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Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 54 of 1218 players
Thomas
Frank Joseph Thomas
Born: June 11, 1929 at Pittsburgh, Pa.
Died: January 16, 2023 at Pittsburgh, Pa.
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 6.03 Weight: 205

Frank Thomas has been the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup 20 times, most recently on October 15, 2023.

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First Mets game: April 11, 1962
Last Mets game: August 5, 1964

Share your memories of Frank Thomas

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Joseph F. Thomas
February 3, 2001
Frank Thomas is one of the main reasons why I became a Mets fan. Although a he spent a majority of his career as a Buc I always think of him as a Met. The last time I saw Frank was at the Old Timers game in SF at Candlestick Park. He avoided talking too much about baseball but did mention the time he humbled a cocky pitcher by catching his fastball barehanded. I never knew how much of an influence he had on baseball in his time, but enjoy hearing stories of his career. Oh yeah the Richie Allen incident was a result of a 2nd year rookie popping his mouth off.

Joe Figliola
August 6, 2001
Frank Thomas not only was an original Met, but he also was the original "Big Hurt."

Although I was way too young to see him play, I remember as a preteen being impressed with his then-Met record of 34 home runs in one season. Keep in mind that I grew up in the seventies, when any Met player who cracked 15 home runs in one season was considered a big deal.

This Richie Allen incident intrigues me. I never heard of it. Can someone offer some light on the subject please? Thanks.

Charles
January 30, 2002
As I recall, the "Richie Allen incident" was not on Richie Allen--it was on Thomas.

Richie was taking cuts in the batting cage prior to a game, when Thomas made some disparaging--if not racial--remarks to Allen. Allen supposedly ignored him until Thomas went too far. That's when Allen went off on him. Apparently, Allen got the better of the ex-Met, as a photo of Thomas appeared soon after in a New York newspaper of him bleeding and with a bandage on his forehead.

As a result of that situation, Thomas was either traded or sold (I think sold) to Houston by the end of that week or the next.

Joe Figliola
February 21, 2002
Thanks, Charles, for detailing the Allen-Thomas incident. I guess Richie Allen put the "big hurt" on Frank. How unfortunate. Hopefully, Frank learned his lesson about badmouthing others.

I also know Thomas suffered a humbling experience years later when his house burned down and he lost a very valuable collection of Topps cards. I read that fans from throughout the country sent him cards to help replace what he lost. I wonder if Richie Allen contributed with a couple of those cool 1973 Topps cards of him with his Afro and shades.

Bob Salo
August 7, 2002
Frank Thomas is a GREAT guy! The whole Rich Allen thing was blown out of proportion by the media. Frank is a teaser and loves to razz people. I know because he does it to me! Joseph, you have a great uncle in Frank and your Aunt Dolores is wonderful, too! Frank is the most under rated player I know. A three time all-star, Frank is known for his days on mostly poor Pirate teams, but the Bucs traded him for players that helped win the World Series in 1960. He got traded a lot and just missed hitting 300 homers in his career by a small margin. Should at least be in N.Y. Mets hall of fame if not in Cooperstown!

Charles
August 22, 2002
To Joseph Thomas, I don't mean to offend at all; but I would like to call your attention to a paper that was written by a gentleman named William Kashatus titled,
Dick Allen, The Phillies, and Racism. (PDF file)

Pages 14-17 of the 41-page paper gives an account of what went down. Though my memory of it was a little off as to how exactly it went down (give me a pass--I was only 10!), the gist of the paper describes what set the incident off. Unfortunate circumstance nonetheless, all the way around.

In my previous post, I stated that Thomas was sold to Houston after the incident. I had that slightly wrong, too. He was first sold (the same week of the incident) to Milwaukee, then to Houston 2-3 days later.

mets
June 1, 2003
Frank Thomas "The Big Donkey" hit 34 home runs with the 62 Mets. This was no small feat considering that lineup. He had the perfect swing for the Polo Grounds. In 1964 I recall Thomas in the first game at Shea after the All Star game hitting a pinch home run off Curt Simmons to win a game. In 1964, I also recall Thomas getting involved in an altercation with a Phillies baserunner in the second game of a doubleheader that precipitated a bench clearing brawl. A few weeks later the Mets sent him to the Phillies where he witnessed one of the greatest collapses by a team down the stretch in baseball history.

