Frank Thomas Retirement Press Conference

I heard some interesting tidbits from the Frank Thomas retirement press conference last week here in Chicago. I wish I could find an audio or a transcript of it.

Frank was one of the more outspoken players in his stance against the growing PED issue and was held up, along with Griffey, as one of the top sluggers in the era who did not cheat. He was prodded to comment on the recent McGwire apology and his thoughts on the era in general. While he generally avoided the question he did mention a couple of other issues he said contributed greatly to his ability to develop as a premier power hitter.

First, was his early career development under Sox hitting coach Walt Hriniak. I devoured Hriniak's hitting book and used a lot of his tenets in developing my approach in teaching hitting. I loved the aesthetics of the swing and the results it produced. Hriniak worked with Thomas, Robin Ventura with the Pale Hose in addition to his work with many of the Red Sox hitters of that era. Wherever he went, it seemed as if increased production would follow.

Second, he mentioned baseball's general approach through the umpires of taking away much of the inside part of the plate from the pitchers. The old-school pitchers like Drysdale and Bob Gibson of knocking guys down or sending "message" pitches went the way of the dinosaur early in Thomas' career and hitters were able to crowd the plat and dive into pitches with impunity.

Combined with the improved body-armor technology and the implementation of Questec pitchers literally had no safe haven to pitch to.

Finally, he mentioned how his career really blossomed when he learned how to distinguish between the pitch on the inside corner that he could drive down the line and keep fair as opposed to the one that was maybe a little off the plate and would hook foul.

One part improved pitch recognition plus one part improved hitting mechanics equals one very dangerous hitter.

Sounds like something straight out of the Ted Williams book on hitting.

P.S. - He also did mention that he felt he had an advantage athletically being a two-sport athlete over other players early in his career and this gave him a lot of confidence that he would succeed.

It did seem as if when the multi-sport athletes like Thomas, Bo Jackson, Kenny Lofton and Deoin Sanders among others came into the league it forced other players to up their game in terms of strength and conditioning in baseball.