Retired Chicago White Sox legend Frank Thomas is an MLB analyst for Fox Sports 1 and Comcast SportsNet Chicago. As Thomas enters the Hall of Fame today, CSN Chicago presented a documentary on the extraordinary career and life of Frank Thomas.
Narrated by radio host and lifelong White Sox fan Richard Roeper, “Welcome to Cooperstown: Frank Thomas” premiered Thursday, July 17. I originally did a preview on this documentary, which got a whopping 17 page views! 17!!! For the greatest player in White Sox history, going into the Hall of Fame. ย Tells you everything you need to know about how White Sox content, or baseball content in general, does on the web. When you consider that my site got 38,000 page views the day that I ran it, and the site in general gets 20,000 page views a day.
The documentary contains exclusive, candid interviews with Thomas, as well as interviews with numerous baseball luminaries that discuss โThe Big Hurtโsโ massive impact on the sport. Here are a couple choice soundbites:
Frank Thomas on being passed up in the MLB Draft:
โNot getting drafted out of high school was the worst moment of my life at that time because I knew that I was much better than pretty much half that draft. It was a lot of guys I played with in high school. A lot of guys got drafted. I want to say seven, eight, nine guys got drafted and I felt like I was the best player in the state. Most of the scouts played off, โOh, youโre just a football player playing baseball.โ I took it serious because I knew what I had to give for baseball.”
“They could have signed me out of high school for a dozen baseballs and a couple fungos. I was taking it hard because I wanted to play baseball. But, thank god I had the focus and the desire and the ability to play another sport. Football was my second sport, but it was really my first sport because all the big schools were recruiting me to play football. I just made that decision. My dad (Frank Sr.) told me, he said โHey, we got a full ride to Auburn, letโs go be a football player and walk onto the baseball team later.โ
He was right and that fire was burnt there that I was going to be the best football player I could beโฆand it turned out that going that extra yard for football made me a much better baseball player.โ
Frank Thomas on the winning the MVP award in 1994, but losing out on the opportunity of possibly going to the World Series: โIt was bittersweet. Of course youโre happy winning another MVP, but to not finish that type of season with a team that was ready to go, and a year later we broke it all apartโฆit hurts. Itโll always hurt. You learn to live with things, but youโll never get over it. Iโll never get over 1994.โ
“The Big Hurt,” is one of the most decorated players in White Sox history. He won a World Series with the club in 2005, and played his final game baseball during 2008. He’s also spent a lot of time promoting his malt liquor style (at least that’s what it tastes like) drink known as Big Hurt Beer.
Paul M.ย Banksย ownsย The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate ofย Fox Sportsย and Yahoo! Heโs been aย guestย on news talk shows all across the world. Heโs also a special contributor to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Banks has been featured in numerousย media outletsย including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin,ย ESPN,ย NBC,ย CBS, the History Channel and more. Follow him onย Twitter (@paulmbanks)