Larry Burns
June 5, 2003
This guy was the first thing the Mets had to a true star. He was able to generate power and excitement amongst some pretty lousy teams. Heard he got the nickname "The Donkey" because he was built like Milton Berle, but it changed because he was a power hitter.

bobster1985
June 5, 2003
One interesting thing about Frank Thomas in '62...his 34 homers actually were the most by any New York player that year. Yep, even more than Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (who was coming off his 61 homer season).

Bobby Hurte
December 31, 2004
I consider Frank Thomas "The Original One" a dear friend since January 1992. I met Frank at the Pittsburgh Pirates Dream Week. Both Kent Tekulve and he were my coaches. I have enjoyed a continuous correspondous with him ever since. Frank has filled a dream that a sickly 9 year old had 38 years ago. I use to write to ballplayers and wished for a personal letter and I was lucky to receive an autograph picture, sometimes with name. Frank replies immediately to my letters and is proud that he always answered his own fan mail. Last May, my 11 year old son and I were in Pittsburgh and stopped to visit with Frank. He gave my son some hitting tips, which no one can ever take away.

I have met Richie (Dick) Allen and he is one of the most rude ex-players of all time. He should be a quarter as nice as Frank!

Frank Thomas
December 16, 2005
Since the Ultimate Mets Database website is obviously directed at the fans of the New York Mets, many of you already know who I am. But for you younger fans whose Mets recollections may not go back 40 years, I played with the Mets from their inception in 1962 until I was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies on August 7th, 1964. I had a pretty good run with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s, and I also had some success with the Cubs, Braves and Phillies, but some of my fondest memories come from my time with the Mets.

New York really missed National League baseball following the departure of the Giants and Dodgers after the 1957 season, and the 1962 expansion Mets was just what the doctor ordered to fill the void. Our results on the field were historically bad and the media made fun of us, but we were good for the game of baseball. Our fans were so happy to have National League baseball back in New York that we could do no wrong in their eyes. They were truly the best fans in baseball.

The 1962 season was a study in contrast for me. It was frustrating to have the team play so poorly and lose so many games, but I personally had one of the best years of my career. I hit 34 home runs in 1962, a club record that stood for years until Dave Kingman finally broke it in 1975. Considering Maris' 61 homers and Mantle's 54 in 1961, no one ever imagined that a guy named Frank Thomas would lead all of New York in home runs in 1962, but that's what happened as Maris dropped to 33 and Mantle fell to 30. I really enjoyed that.

I loved playing on the big stage of New York because it's a great sports city. I also loved being in New York for other reasons. My wife Dolores and I had a large family, and there was an endless array of great things for us and our children to do in New York.

The 1964 World's Fair was particularly fun for my kids. It was conducted very near the brand new Shea Stadium, and my kids seemed to go there every day.

In New York I also enjoyed the benefits of celebrity that were much less prevalent in the other cities I had played -- benefits like discounts, endorsements, favors and simple on-the-street recognition. Still, the baseball was the best part, though.

I loved playing at the old Polo Grounds because it was perfectly suited to my right-handed power pull hitting style. Casey Stengel was great to play for, and we had a real interesting bunch of guys play for us during my time with the Mets. Richie Ashburn, Don Zimmer, Choo Choo Coleman, Jimmy Piersall, Marv Throneberry, Sherman Jones, Gus Bell, Al Jackson, Roger Craig, Joe Christopher, and so many more. They were all guys that enriched my experience with the Mets.

My years with Mets are chronicled in detail in my new book, "Kiss It Goodbye: The Frank Thomas Story". I hope you'll order it because there's a lot in it for Mets fans. 100 of my book's 500 pages are dedicated to my years with the Mets, and I know you'll enjoy reading about them.

Bob Schwartz
January 7, 2006
My first Met games were in April, 1963, at the Polo Grounds. I was a Braves fan then, and my dad bought us tickets for an entire Mets-Braves series. It was the first time the Mets ever swept a series, and boy did I get razzed by my friends the next week.

