Frank Thomas Hits a Triple!!!
On April 28th 2008, in just his fifth game after being released, the Big Hurt did the unthinkable. He hit a triple. Yes, a triple! I’ve put Thomas’ career triple mark to the test below, now its time to “round the bases”.
So I had the triple video posted on YouTube but Bud & his MLB Media buddies took it down. The triple itself was a ball hit in front of Vlad Guerrero that then proceeded to skip past him into foul ground. The Big Hurt seemed to give a lot more effort running the bases here vs anytime I’ve seen him in Toronto. Maybe it’s due to managerial motivation. Prior to April 28th, the last triple Frank hit was on April 24th 2002.
I figured the Big Hurt didn’t leg out too many triples in his career. I was right. A total of 12 in his career, with 7 of them coming in his first three seasons. Is this one of the worst HR to triple ratios of all-time? The awesome Baseball-Reference Play Index had the answer. The following is a simple Home Run to Triples ratio for the 500 HR club.
McGwire & Thomas are in their own league of ineptitude. A 93 & 43 spot respectively, the average for players with more than 500 HR is around 15.
Conclusion: The Big Hurt doesn’t like his triples, well maybe a triple whopper but that’s about it.
May 2, 2008
WoOooOooOO hoo!
May 2, 2008
Wow. Some numbers really stand out here. McGwire only had 6 triples!!! And The Babe had 136 three baggers, lots of hits over the CF’s head at Death Valley, Yankee Stadium.
The Crime Dog had 493 dingers and only 24 triples and Dave Kingman had 442 HR and 25 triples as well. Nowhere in the realm of Thomas or McGwire but still very few for long careers.
May 2, 2008
Thomas has yet to hit a homer for Oakland. If his average dips too much his career average may dip below the magic .300 mark. He is at .302 as of this writing.
May 2, 2008
Not even John Gibbons would argue the fact that if Frank Thomas gets good wood on the ball, it will go places.
You should have seen him hop on second base just after he hit his first, and only in Toronto, double of the year. I thought right then and there that Thomas was back and good to go. He hit 3 HR in 3 games right after that and doubled his batting average. Then he went 4-35.