The Red Line is a weekly feature about Chicago baseball, talking about what is going on both at the Addison stop in Wrigleyville and at the 35th Street station on the South Side.
So now that the Toronto Blue Jays have cut Frank Thomas, one has to wonder how the future Hall of Famer will end his career. The career home run leader in White Sox history was given his leave a day after complaining that he was being benched because Toronto didn't want him to get enough at-bats to trigger a $10 million bonus.
Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi said it was more about him hitting .167 through his first 60 ABs this year.
"I told Frank our decision is based on performance," Ricciardi said, "and his decision is based on not being able to be in the lineup.
"It was a mutual agreement. Frank was very professional about it. He thanked the organization for everything and we thank him."
The Jays are still on the hook for roughly US$8-million of Thomas's 2008 salary, whether or not he signs with another team.
Either way, Frank Thomas is available. The Big Hurt has a bat (and $8 mildo of Blue Jay dollars) and he certainly could be an asset for a playoff team despite being nearly 40 years old.
Ozzie Guillen, not always the biggest fan of Thomas, said his former teammate and player deserved better treatment, but this is how it goes in the game.
"It happens to everyone," Guillen said. "It happens to a lot of people in this game, and it's unfortunate happening early in the season. Being released is not the best way to finish his career, but he can play with someone else [this season]."
Black Sox are copy cats?
In an interesting piece at Sportingnews.com (via AOL Fanhouse) Sean Deveney posits that the 1918 Cubs threw the World Series and that the 1919 Black Sox scandal was a result.
Alas, in the gambling scandal that never was, the '18 Cubs just might have laid down for that year's A.L. champ, the Red Sox. In their defense, those Cubs could not have known that, 90 years later, North Side fans would still be pulling hair out over this team.
Now, it cannot be said for certain that gamblers got to the '18 Cubs. But Eddie Cicotte, pitcher and one of the eight White Sox outcasts from the '19 World Series, did say in a newly found affidavit he gave to the 1920 Cook County grand jury that the Cubs influenced the Black Sox. Cicotte said the notion of throwing a World Series first came up when the White Sox were on a train to New York. The team was discussing the previous year's World Series, which had been fixed, according to players. Some members of the Sox tried to figure how many players it would take to throw a Series. From that conversation, Cicotte said, a scandal was born.
Let's get that man a statue
White Sox slugger Jim Thome hit his 512th home run on Sunday, putting him in a three-way tie with Mr. Cub and Eddie Matthews for 19th on the all-time list. I'm not sure if Matthews has a statue, but if Ernie Banks has one for 512 homers, let's get one for Thome too.
Confused/In love
Sun-Times columnist Carol Slezak wrote about the rapid infatuation of the Cubbie faithful for Kosuke Fukodome which has resulted in the most popular new Cub since Kerry Wood. Fukodomania, Slezak wrote has also produced some amusing moments for the Japanese star.
''It's nice to see more and more people wearing the T-shirts and the headbands,'' he said Thursday. ''But I do realize that many people are wearing the headbands upside down.''
He speaks through his translator, Ryuji Araki, making conversation difficult. But laughter translates in any language, and it was clear that Fukudome was amused by the upside-down headbands. The signs he has read also have amused him. For instance, one sign tried to say ''It's going to happen'' in both English and Japanese, but the Japanese translated to ''By coincidence.''
''Basically, all of the signs have mistakes in the translations, so they don't make much sense,'' Fukudome said.
Bleedcubbieblue.com wonders where the Sun-Times got the Fukodomania headline.
As for the right fieldher himself, Fukodome did not play on Sunday because a cyst on his head was swelling. Yeah, you don't need swelling cysts on game day. Not good.
Before the game, manager Lou Piniella intimated Fukudome might get the day off depending on how he fared during batting practice. But the skipper stated, "If he doesn't play, it's just a one-day thing."
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