Gold Glove every year of the '90s. Here's a kid who may legitimately have been the best player in baseball.

Then he got traded to Cincinnati...and hasn't played a full season yet.

He became so injury-prone that he makes Mark McGwire look like a picture of health. And he has not gotten healthier, becoming seemingly more brittle (and fatter) with each injury. This for a guy who's only 38 years old.

And it's these injuries that have been happening on a yearly basis for nearly a decade that make us forget what a great player Griffey is/was. I don't think anyone knows when he's actually playing. Even though he played most of the season last year (having gotten his injury out of the way before the season started), I think most people forget that he's closing in on some milestones because they don't know if he's in baseball anymore.

I myself had taken for granted that he might not be injured and didn't know he was playing until I heard about the "599" thing. I also think that, because it's been nearly a decade since Griffey was any kind of force in baseball, people forget how good Griffey used to be.

Despite losing at least three seasons worth of games to injury, his numbers already make a strong case for the Hall of Fame. No where near as good as, say, someone like Hank Aaron's numbers, but consider that while Aaron played three more years than Griffey currently has, he had 3300+ more at bats. Give Griffey that many more at bats and consider what his stats might look like.

Yeah: Kid's a monster.

But, his stats being what they are, he is closing in on some milestones. He's 275 RBI from 2000, something only three other players have done. He's 395 hits from 3000. And he's got that whole home run thing, too.

Crossing my fingers, I'm hoping Griffey can make it through the rest of the year (and his career) uninjured.

He's been healthy thus far. And, he is only 38.

A lot of these records are within reach. I just hope he can get to them.

Oh, and in baseball related post-script to this story, earlier here in the Hall, Jesus was quick to give out this year's Bo Diaz Award to John Marzano. I think he's going to regret his choice when hears about what happened to Geremi Gonzalez, the pitcher who broke Sosa's corked bat.

That's a Bo Diaz winner if I've ever seen one!

Stay classy, San Francisco

Perhaps they learned from their mistakes last Fall (doubtful) or maybe they just like Omar Vizquel better (probable)...but the San Francisco Giants handled Omar Vizquel's record setting accomplishment yesterday like champs.

When Vizquel was inserted into the lineup against the Florida Marlins...he trotted out to shortstop like he had 2,582 times before. But this time, he stood alone. Metaphorically AND literally.

The spotlight was his to savor and he was saluted.

Now, and only because Vizquel is in the news, the debate will surely begin as to whether or not Sheik Omar is a lock for the Hall of Fame. I've stated MY case, but with the throng of other candidates surely to be up for consideration at the same time Vizquel comes due...the outlook is murky when you look at the first ballot.

One point to ponder...EVERY player that leads their position in games played is in the Hall of Fame sans two. Omar...obviously.

The other?

Barry Lamar Bonds.

What's the talk at YOUR water cooler?

Wow!

It seems like you can’t turn on one of the evening sportscasts without seeing something that sparks some sort of discussion. Can you remember a time in your life where every night you can go to bed knowing exactly what the water cooler fodder is going to be the next day?

I can’t.

From the tragedy at the Kentucky Derby to the Chicago Bulls miraculously getting the ping pong ball to drop their way in the NBA Draft Lottery…the sportsworld gives us something every day. Just the other night, Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox continued his remarkable return from cancer to hurl a no-hitter!

Plenty of people will point out the obvious...Red Sox pitchers have thrown the last two no-hitters (Clay Buchholz threw one last September), but I’ll go with the less traveled path with my water cooler talk.

By CALLING Lester’s no-no, Jason Varitek has now caught the most no-hitters in baseball history and, for the second time, they happened in back to back years. Hideo Nomo threw his in 2001…Derek Lowe matched the feat in 2002.

When it is all said and done, this will be an interesting (but forgotten) footnote on Varitek’s career. And while he is a good signal caller, the ONLY thing Varitek will have on Hall of Famers Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra is this odd distinction.

And since we're talking catchers…allow me to add some fuel to the fire when I suggest that recent retirement of Mike Piazza will continue to go virtually unnoticed.