Back then, you could just walk out on the field as soon as the game was over and run around the bases, slide into home, or go into the dugouts and hunt for souvenirs. Security wasn't like it is now. And I always did that, not only at baseball parks but also at Madison Square Garden. Over the years, I've been inside the Milwaukee Braves dressing room at Shea and the Minneapolis Lakers dressing room at the Garden.

Anyway, at the Polo Grounds, the locker rooms were way out beyond center field, and if you waited out behind the center field fence at the end of the games, you could get players' autographs as they left the park. Frank Thomas was a real gentleman. No matter how many kids were lined up for autographs, he always stayed as long as it took to give an autograph to every kid who was waiting. I've never forgotten that.

On the Saturday of that long ago weekend, when the Mets scored a 3-1 victory over the Braves and Warren Spahn (my favorite pitcher), I went into the dugout after the game and took the lineup, presumably in Casey Stengel's handwriting, right off the dugout wall. Later, I got the autographs of Roger Craig, Tim Harkness, Norm Sherry, and Frank Thomas on it, and many years later I donated that lineup and those autographs to the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, in exchange for which they gave me a lifetime pass.

Leigh Spigelman
August 19, 2006
My memory of Frank Thomas was firmly tied to the desertion of NY by the Brooklyn Dodgers. I vowed, as only a nine year old Dodger fan could, to never root for another National League team again. So I became a die hard Yankee fan, that is until Frank Thomas and the Mets showed up at the old Polo Grounds. He and the rest of Stengal's cast of characters won me over instantly. However, Frank was my favorite! I can still remember Frank's singular batting stance, with the bat raised well above his chest. I also must admit that the fog of time has made it impossible for me to pick out any one "Frank Thomas' Moment", but it warms my heart to read on this page that Frank was more than deserving of my adulation, both on and off the field.

Lorrin
February 12, 2008
To our group of 12 year old Mets fans in 1962, Frank Thomas and Marv Throneberry were the "T n T" boys (our answer to the Yankee fans' "M & M" duo). In stickball games on 213th Street in Queens Village, we all tried to imitate Thomas' batting stance.

One interesting fact about Thomas, that jumped off the pages during our research on his pre-Mets NL career, is that Thomas appears to have been the regular centerfielder on one team.

Our reference book for the centerfielder comment is currently in a storage shed, so we can't be more definitive right now.

Paul Cillo
April 24, 2009
My first major league game was at the Polo Grounds and Frank Thomas ran into the fence and knocked himself out. Can anyone tell me the date of my first baseball game?

Russ
May 12, 2011
I've heard many stories about Frank Thomas, his challenge to catch any pitcher in the league bare-handed, his altercation with Richie Allen, etc. He was no doubt a tough guy. My uncle (dead many years now) once told me a story about how Frank and another Pirate teammate (possibly Dick Stuart, possibly Jerry Lynch, possibly Don Hoak, I just don't remember) during a particularly testy game when some pitchers were deliberately throwing at batters and Frank and this teammate walked over to the other team's dugout and basically called the whole team out. Nobody came out. I wanna say it was against the Phillies, but I believe the Phillies had Clay Darymple at the time, an ex-boxer, so I don't think that was the opponent. Curious if anybody can recall that game, who the opponent was and who the teammate was? I believe it may have happened during a road game on TV.

Rich Morgan
January 2, 2022
I collect autographs for fun as a hobby and he still signs through the mail (for a donation to one of several charities having to do with cancer in children). When I have written him he always includes a nice handwritten note.

Flitgun Frankie
November 30, 2023
Just finished reading Frank Thomas's autobiography, so here's a few thoughts.

First, it's a very long book for a baseball player autobiography. It just has to be a record. What player autobiography was ever over 500 pages? Thomas either had the world's greatest memory, or he kept fantastic scrap books, or he did a lot of research, because he goes into minute detail on his entire career, going back to the lowest minor leagues. He literally describes every home run he ever hit in professional baseball, going back to rookie league ball in 1948 with the Tallahassee Pirates. He'll say something like, "I hit one out against the Valdosta Dodgers in the 7th inning off Joe Blow with our team down by two runs. It was a high, inside fastball and the wind was blowing in that day so it barely cleared the wall over the Seiberling Tires sign in left-center and bounced off the roof of a 1946 Dodge in the parking lot behind the fence." He hit a lot of home runs, both in the minors and majors, so you get a lot of that type of stuff.

