CNNSI article on Frank as mentor

[Flight #24]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/gennaro_filice/05/29/insidebaseball.swisher/index.html

Mostly on Nick Swisher, but prominently describes his interactions with Frank.

Thomas and Swisher hit it off quickly, forming a mentor-pupil relationship. Thomas -- a 17-year veteran who entered the bigs at age 22 -- finds it easy to relate to a young guy getting acclimated to life in the majors, and Swisher is more than thrilled to rub shoulders with a player who was hitting .300 before Swisher turned 10. Whether in the clubhouse for a cup of coffee or at a bar for a postgame drink, Swisher regularly shadows Thomas -- or "Big Frank," as Swisher affectionately refers to him -- soaking up knowledge.

Big Frank up to his "selfish, bad teammate" ways again. It wasn't enough to do it for Uribe/Rowand with the Sox, now he's taking his problems to the West Coast too?

[Frater Perdurabo]

IIRC, there was some mention a year ago about how Frank similarly had mentored Juan Uribe, especially toward the end of the season when Uribe was taking lots of walks and hitting to right and right center. "Big Skirt" indeed.

[LauraJ14]

I just find it interesting that Paul Konerko has stated that its great that he has a teammate to talk hitting with now ( Thome). Well what happened to the 6 years with Frank, Frank didn't have time for the guy who took his fielding posititon?

[RKMeibalane]

I just find it interesting that Paul Konerko has stated that its great that he has a teammate to talk hitting with now ( Thome). Well what happened to the 6 years with Frank, Frank didn't have time for the guy who took his fielding posititon?

IIRC, I think Frank and Paul did talk hitting occasionally. I seem to remember Frank helping Paul during batting practice when Konerko was struggling during 2003. That said, since the two of them didn't always get along, it's possible that the actual time they spent together was brief.

[Flight #24]

I just find it interesting that Paul Konerko has stated that its great that he has a teammate to talk hitting with now ( Thome). Well what happened to the 6 years with Frank, Frank didn't have time for the guy who took his fielding posititon?

Or maybe Frank wasn't that keen on helping the guy who called him out in 2001 after a couple of fairly mediocre years with the team. Paulie's got a bit of a history of making comments that can piss people off.

It could also simply be that Frank was hurt most of the past 2-3 years, so there wasn't an opportunity to talk hitting.

[IlliniSox4Life]

While I don't know specifics of any of their relationships, sometimes, even really nice people, just don't get along that well. Konerko probably just gets along better with Thome than Thomas. Thomas probably got along better with other guys than he did with Konerko. Not that they hated eachother, but not eveyrone is best friends. I'm sure Thomas helped plenty of people with their swings while on the Sox.

Also, good to see Frank turn it around. In his last 50 or so ABs he's hitting over .300 with an OBP of around .500