By why?

Piazza was arguably the BEST hitting catcher in the game when he played ans possibly of all time. Of his peers, only Ivan Rodriguez can hold a candle to Piazza’s accomplishments at the plate. Sure, “Pudge” has an MVP award (Piazza finished in the top ten seven of his first eight seasons)…but there really is no comparison between the two.

But just how good, er, great was Mike Piazza?

You’d have to have your head under a rock to NOT know that he is the all-time leader in homeruns as a catcher. Piazza hit 396 of his 427 in games where he was behind the plate. Carlton Fisk has 351. Johnny Bench…326.

But what about the other offensive numbers?

The batting averages of the last three catchers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (Bench, Fisk and Gary Carter) come in at .267, .269 and .262. Piazza…a cool .308.

Piazza arguably had one of the best hitting seasons as a catcher in 1997 when he hit .362 with 40 homeruns and 124 RBI.

I think this is also where I am suppose to point out that Bench, Fisk and Carter combined for one season where they hit over .300 and qualified for the batting title.

Piazza hit higher than .300 in nine straight seasons and finished in the top five in batting average in four of those. Add in the ten straight silver slugger awards and the fact that he is one of only six players who have 400 career homeruns, a .300 average while never striking out more than 100 times in a season and you’ve got a special hitter.

The guy was an All-Star twelve out of thirteen years and elected by the fans to start ten of them, but still, there seems to be no love for Mike Piazza.

The guy is the ultimate underdog story...people SHOULD love that.

In 1988, the then first baseman Piazza was the last player the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted…in the 62nd round! As the story goes, the mercy pick was done as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, a close friend of Piazza's father. I guess after 1389 OTHER players are selected, you’re allowed to get a little punchy and make some crazy moves.

For the record, I found two other notable players that have gone 1390th or later…Juan Pierre and Mark Mulder.

Pierre was actually drafted three different times by three different teams. In 1996, he was picked 1406, but after it was all said and done, he was selected 390th two years later.

Mulder is a different story. Like Piazza, Mulder played firstbase when he was drafted 1456th out of high school. Unlike Piazza (who vowed to switch to catcher if drafted), Mulder switched to pitcher full time and was taken second overall in 1998 and after a career at Michigain State.

Piazza was superstar on both coasts by playing both with the Dodgers and the New York Mets. Ask anyone if there was a player who managed to win over both cities like Piazza did and, like me, I’m sure they’d be hard pressed to come up with a name off the top of their head. No doubt his five games with the Florida Marlins in 1998 failed to set South Beach ablaze. Haha.

So, like Frank Thomas…why no Piazza love?

I mean, typically, when one of the best players of their time retires, they get some press, Piazza got next to none. I guess we get to wait five years to see how well the sports writers remember him...as the greatest catcher of all-time or as the recipient of that famous Roger Clemens bat toss.

Oh yeah, should he not come back...Clemens will be eligible for the Hall the same year as Piazza and there isn't a snowball's chance I'd be missing either of those speeches.

Ain't irony a bitch?

***Note: Based on the "Is Mike Piazza a first ballot Hall of Famer" poll that was on the page...93% of you said yes.***

Does anyone REALLY care? If not...why?!?

Living just outside of the Windy City…I get inundated with news about the White Sox and Cubs whether I want to hear it or not. Problem is, unlike most of the people I associate with…I DON’T want to hear about them.

Ever.

That was until, once again, Sox manager Ozzie Guillen opened his mouth for his semi-annual attempt to “distract the sports writers from noticing how terrible my team is with the promise that I’ll say something more stupid than I did the last time.” You see…it’s almost like Daylight Saving Time. Like clockwork, it happens twice a year, but it feels like much more than that.

I mean, you ever have those days where it feels like you got an hour less of sleep? You never quite recover…do ya?

I digress.

Last week, in the wake of the much ballyhooed sex doll debacle at US Cellular Field, Guillen opened his mouth, did his best Lee Elia impersonation and out came this little gem…“we’re the Chicago bitch”.

