Frank Thomas oral history interview
Date1994 August 16
DescriptionAn interview with Frank Thomas that was conducted by Larry Moffi on August 16, 1994 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Content of the interview include: Side One -- Track 1 - On playing in his hometown of Pittsburgh, never honored in your hometown, taken for granted; he didn't drink, so when he'd walk by the kids that he grew up with at the ballpark, they'd ask if he was too good for them, so he'd go in and have a 7-Up, and then others would say he should spend more time at the bars, so it was "damned if you do, damned if you don't he had the best of both worlds, because once he got traded and then came back to Pittsburgh, he got a standing ovation (00:00:00 to 00:01:07) Track 2 - On his dad being from Lithuania, not following baseball until he became interested in baseball; the Pirates offered him $150 to sing, and his dad said he was worth more than that; Cleveland scout Laddy Placek called him down, because George Susce was a friend of his and they asked him to come down to Cleveland for a week and spend time at the stadium; and Placek said they would give him $3100, because he wanted to play in his hometown; he went back to Pittsburgh and said that if they paid his parent's home mortgage of $3200, he would sign, and they did; his dad thought playing baseball was no way to make a livelihood; when he got to the Major Leagues, Thomas hit a home run against the Giants to win the ball game, and when he came down the ramp at Forbes Field, his dad gave him a big kiss and agreed he picked a good life; he didn't know much about baseball; he came over to the U.S. very young, got a job, his marriage was planned for him, his mother was 15 years younger than his dad, a tough life for her; his dad was a foreman of the laundry department at Magee Hospital, worked there for 51 years, with no pension, didn't leave anything when he died; all he had was Social Security; now he's 65 and he's getting Social Security, thinks it will always be there, revamp it, it's your money that you put in, and you're entitled to get it back (00:01:07 to 00:05:20) Track 3 - On being the first Pirate on Sports Illustrated's cover in July 1958, with the saying, "Nobody knows him but everybody wants him;" his kids turned the saying around, as "Everybody knows him but nobody wants him" he was always the type of person to do his job, agitated quite a bit, all in fun, never hurt anyone; the magazine only cost 25 cents; he wasn't an agitator with Branch Rickey, but had no respect for Rickey because he treated him like he was dirt under his feet; he had a good year in New Orleans, led the league, and he asked for $1,000 raise and Rickey said he didn't deserve it because he wasn't a Major League ballplayer; in '53, he hit 30 home runs, and drove in 102 runs, still a record for the Pirates, that won't be broken anytime soon (wife comes in) he said he wanted to be paid as a Major Leaguer, wanted $15,000, and Rickey offered him $12,500 and said if he had another good year, he'd take care of him; he had a good year in '54, and all he offered him was $15,000, so he held out because Rickey wasn't treating him fairly; his dad was good friends with (Charles) Chilly Doyle, sportswriter for the Sun Telegraph, and Doyle kept asking his dad how the contract negotiations were going, and his dad said they were having problems; Rickey said he never disclosed contract negotiations, but he was a liar, because he or his son (the Twig) were the only ones who knew what they had been discussing, and one of them told Lester Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press that Thomas wanted $25,000; he called the Twig up and said Rickey was a liar; and when Rickey came home, he went in the office to talk to him, and Rickey threw all of the papers on the floor, and said they'd do their negotiating in the newspapers; he got a call when he was working with his cousin at a hardware store, and he got a call from Rickey, and his cousin listened in, and said Rickey was no good; wasn't a very Christian person to individuals, had no respect for him after the way he treated him; he argued with Dick Groat about it, because Rickey was nice to Groat; he treated Dale Long badly, and they were good friends and used to talk about it; Rickey was doing his job to try and hold Thomas down so Rickey got more in his pocket; wasn't very fair, treated the ballplayers like slaves; most of the general managers today, John McHale, George Weiss, (Dick) Howser, Joe Brown, all came out of Rickey; you'd walk into Rickey and he'd say what you didn't do, you never did the things he wanted you to do (00:05:20 to 00:13:57) Track 4 - (Interviewer talks about Seaver and Griffeth) Managers created a monster now, made the players get agents because of the way they treated them as players, expects a strike; something that you have no jurisdiction