Card Spotlight 11-23-07

1991 Arena Holograms #3 - Frank Thomas

I look at this card and I see possibilities. Look at that swing. Look at that face. This is a great card! This would have been my holy grail of the 1991 cards had I obtained it in 1991. It's like Frank Thomas is looking into his own future.

The first thought that popped in my head the moment I saw this card was how much Frank reminded me of Hank Aaron here. Call me crazy, but something about the swing and the look on Frank's face reminds me of Hammerin' Hank.

I've never run into a card of Frank that looks quite like this. I am amazed this can take me back to the feelings I had when I first saw Frank in the big leagues. It's a sense of awe and wonderment. A sense that Frank is going to be a monster of a player and he's going to be in a White Sox uniform until he gets to the Hall Of Fame. Well, like Meatloaf sang, two outta three ain't bad. I'm almost certain that Frank will be enshrined. I'm about 99.99% on that. I'm 100% sure that he'll have a White Sox cap on when he goes.

It's cards like these that make me grateful that I collect cards. Any card that can evoke a positive memory is definitely a keeper.

Wax Heaven Support

I agree with Wax Heaven about banishing the steroid era players who have been caught. We can't change the games themselves, but we can ignore tainted statistics. Roger Maris still owns the single season home run record of 61. No asterisk, just skill. Sorry Babe, the asterisk is gone from Maris' record. Hank Aaron is still the Home Run King. Welcome back Roger and welcome back Hank. We missed you. If there has to be someone who broke Aaron's record in 2007, change the name to Kurt Brown. I outlined my reasons why in an earlier post.

Most of the high profile steroid users, sorry *alleged steroid users, wore the number 25. Bonds, McGwire, Palmeiro, Giambi, even Sosa at one point with the White Sox. I would like to proclaim the greatest hitter to wear number 25 in the steroid era is Jim Thome.

Jim is a constant professional, who volunteers his off-time to help worthy charities. He's unselfish enough to swing a pink bat on Mother's Day, wear number 42 on Jackie Robinson day, and loves being a team player. See, you can still be a team player and get your numbers. Yes White Sox fans, I loved Aaron Rownd and Frank Thomas too, but Jim Thome is so much better than Aaron Rowand at the plate and Jim is so much better with the media and fans than Frank ever was. I think at some point Frank may have "believed the hype". Although, I am so glad that McGwire for Thomas trade never happened that was almost a done deal around 1992.

When Jim Thome hit his 500th home run, he put a prize package together for whatever fan caught it. Then the fan gave part of that prize to Jim's charity. In turn, Jim offered to fly the fan and a few friends in to the Cubs-Sox game to watch the action in his personal suite. This is the kind of guy the fans should be rooting for. And why did Jim want that home run ball so badly? So he and his father could take a trip and personally deliver it to the Hall Of Fame during the off-season. That is the complete opposite of what Barry Bonds stands for.

C'mon, this is the type of player we need to be rooting for. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was standing in my living room for Jim's entire at bat when he hit 500. I had the grin of a child and started to tear up with joy when that ball went out. I wasn't even angry that he didn't do it the previous night, because I was at that game. It was the first 500th home run to be a game winning home run. Appropriately enough, it came on Jim Thome bobblehead giveaway day.