He figures that on the Chicago landscape, his team plays second fiddle to the “Lovable Losers”. According to Guillen, a team that hasn’t won squat in 100 years is better off than one that took home the trophy in 2005.

And he’s right.

People are absolutely stupid for the Cubs…not so much for the White Sox. Not only are they the Rodney Dangerfield of the Chicago sports scene…but, as it seems, Major League Baseball as well. Think about it, unless they are playing some of the primetime regulars (Yankees, Red Sox or Indians), you’d be hard pressed to find the Second City’s second favorite team get much play on either FOX, ESPN or TBS.

Hell…I don’t even know if White Sox even respect THEMSELVES or their own history!

One player that more than exemplifies this notion is Frank Thomas. And as a friend recently pointed out to me…“Thomas is the best player to ever play for the Sox and they probably won’t even retire his number.”

But why?

Before the “Pale Hose” envoked the horseshit “diminished skills” clause following their Championship run in 2005…the “Big Hurt” was already one of a very, very elite group of players.

Currently, Thomas is one of FOUR players to have a .300 average, 500 home runs, 1500 RBIs, 1000 runs and 1500 walks during their career. Who are the other three? Mel Ott, Ted Williams and Babe Ruth…not too shabby.

Matter of fact, Thomas has a handful of goofball records like that…records that no one REALLY knows how to put into context.

• Thomas is the ONLY player in baseball history to have seven consecutive seasons of a .300 average, 100 runs, 100 RBI, 20 home runs and at least 100 walks.


• He was the seventh member of the .300 average and 500 home run club.


• There are only six players with more home runs and a higher career average than Thomas.


• Thomas is one of six players to have amassed 1600 walks and 500 home runs.


• Thomas was the first player to win two silver slugger awards each at two different positions.


• My favorite…Thomas is the ONLY player to hit more than 90 sacrifice flies (he has 120) and not collect a single sacrifice hit.

The kicker (and perhaps the biggest knock AGAINST Frank Thomas)…Thomas is the all-time record holder for home runs by a designated hitter. Coincidently, it is former teammate Harold Baines who, while he has more than 2800 hits…gets SLAMMED for having been a DH for most of his career.

Okay, so we know (or at least we’ve been told) how good Frank Thomas WAS. His stats stack up favorably to some old school Hall of Famers that we’ve all heard of…but frankly, they are merely footnotes in history.

Who here actually saw Mel Ott play? How about Jimmie Foxx?!? Case rested.

So, let’s talk about how good the “Big Hurt” IS.

You know that “Thomas is the ONLY player in baseball history to have seven consecutive seasons of a .300 average, 100 runs, 100 RBI, 20 home runs and at least 100 walks” I referenced earlier? Well, Thomas did this to START his career AND it includes the strike shortened season of 1994. Surely SOMEONE has had to come close to this feat, right?

Actually…yes, and his name is Albert Pujols.

Yes, THAT Albert Pujols who is seemingly EVERYWHERE right now. Minus the walks (Pujols doesn’t have the knack to frustrate pitchers like Thomas does) and one season where he had 99 runs scored…we’ve got virtually identical players at the plate.

That is…for their first seven seasons, which is all Pujols has on the books.

Both finished in the top ten in MVP voting each of those seven seasons. Thomas brought home two awards…Pujols one. All in all…Thomas has nine top ten finishes.

Let’s get back to the numbers.

Going into this season, Pujols had 4054 at bats. At the same point in HIS career, Thomas had 3821…but remember the walks, people. Pujols does have the edge in runs (847 to 785), hits (1344 to 1261), home runs (282 to 257), RBI (861 to 854) and average (.332 to .330), but one could argue that we’re in more of a power era that 1991 to 1997 when Thomas was in his heyday.

As an aside (and I am not insinuating in the least that Pujols touched “the juice”), look at Thomas when he broke in and look at him now…he’s pretty much the same size…a far cry from Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi. Here’s a guy was the ONLY active baseball player interviewed for the Mitchell Report.

