Sock it to 'em Big Frank

Yes, by now you probably have heard about Frank and his stupendus performance in game 1 of the ALDS. He went 3-4 with two dingers and was about a yard off of being 4-4 with three dingers. I don't want to wax poetic about that performance, all though I easily could, but I want to raise a question...

Why do people not consider him a first ballot Hall of Famer? Why isn't he among that "inner-circle" of Hall of Famers?

In my books he's the greatest pure hitter of his generation, and one of the best of all-time. What I mean by pure is twofold; he wasn't on 'roids and I'm only talking about hitting, not running or fielding. (Pujols and A-Rod are undoubtedly great hitters, and probably will have better careers, but I'm considering them in the next generation, after Big Frank.)

So let's take a looksy at some pure stats (some stats I researched some I borrowed from this delightful article)...

Between 1991 and 1997 he became the only player ever to score 100 runs, get 100 RBI's, hit 20+ homers, draw 100 walks, and bat over .300 for seven consecutive seasons. He has a ridiculous career OPS of .993 and has had an OBP of over .450 five times. He ranks 7th all time for OBP and of players that played after 1945, he only trails Teddy Ball Game, Barry Raging Roids Bonds, and Todd "Colorado Air" Helton. He was an MVP winner in '93 and '94, and is well on his way to 500 homers, if not 600.

So why has Frank been mostly forgotten? Why hasn't he been mentioned amongst the all-time greats like he should be?

Part of that is because he just doesn't know how to deal with the media. I don't blame him; it must be hard having to deal with the media on tough days and on a day-to-day basis. I can understand his boycotts of the media, but those same people are the ones that could have someday written odes about his strenght and sonnets about his unsurpassed eye.

Another reason is lack of post-season success. Let me revise, actually, lack of recent post season success. As we all know, Frank's only contributions to the '05 Sox were cheering and throwing out the first pitch. In 2000, he struggled, as did everyone on the team. He went 0-9 with 4 BB's. Now 1993, is a different story all together. He played pretty damn well, he was 6-17 with a homer and 10 BB's; clearly the Jays were pitching around him. In my books that qualifies as a pretty good series.

It's a shame the '94 season got wiped out. Not only would that have ended our World Series drought a full 11 years later, but it also cut short a historic year by Big Frank. In 113 games Frank put up an absolutely sick line. 106 R, 141 H, 34 2B, 38 HR, 101 RBI, 109 BB, .353 AVG, .487 OBP, .729 SLG, and 1.217 OPS. Over a 165 game season, those number would be even more impressive. Over a full season he would have put up 155 R, 206 H, 50 2B, 55 HR, 147 RBI, and 159 BB's. Absolutely sick, eh? Had Frank gotten a full season under his belt that year, it would have caused a national phenomenom.

Is Frank the best baseball player of all-time? No, I'd probably give that title to Willie Mays, but he certainly is one of the all-time greats. When all is said and done, I'd put him up there with the top tier Hall of Famers. I'd put him up their amongst the likes of Mantles and the Gehrigs of the world. Hopefully Frank has a big post-season in him, one to open the eyes of everyone and once and for all prove that he is one of the greats.