Frank Thomas' Career Renaissance Was (Almost) Perfect

At age 38, the baseball world counted out the Big Hurt. But when Frank Thomas left Chicago for the first time, he turned back the clock.

White Sox Departure

In 2005, the Chicago White Sox steamrolled everyone in their path en route to a World Series victory, their first championship in 88 long years. Throughout the heroic home runs and dominant pitching performances, what often gets lost in the story is the fact that this team did it without their franchise icon of a decade to that point, Frank Thomas.

To that point, The Big Hurt’s 448 home runs were more than twice as many as any other individual player had hit for the White Sox in their 105-year history. He was just the 2nd White Sox player to win a batting title. He owned the South Side franchise records for RBIs (1,465), extra-base hits (906), total bases (3,949), OBP (.427), and SLG (.568). Thomas even threw out the first pitch in the World Series opener, and hoisted the trophy at the parade alongside an impassioned speech to the fans he had played in front of for years.