over (00:13:57 to 00:15:16) Track 5 - On growing up in Oakland section of Pittsburgh, he got married in '51 and lived up in Elliott, then moved to Green Tree, still in the city of Pittsburgh (00:15:16 to 00:16:15) Track 6 - On being in the Minor Leagues for five years, typical of the players at the time; he went from Double AA up to the Major League, played in the Southern League, a good league, a lot of players came from that League, Pete Runnels, Eddie Matthews (00:16:15 to 00:16:51) Track 7 - Came up at the end of '51 season'53, took the Gardens down; he believes that if they had left the Gardens, he would have hit 500 home runs in his career; he was a pull hitter, he hit a lot of balls against the scoreboard, in '58 he hit 35 home runs, 26 on the road and 9 at Forbes Field, a tough park to hit in for a home run hitter; he enjoyed playing baseball, didn't care where he played, he was traded a lot; when he was traded from Pittsburgh after '58 season, he was traded with a bad hand, he had a gynecologist operate on his thumb; Tom Acker from Cincinnati hit him, broke the bat and left a piece in his hand; he only hit three home runs the rest of the season; the team doctor was a gynecologist and operated on him and he said he left a piece in his thumb; he went to Cincinnati and only hit 12 home runs; after '59, the Cubs doctor operated on him, and said he didn't know how he hit 12 home runs with that hand, he had tumors growing around his nerves; he hit 21 home runs for the Cubs; the next year was traded to Milwaukee and hit 27 home runs, the next year he hit 34 home runs; the injury happened in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, and it kept getting worse and worse; he told Gabe Paul that he had damaged goods, was having contract problems with Joe Brown; asked Brown to let him know first if he was going to be traded; he was in Europe with Joe Garagiola, Early Wynn, Nestor Chylak and Del Wilber, and the phone rang, and he was traded to the Reds; he came home to get his stuff from the ballpark, and found out that Brown told the press about the trade first; it was the same with McHale, he went to Milwaukee in '61, hit two with the Cubs, and 25 with the Braves, set a record for a left-fielder, in June they said they wanted to sign him for the next year; two weeks before the season was over, they called him in and asked him to sign; he asked him their intentions for '62, and they said they wanted him to be the left-fielder, in November they sold him to the Mets; he saw McHale in spring training and said he lied to him and lost respect; when he went from Chicago to Milwaukee, he got off the bus and the manager said 'œyou're changing clubhouses," when he went from New York to Philadelphia, and Casey Stengel said 'œyou're changing clubhouses," they didn't give you the courtesy of sitting down and talk to you, they treated ballplayers like slaves; no one is worth the kind of money they pay today, but they deserve it because of how badly the players were treated before; no way to get out of it, with (George) Steinbrenner and (Ted) Turner, they don't care about small markets, no loyalty, the only one is Tony Gwynn in San Diego; (?) Griffey came out and said he wanted to leave because the guys didn't want to win; in the old days, sportswriters were fans, today, writers want to see what dirt they can get on somebody; he has no regrets about his baseball career; his only regret was his statistics, he was a .285-.290 hitter, except for his last two years when he started to pinch hit, which took his average down to .266, so he doesn't get invited to too many card shows, where the guys are making big bucks, and he's still a leader in the all-time home run hitters; can't understand why people aren't interested in him, he played in the '50s and '60s, the greatest era of baseball, today's players couldn't play for those clubs; pitchers threw just as hard, but didn't have a gun on them; guys could hit the ball just as far; only 18 players in the 300 hit club, and 12 of them are from the '50s and '60s era; only a few new players might make it; players back then played hurt, afraid someone would take their job; only one bad injury when he broke his thumb, and it cost them the pennant; his only regrets are not winning the pennant and getting into the World Series, and the other was not hitting 300 home runs in his career (tape runs out) (00:16:51 to 00:31:17)
Object numberBL-2000-02292-009
Artist, Creator, or Manufacturer
Moffi, Larry
Classificationsaudio/visual materials
Collection NumberBA RMA 002 Larry Moffi oral history collection
Dimensions00:31:17|1 of 4
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RestrictionsDue to copyright restrictions, this interview can only be listened to at the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Object number: BL-2001-00092-017
St. Louis Cardinals (Baseball team)
1968 February 08