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The Mis-Education Of A Generation
 I was away with Mrs. Long for the weekend, so I had to sit on some feelings that I had toward the Frank Thomas, Hall of Fame debate. I'm glad I did now, because it’s allowed me to really examine my thoughts about the "Big Hurt."
I'm not going to use this time to prove that Thomas played the majority of his most productive years as a fielder. Those are stats you can find on your own. You don't need me to do that for you. This is, yet another, negative contribution that fantasy sports has given us. Yes, fantasy sports. I know, you don’t get it. With Thomas' 521 homers and his .301 career batting average, fantasy lovers should love him. But that’s what fantasy sports does. It causes us to ignore the obvious and look for the obscure. For instance, I talked with someone about Frank Thomas' career on base average and impressive slugging percentage, and he proceeded to rave about his OPS. Well, if your on base average and your slugging are good, that is your OPS. It’s almost as if this number is some arbitrary stat that was invented for something to tell us that we did not know. OPS stands for on base plus slugging. You don't even need the stat, but that’s what we do. We make up stats to try to prove if someone is "worthy." How about allowing those of us who actually watched these guys determine if they are "Hall worthy" or not? How is a closer worthy, yet Frank Thomas draws a debate? Again, this is an example of his digging for stats to say why Bruce Sutter belongs in Cooperstown and Frank Thomas doesn’t. Are you kidding me? Closers are judged on what they do for one inning, and the greats are given extra points for actually pitching two innings. I watch the games, and I've seen these guys pile up stats by coming into a three-run game in the ninth inning with no one on base. If you can't get three outs there, you shouldn't be on the roster. Yet, we're debating Frank Thomas. I've watched, and listened to how meaningless stats saturate sports. Stats should not define a player. They should validate their on the field accomplishments. I don't know Roberto Alamar's career numbers, because I don't need to. He should be in the Hall of Fame. I know Mark McGwire's numbers, because they've been thrown at me constantly to try to make him one of baseball's immortals. I watched him and he's not. If you have to either think about whether or not Frank Thomas is worthy of going to Cooperstown, my question is, "What were you watching?" Thomas was a rare breed of power, patience, and skill. While McGwire never one an MVP award, Thomas won two, and finished in the top 10 seven consecutive years from 1991- 97. That says he was consistently among the American League’s elite.
Rob Long
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