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KISS IT GOODBYE: the Frank Thomas Story

Bret Sabermetric Jan 30 2006 05:37 PM

One of the most amazing parts of this incredibly detailed memoir is the focus on Thomas's HRs, even down the choice of title, Bob Prince's catch-phrase for "It's outta here!" While it works as a unifying device (FT mentions every single one of his 286 lifetime HRs), I feel it makes him seem more one-dimensional than he wants to be perceived as. After all, FT's reputation, to the extent that he has one in 2006, is as a HR slugger. Why build up the one element that (falsely) characterizes your big-league career? I was fairly amazed to read of his fielding--the fact that he came up as a centerfielder, and got a lot of positive attention for his fielding, and the fact that the Pirates, just pre-Mazeroski, tried him at second base for 4 games. I'm not persuaded that his account of his defensive prowess is objective (Not many gifted centerfielders get moved to the corner spots to stay in their mid-twenties.) I'd like to have read a little more about the defensive issues that must have cropped up. Maybe I missed that part. I did a little skimming around there. Certainly by the time he came to the Mets, as I wrote in the 1986 Baseball Abstract, he was not a gifted defensive ballplayer. (I think my exact phrase was "far and away the worst third baseman in captivity.") It would have been interesting to read a more self-critical analysis of those parts of the game that held him back from superstardom. Certainly he was a gifted athlete, just short of the highest level of play. I wonder how he researched this thorough tome. Scarlet suggested he must have kept detailed notebooks that focused on the HRs. I suspect he kept a lot of newspaper accounts in those scrapbooks, but I felt that a little more focus on the surroundings would have been appreciated. for example, his wife in the afterword mentions that they lived in Tarrytown in 1962 and then on Long Island for the second year. I'm pretty sure that sort of home life detail would have humanized the chronological HR accounts of game-by-game stuff. I wouldn'[t want this book to be padded ("No one would have wished it longer" comes to mind as an appropriate criticism, although I personally would have) but insight into places he lived, his impressions of the neighborhood he spent his non-working life in, off-the field stories about teammates--there's some of that, but I wanted more. I wanted to know how the weather was, and mostly I feel I got how the sports pages were. his encounters with Jerry Lewis and with Stevie were terrific. I wanted more of that and, if space was needed, one or two fewer descriptions of meaningless games in which he kissed one goodbye.

ScarletKnight41 Jan 31 2006 11:42 AM

I agree that merging descriptions of his home life with his season by season accounts would have been interesting. I do find that Kiss It Goodbye gives the reader a flavor of what life is like for a ballplayer from the minors through retirement. I would have liked more accounts of what his teammates were really like - not necessarily kiss and tell stories ala Ball Four, but there had to have been some really funny anecdotes about life on the road over so many years. Why was someone such a great guy? What made these people such good friends? That said, I thought that this was an interesting and reflective book that covered a lot of ground. Mr. Thomas' appreciation of the fact that he didn't fully understand the implications of his choice of words in "needling" Richie Allen at the time shows a poignant willingness to examine himself. Perhaps once we've had a chance to discuss the book amongst ourselves we'll be able to convince Mr. Thomas to return for some follow up questions.

Yancy Street Gang Feb 03 2006 04:55 PM

I do have to commend Frank Thomas for trying to look at the other side of the story, especially in the Richie Allen incident, but a few other times as well. It would have been interesting if he (or his co-authors) had conducted some interviews for the book. Maybe they did, but it doesn't appear so. As Bret and Scarlett have said, it looks more like they went through clippings and scrapbooks. One person that they might have tried to talk to was Tommy Lasorda. Near the end of the book, Frank relates how Lasorda tried to pull some strings to get him a coaching job but had no luck. Now, decades later, Lasorda might have been willing to be more forthcoming about why he couldn't do anything for Frank. I find it hard to believe that that one incident with Richie Allen would have kept him blackballed years later. (Maybe I'm wrong, though.) My suspicion is that Frank must have somehow pissed off a lot of people in other ways that he may not be aware of, and that we can't learn from just getting his perspective.

Bret Sabermetric Feb 03 2006 08:28 PM

The whole issue of being "blackballed" is tricky. It applies both to guys who openly violate the rules of the game (like Pete Rose, who is officially blackballed,) and to guys who just haven't made many close pals in the game (I'd suspect that Jose Canseco may find it tough sledding if he wants a job as a coach any time soon. Likewise Rafael Palmiero.) FT openly acknowledges he was argumentative and often openly hostile to GMs when talking contract. The implicit (and sometime explicit) deal offered is "If I screw you consistently, and you don't complain at all, and even praise my generosity to the media, maybe I'll toss you a bone now and then," which game FT plainly wasn't playing. Is that being blackballed? Maybe yes and maybe no. And maybe maybe.

Yancy Street Gang Feb 03 2006 09:22 PM

And you may be right, it might be as simple as that. I would have liked to have heard Lasorda's perspective, though, from years later. And maybe the perspective of others as well. I only mention Lasorda because he was mentioned in the book and he's still alive at the present time.

Bret Sabermetric Feb 04 2006 04:43 AM

And you could look it up. Going to Tommy Lasorda for the real scoop is kinda like asking Casey to testify before Senate on anti-monopoly regularions. You'll get something but whether it has anything to do with reality is anybody's guess.