OAKLAND, Calif. — Frank Thomas can run from first to third with relative ease and is crushing home runs into the upper deck again. That spat with his former general manager earlier this year is a thing of the past.
The Big Hurt has buried those hurt feelings to focus on a pennant race with his new team.
At 38, Thomas is healthy, loving life in the laid-back Bay Area and starring for the Oakland Athletics in an improbable comeback year across the country following two injury-shortened seasons in Chicago.
"I'm hitting some long home runs. I'm back. I'm hitting balls as hard as I ever have," Thomas said before a recent game.
"I've been encouraged with the season I've had. I started off a little slow getting used to this place. Once I got acclimated, I think things have taken off and I've been much of the same player I've been my whole career. It's been a good situation because we're winning."
Thomas is a key ingredient in the first-place A's push for the playoffs, something he missed out on last year with the World Series champion White Sox because of a recurring ankle injury.
He hit his 475th career home run Wednesday at Toronto, tying Willie Stargell and Stan Musial for 23rd on the career list. And he is well on track to reach 500, something Thomas initially said was one of his primary goals before he retires.
"Now I'm looking past that," he said. "Five hundred is not what I'm here for. I hope to achieve 600. I do want to play until I'm 42 years old. This year's a hurdle for me, getting back to a health level where I can play a whole season."
Heading into a weekend series at Texas, Thomas was batting .268 with 27 homers and 75 RBIs as Oakland's designated hitter and had played in 49 straight games since coming off the disabled list June 30 following a strained right quadriceps. A five-time All-Star who won back-to-back AL MVP awards in 1993 and '94, he is determined to help the A's win the AL West.
Thomas never doubted he could return to the dominating hitter he was before all the injuries. Neither did A's general manager Billy Beane, who in January gave Thomas an incentive-laden $500,000, one-year contract to provide the big right-handed bat in the middle of the order the team lacked when it failed to make the playoffs the past two years.
The low-budget A's had spent recent offseasons watching big-name players such as Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Johnny Damon, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder leave town — so signing Thomas and Milton Bradley without losing anyone of significance was a big deal for the organization.
"He's been that force in the lineup and has given this team something it's needed the last couple of years," Oakland outfielder Jay Payton said. "He has that threat of being able to go deep at any time. The way he's been swinging the bat the last month and a half, he looks like the old Frank Thomas."
For Thomas, playing in Oakland is just the kind of easygoing atmosphere he needed after so many pressure-packed seasons on Chicago's South Side.
Manager Ken Macha repeatedly has called Thomas the MVP of the offense. When the A's acquired the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Thomas, the biggest question was whether he could stay healthy — not whether he would still possess the powerful swing that has defined his career.
Thomas began the 2005 season on the disabled list following ankle surgery, played for the first time on May 31, then went back on the DL on July 21 with a fractured left ankle. He did not play again and could only watch as the White Sox swept Houston to win the World Series for the first time since 1917.
He hit .219 with 12 homers and 26 RBIs in 34 games. He was sidelined for all but 74 games in 2004.
"I just knew it would be about being on the field," Thomas said. "The more I've been on the field the more I've been able to help the team win. When you're injured you can't do anything. ... It feels like old times. I told my brother the other day, 'Man, it's the middle of August and I'm still playing."'
Thomas' parting with the club that drafted him seventh overall in 1989 turned sour last winter. Thomas said he never received a courtesy call from team officials to tell him he was no longer in their plans after 16 seasons, and also wasn't given an end-of-the-season physical to evaluate his health.
The White Sox declined to offer Thomas salary arbitration in December and he expressed his frustration about how things were handled when the A's introduced him at a news conference the next month.
In February at spring training, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams called Thomas "an idiot" and "selfish" after reading about how the slugger was disgusted with how the organization sent him packing.
"You get past that," Thomas said. "I'm in a good situation now. Earlier in the year it sounded funny, but I've really moved on."
He has become a larger-than-life figure around the A's, and not just because of his gargantuan thighs and wide smile.
A's owner Lewis Wolff already has expressed his desire to bring Thomas back next season, even if the slugger costs significantly more. Wolff has been close friends with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf for 30 years and they e-mail often — and Wolff said Reinsdorf is happy about Thomas' revival.
"He has added so much to this team," Wolff said. "I thanked him for all the thrills he's given me this year. It's not a surprise. When he's healthy, he's fantastic."
Thomas is on track to earn most of his $2.6 million in bonuses this season. He acknowledges the extra money is not a bad motivator, but feeling wanted by a team that still believes in his talent means a lot to Thomas, too.
"It's good for the soul. I like it," he said. "I've been under such intense pressure my whole career. It's not like they're holding a gun to your head, but every day you're under the microscope of the Chicago media."
Thomas was batting .178 with seven homers and 20 RBIs before returning to Chicago for the first time May 22. Back "home" at U.S. Cellular Field, Thomas hit two solo home runs after his former team honored him with a video tribute and the sellout crowd of 39,354 gave him a standing ovation.
"Really, that series got him going to what he's doing now," Macha said. "You look at the consistent at-bats he has. He rarely swings at balls out of the strike zone. He'll take a walk. There are a lot of things he's continuing to do at that age. Sometimes when you get that age, you have a tough time with the fastball and start cheating and swinging at some balls out of the zone. He's absolutely not doing that."
Thomas said he will walk away from baseball one day knowing his accomplishments weren't aided by steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
"We're still making huge impacts," Thomas said. "We did things the right way and we're still doing things. Whatever happened, happened. I don't hold grudges. I'm happy to be one of the guys who has done things the right way, the clean way."