He was so sure of his cleanliness…he did so voluntarily.

Why is Frank Thomas so forgotten? Is it because he was mostly used as a DH?

Possibly.

But the idea is to help your team win ballgames, right? Thomas did just that…and did it better than a LARGE percentage of the players ever to put on the cleats.

So again…why is Thomas forgotten?

Fifteen years ago, I would have said that Thomas got lost in the fanfare surrounding Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Simply put…he just didn’t have “it”. Fast forward to today…David Ortiz has a hard time stringing together more than a few words of broken English, yet he has more endorsement deals than I can count.

Outside of a 1995 Super Nintendo game, I couldn’t tell you one other time that I saw Frank Thomas being celebrated and as I referenced in the first line of this diatribe, I do live near the belly of the beast…the city that gave us the Rodney Dangerfield of Major League Baseball.

So what is it?

If it isn’t the accolades, the plethora of numbers or odd assortment of accomplishments, it can only be one thing…nobody cares about the White Sox.

***Note: Based on the "Is Frank Thomas a Hall of Famer" poll that was on the page...87% of you think "first ballot all the way". I agree.***

I'm late in saying it, but baseball is back, baby!

We’re three weeks into it, but the new baseball season is here.

Finally.

And, like a broken record, I was getting the same old advice about what to write about. Sure, “The Hall” has been dormant for a while (sorry, troops), but I don’t know that anyone has been paying attention to what I am writing when I hear comments like “you should make your predictions for the upcoming season” or “give me some tips as to who should I pick in my fantasy league”.

Fact of the matter is this…I make NO predictions (Red Sox over the Dodgers) and I’ve never legitimately finished first in any fantasy league I’ve take part in.

Ever.

So what to write about? Any knucklehead with a keyboard can bang out some reference to John Mayer doing play by play in Japan.

But I won’t.

Frank Thomas being released by the Blue Jays

Too easy…but it’s probably coming.

Me? I’m going the introspective route.

March 31 was the OFFICIAL beginning of Spring. It wasn’t March 21 like the calendars say. And it sure as Hell wasn’t when baseball trotted out its latest multi-cultural money maker last week. To me, those are both “Hallmark Holidays”.

For me, the minute that first pitch is thrown in Cincinnati marks the beginning of Spring.

Now, I realize that that might not be the most popular thing I’ve said (and for the record…this was), but along the way, I’ve been called plenty of names. Most of them are warranted…some not. Either way, everyone has a right to their opinion. But of all the names that have been hurled my way, there is one I don’t mind.

Contrarian.

Basically, a contrarian is a person who deliberately goes against the popular opinion. I’m not about to say I go against the grain on purpose…but there are definitely a few good examples of why people have hurled this moniker my way.

I’m a tried and true Star Wars dork, but I have ZERO desire to ever watch ANY of the Lord of the Rings movies.

I went to college in the 90s, yet loathe the Dave Matthews Band.

The kicker to most...I grew up in Illinois and I HATE the Chicago Cubs.

Wrigley Field, the little “c” on their hats, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and the fact that they call themselves the “Lovable Losers”…they all get my goat (reference intended). I do find it endearing, however, that while Boston overwhelmingly embraced the arrival of Daisuke Matsuzaka…the “Lovable Losers” have these shirts available just outside the “Friendly Confines” to celebrate Kosuke Fukudome.

Blarg.

There are some Cubs I HAVE liked however.

Nomar (naturally, but I would never consider him a “Cub”), Andre Dawson, Leon Durham and for some reason…Lee Arthur Smith.

I mean, here was a guy that when he entered the game…you knew it was over. Sure, he’d give you a heart attack every now and again, but ultimately, he’d pick up the save and Cub fans could rejoice as the “W” flag was hoisted high above Wrigleyville.

Recently, we’ve seen a handful of closers make their way to Cooperstown…so why shouldn’t that trend continue with Lee Smith? It’s almost like he’s the forgotten closer out there.

