A report out of the inaugural White Sox mini-camp that Frank Thomas has put on his usual “winter love handles” isn’t the kind of hot-stove news that sells season tickets.
But shedding some weight for the spring may be the least of Thomas’ concerns as he attempts to come back from the torn triceps that ended his season only one month into the 2001 campaign. Just as the Sox gradually adjusted to life without Thomas, so may Thomas have to readjust to life with the Sox.
For years Thomas has been the focal point of the Sox’s offense and the undisputed center of media attention in the clubhouse, from the start of spring training to season’s end.
He started the 2000 season by getting into a heated showdown with manager Jerry Manuel in spring training, then followed up with one of the best seasons of his career.
But Thomas started 2001 in another spring squabble, walking out of camp to protest his contract. Then he struggled in April before incurring his season-ending injury.
After Thomas’ exit, the offense took on more of an equal-opportunity look, with Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko and Jose Valentin sharing the bulk of the load. Manuel said Ordonez, who led the team in average, homers, RBIs and stolen bases, was clearly the team’s most valuable player.
When Thomas returns to the team in February in Tucson, Ariz., he may find a new world order in the clubhouse, the one he thought he knew until David Wells’ comments doubting the seriousness of his injury.
“It’s going to take him some time to get in this group,” Valentin said. “He knows everyone here. We know we need him.”
When Thomas went down April 27, so did the Sox’s offense, but only for a while. After hitting .248 and averaging 4.3 runs per game as of June 1, the Sox hit .275 the rest of the way, averaging 5.2 runs per game over their final 112 games. In spite of the slow start, they finished fifth in the AL with a .268 average and sixth in runs scored with 798.
“This is the White Sox, not just Frank,” Valentin said. “We have a bunch of guys–me, Konerko, `Mags’–and we can score some runs too. Don’t get me wrong. Having Frank makes it a lot easier for us. But we can win without him if we just play the way we’re supposed to.
“When we saw him go down, it seemed like we thought the season disappeared, like `We’re done; we can’t do it without him.’ We didn’t believe in ourselves. Eventually we woke up and said: `This isn’t about Frank. This is about the team.’ But we just ran out of time.”
The atmosphere of the White Sox’s clubhouse was dialed down with the eventual departure of Thomas, Wells, Jim Parque and James Baldwin–four headstrong individuals who tended to create controversies along the way. After Wells’ back surgery in July–prompting Thomas to call it “karma”–Thomas dropped out of sight the rest of the season.
Some of Thomas’ teammates think he will have no problem returning to his spot as the top dog of the clubhouse.
“I think if Frank had come back later on in this season, he might have had to make an adjustment,” Konerko said. “But it’s the off-season, and everyone starts fresh the following year.”
“He’s going to be one of our team leaders again,” reliever Keith Foulke said. “He has been around 11 years. Some adjustments may be more for the younger guys. They’re going to have that big veteran they have to listen to.”
General manager Ken Williams said one positive from missing Thomas was the rest of the team believing in itself after once falling 15 games below .500.
“What happened in some respects this year was the guys that hit around him grew up a little bit as far as us depending on them at various times and how they handled it,” he said.
“Now when you add Frank back into the mix, two things will happen. I don’t think Frank will have to carry as much of the offensive burden, though he’s obviously very important to us. And some of the other guys will feel a little less pressure, knowing there’s another guy in the lineup who can feed off that.”