He comes across sometimes as a strange guy, but I think it's more the fact that he came from a very recent immigrant family, his father having emigrated from Lithuania, and they were not completely assimilated to American ways, so what was a normal way of looking at life in a dangerous part of the world might seem eccentric here in the US. He was extremely stubborn in sticking up for his rights, leading to many disputes with management and some with managers. His hatred of that phony, hypocritical plaster saint of Baseball, Branch Rickey, may surprise some readers, but it is refreshing and from what I've read and heard from other people (including Ralph Kiner) probably much closer to the truth than the myths we're usually fed. He doesn't hesitate to speak his mind about others, and he doesn't mind telling unflattering details about himself, and will admit when he felt he was wrong. He was a very devout Roman Catholic and there is much confession in this book.

Everyone wants to know about the Richie Allen thing. He goes into deep details on this (as on everything else) and is willing to take a lot of the blame, but not all of it. I think the key to the incident comes from another player on another team (in a different book)--Jim O'Toole, a pitcher who was briefly a star with Cincinnati and briefly a teammate of Thomas's with the Reds. O'Toole, who was kind of a hot head, clearly didn't like Thomas and didn't hide his dislike when talking about him in the book "We Played The Game". O'Toole said that Thomas was one of those guys who liked to needle teammates (which Thomas admits in his book), but unlike most players, Thomas never knew when to stop and would keep going until he incited a fight or near fight. And O'Toole ended up in a couple of scraps of his own with Thomas. In other words, Thomas was a pain in the ass to be around.

This is what caused the fight with Richie Allen. Thing is, when Thomas got in a fight with O'Toole, no big deal because O'Toole was white and there was no racial aspect to give outsiders a soap box to climb up on. I grew up a White Sox fan, precisely at the time Allen was playing for them and unlike others I don't see him as any pure, innocent angel. I remember Chuck Tanner doing everything possible as White Sox manager to appease and pander to Allen's many childish whims and Allen still quitting on the team and walking away in the middle of a season when the Sox were considered to be pennant contenders. My take is you had these two guys who were not easy to get along with and as long as they were on the same team, a fight between them was almost inevitable. Thomas became the goat not because he was white but because Allen, at that point in time, was a younger, better, more valuable player, and also because Thomas and Phillies manager Gene Mauch did not like each other. Thomas infers that even before the fight, Mauch was looking to get rid of him and the fight was a perfect excuse.

Of course there's a lot about his time with the Mets, but that seemed to be a peaceful time in his career with no obvious disputes with teammates, most of whom were just passing through as that was a bad team with constant personnel changes. He liked Casey, disliked George Weiss (no surprise, as with one exception, John Holland of the Cubs, he disliked every GM he ever dealt with) and loved playing in NY. He was right in the middle of some famous on-the-field incidents, so we get the details on those. For example, two famous early 60's brawls: the Willie Mays-Elio Chacon fight at Candlestick Park, and Billy Martin's sucker punch incident with Jim Brewer when Thomas was a member of the Cubs. Also while with the Cubs he played the no-hitter Don Cardwell pitched in his Cubs debut. There were a few other famous games, but those are the ones to come to mind first.

It's worth getting the book, if you can find it. I think it was privately printed as I don't believe any major publishing house would have published a book that long by a player who, 50+ years after his career ended, has become fairly obscure. Some parts of it get to be a slog, as he goes into sometimes mind-numbing minutiae about meaningless games (and he played on a lot of bad teams, so there were many meaningless, late-season games), but you won't get a better day-by-day account of baseball in the 50's and 60's, and especially how players were treated by management in the days when players had no say over their careers. Also the book has many illustrations and they are very nicely printed, which is rare nowadays. You can actually make out what the pictures are supposed to show.

One bonus, if you collect autographs, is that it seems he personally autographed every copy of the book, so if you want a Frank Thomas autograph for your Mets collection, buying this book is a quick way of getting one.








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