But I’m not sure why.

Right now, Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader. Truth is, he was the first one to 500 and every time he nails down another…it gets mentioned on SportsCenter. But before Hoffman was the all-time leader…Smith was.

For 13 years.

Oh…and his 478 saves dwarfs the 310 and 300 that recent Hall inductees Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter notched.

But Smith must have been a one inning pitcher…guys like Goose consistently earned his saves by going two or more innings. I mean, that was what we heard last year when Gossage was knocking on the door of the Hall, right?

Well…so did Smith.

At the start of his career, Smith had a stretch of more than 830 innings pitched compared to 592 games played. That’s 83 or more innings pitched in eight of nine years. Three years in a row, he eclipsed 100 or more innings.

By comparison, a guy like Hoffman has seven years where he has pitched fewer innings than the number of games he’s appeared in. Actually, aside from Mariano Rivera…that seems to be the trend of many of the big name closers out there today.

Here’s a fun one for ya…raise your hand if you knew Lee Smith held the record for most games finished in his career.

No one?

Hoffman is second, nearly 70 behind Smith (737 to 802)…but after that, Rivera (664) and Billy Wagner (608) are the only two ACTIVE players within 200 games finished of Smith.

Speaking of closing out games (and getting back to saves), Smith had thirteen years where he tallied 25 or more saves. Hoffman did it 12 out of 13 years (he was injured for most of 2003). Gossage and Sutter each had seven seasons TOTAL with 25 or more.

It is relatively common now, but in 1987, Smith became only the second pitcher EVER (Dan Quisenberry was the first) to reach 30 or more saves in four consecutive seasons. When it came to closing out games in the early 90s…Smith and Dennis Eckersley were by far the most dependable and durable pair out there.

And we all know where Eckersley’s career ended up.

The big knock on Smith is his ERA. People will complain up and down that the big fella gave up WAY too many runs to be considered for the Hall of Fame. They’ll suggest that a Hall worthy closer needs to have a microscopic ERA before they’ll even consider them. Sutter had a career ERA of 2.83, Rollie Fingers...2.90. Right ahead of Smith's career ERA of 3.03 is Gossage and his 3.01, so you can see that Lee isn't necessarily that far off the mark.

Another fun fact (thanks Wikipedia) that makes Smith a fun conversation piece is this...he is one of a small percentage of players (the list of pitchers is even smaller) to have their first big league hit be a home run. Also on that list…Hall of Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm. Smith hit his off of Hall of Famer Phil Niekro…no clue who surrendered the Wilhelm dinger. Suffice it to say, they were the only two longballs the pair managed.

So, here we have Smith…a seven time All-Star, three times a top five finisher in the Cy Young Award voting. Will he make the Hall? He looks like a longshot when compared to the guys who dominate the highlights on a nightly basis, but I don’t think you can discredit him.

Even by looking at the votes he's gotten, he's on pace with what Sutter and Gossage did before him. Sutter was on the ballot 13 years before he got in and in his first year of eligibility...he only garnered 23% of the vote. Gossage wasn't much better. Nine years on the ballot, he ranged from the initial 33% to the eventual 85% he got last year. Smith has been on six years and hit the ballot strong with a 36% showing. This past year, he climbed to his highest total...45%. Remember, it only takes three-fourths of the writers to vote for you to get in and Sutter eeked by at 76%.

Compared to his contemporaries (which is what you MUST do when discussing the Hall of Fame), Smith stacks up statistically…he belongs in the conversation. Hell, he belongs right there at the beginning of the discussion, but the problem is, Smith has been the victim of so many modern day players…through free agency, he lost his identity.

It is MUCH easier for the casual fan to embrace a player who toes the same rubber from year to year a la Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. But then again…if you are going to spend eight years with the Cubs and only be part of ONE winning ballclub, you can’t blame a guy.

I mean…who REALLY wants to be known as a lifelong “Loveable Loser”?

***Note: Based on the "Is Lee Smith a Hall of Famer" poll that was on the page...70% of you think he is.***