The Big Hurt Retires

After two decades of terrorizing American League pitching, First Baseman/Designated Hitter Frank Thomas has decided to hang up his cleats. Most famous as a member of the Chicago White Sox, Thomas also played for the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays.

Thomas broke into the league for the White Sox as a 22 year old in 1990. The next season, he would amass over 30 home runs and 100 RBI and was well on his way to becoming a star in the league. He would soon go on to win the MVP award in 1993 and 1994. He led the league in OBP four times and even has a batting title. He would eventually become a member of the 500 Home Run Club and statistics-wise is a likely Hall of Famer. Fans will always remember Thomas for taking the reigns as the biggest star in the game for a couple of years despite playing in the same era as Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds.

Unfortunately for baseball card collectors, Thomas was a high draft pick in 1989. This means that his rookie cards came in 1990 which was an awful year for baseball card collecting due to overproduction of generally low quality sets. Thomas had a rookie card in the following standard sets that year; Bowman, Leaf, Score and Topps. He also had a few cards issued in update sets later that season. His Leaf card is probably the best of the bunch as far as both aesthetics and rarity. However, his Topps card is particularly notable for the rare "NNOF" error variation. Thomas collectors can take solace in the fact that it is not difficult or expensive to get their hands on all the rookie cards of such a great player.

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