This post is going to take some research, so I hope you enjoy it.Frank Thomas hit his 500th career home run today. That's the easy part. The hard part is determining, now that the steroid era has dawned, what is the significance of that accomplishment.
And cue statistics.
Thomas became the 21st man in the history of baseball to reach the milestone, but it looks like three more players -- Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez -- will join that group later this season. Of the 21, five have over 600 career home runs.
Back when the Babe retired with 714 home runs, Lou Gehrig became the active home run leader with 427 dingers (a 287 differential), and that was with only four season left in his career.
At the end of this season, Barry Bonds will retire with 760-something home runs. (Just for the fun of it, I'll guess 766. Call me Nostradamus.) By that time, A-Rod will have surpassed 500 home runs, resulting in a deficit similar to that faced by Gehrig. The big difference, though, is that Rodriguez probably has six or seven very productive seasons remaining, and reaching 800 home runs is not out of the question.
So how does all this affect Frank Thomas? It doesn't, really.
The takeaway from this post is that the significance of a home run has changed over the years, just like the value of a dollar. You used to be able to buy a house for $14,000, but now that amount would get you only a Kia. Likewise, 50 home runs in a season used to be a huge deal, and now it's only a big deal.
But you know what? A million dollars is still an awful lot of money, and 500 home runs makes for a pretty darn good career. And if I have a Hall of Fame vote five or six years from now, I'll cast it in favor of Frank Thomas.
2 comments:
I see Big Frank as more of a victim of the steroids era than anything else. I forgot his exact comment at the press conference but it was something about him doing it the right way with hard work in the gym and natural talent, which I thought was a pretty clear shot at Bonds and Sosa.
This is what gets me. A-Rod, barring early retirement (as he has publicly pondered before) he'll definitely pass Barry in 5-6 years. Everyone moaning about Barry can just wait a few more years and they'll all be happy again when Mr. Wonderful wipes Barry off the front of the record book.
Post a Comment