Top home run hitters in Chicago White Sox history
By Phil Watson
White Sox all-time home run hitters – No. 1: Frank Thomas
448 home runs from 1990-2005
Frank Thomas played the first 16 of his 19 big-league seasons with the Chicago White Sox, earning back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards in 1993 and 1994 while being named to five All-Star appearances and winning four Silver Slugger awards.
Thomas was runner-up for the MVP award in 2000, when he had a career-high 143 RBI, and finished third in the voting in both 1991 and 1997.
He debuted on Aug. 2, 1990, a little more than a year after the White Sox made Thomas the seventh overall pick in the June Amateur Draft. More well-known at the time for being Bo Jackson‘s fullback at Auburn, Thomas quickly made himself known as a force on the diamond.
His first career home run came on Aug. 28, 1990, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis off Minnesota Twins lefty Gary Wayne. But the floodgates unleashed for Thomas in his first full season, with 32 homers in 1991. He topped the 40-homer mark five times (1993, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003), while winning the American League batting title with a .347 mark in 1997.
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He also led the AL in OPS four times and in OPS+ in three different seasons.
Thomas was just 6-for-26 in two postseason appearances with Chicago, the 1993 ALCS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays and a 2000 ALDS loss to the Seattle Mariners. He missed the 2005 postseason run to the World Series title with a shoulder injury.
The White Sox let Thomas walk after the 2005 season, not making an offer to the free agent, who had 39 homers in 2006 with the Oakland Athletics and clouted 26 with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2007.
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He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2014.