Frank Thomas, a slugging outfielder for the 1950s Pirates, came close to being acquired by the Cardinals, but it would have come at a hefty price.
In 1957, Cardinals general manager Frank Lane was ready to deal Ken Boyer to the Pirates for Thomas and third baseman Gene Freese. When the deal got put on hold by Cardinals hierarchy, Lane quit and became general manager of the Cleveland Indians.
A right-handed batter, Thomas played for seven teams during 16 seasons in the majors, belting 286 home runs. He hit 30 or more home runs in a season three times, twice topped 100 RBI and never struck out as many as 100 times. Thomas was 93 when he died Jan. 16, 2023.
Different uniform
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Thomas developed a passion for baseball at an early age. In the book “We Played the Game,” Thomas recalled, “My mother said I never went to bed without a bat or ball in my hand. I first used my dad’s pick hammer for a bat.”
Thomas said he attended the games of the Pirates and the Negro League Homestead Grays at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. “I got my first baseball from (Negro League catcher) Josh Gibson. He gave me two,” Thomas told author Danny Peary.
When Thomas was 12, he was sent by his parents to a Catholic seminary in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to study for the priesthood. He quit the seminary when he was 17, returned to Pittsburgh and played sandlot baseball. Six months later, after he turned 18, the Pirates signed him in July 1947. “It was like a miracle,” Thomas said in “We Played the Game.”
In his first professional season, playing for a 1948 minor-league Tallahassee team managed by former Cardinals outfielder Jack Rothrock, Thomas produced 132 RBI. Three years later, he made his debut in the majors with the 1951 Pirates.
Possessing power and a strong throwing arm, Thomas was a good player on mostly bad Pirates teams. In 1954, when he earned the first of three all-star honors, Thomas batted .298 with 32 doubles, 23 homers and 94 RBI.
Shopping list
During the 1957 season, the Cardinals shifted Ken Boyer from third base to center field. Boyer led National League center fielders in fielding percentage but his hitting declined. He batted .265 with 19 home runs and 62 RBI in 1957 after putting up better numbers (.290, 23 homers and 89 RBI) the year before.
At the 1957 World Series between the Braves and Yankees, Cardinals general manager Frank Lane met in New York with his Pirates counterpart, Joe Brown, and discussed a trade of Ken Boyer for Frank Thomas, The Pittsburgh Press reported. A pull hitter who stood close to the plate, Thomas hit .290 with 23 home runs and 89 RBI for the Pirates in 1957.
Lane said he and Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson had two four-hour talks with Brown and Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh about the proposed trade, according to The Sporting News. The talks continued into the fall.
In the book “Ken Boyer: All-Star, MVP, Captain,” biographer Kevin D. McCann noted, “Lane had been Boyer’s biggest supporter and harshest critic. He expected much from him and felt he should be as good as _ or even better than _ Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle. He wasn’t timid about publicly chastising what he perceived to be Ken’s lack of competitive hustle and aggressiveness.”
On Oct. 23, 1957, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Lane was willing to trade Ken Boyer and pitcher Willard Schmidt to the Pirates for Frank Thomas and Gene Freese.
“Boyer is reported to have told friends in St. Louis that he had been alerted by the Cardinals not to be surprised if he were traded,” The Sporting News reported. “He was expecting to come to Pittsburgh.”
Boyer told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, “After the season I had, I had made up my mind that I was going to be traded by Lane.”
Too many chiefs
Lane said he and Joe Brown talked trade until the first week of November 1957 “and, for his part, was ready to make the deal,” The Sporting News reported, but there was a hang-up.
In 1956, after swapping Red Schoendienst to the Giants and trying to deal Stan Musial to the Phillies for pitcher Robin Roberts, Lane was told any trades he wanted to make must be approved by club owner Gussie Busch and team executive vice president Dick Meyer. “Lane was unhappy with the handcuffs on him,” The Sporting News reported.
Lane told The Pittsburgh Press that Busch “has too many advisers to suit me. If I’m the general manager, I want to stand or fall on my own decisions. Before I’d make a deal, I’d always tell Busch. Then his vice-presidents would call a meeting and in three or four days I’d get an answer.”
According to the Sporting News, when Lane sought permission to make the trade of Boyer and another player (possibly Schmidt) for Thomas and Freese, “the okay wasn’t forthcoming.”
“The Cardinals’ brass shuddered every time I’d mention Boyer in a trade,” Lane told The Pittsburgh Press, “but they should have known if I traded him I’d get somebody good in return.”
Lane told The Sporting News, “I had a tough time selling the Cardinals officials on the prospect of trading Boyer, but I believe I finally won them over,” but Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that “high command turned down the deal.”
Though he had a year remaining on his Cardinals contract, a frustrated Lane quit in November 1957 and accepted an offer to be general manager of the Cleveland Indians, who agreed not to restrict his ability to make trades. Lane’s assistant, Bing Devine, replaced him as Cardinals general manager.
Just say no
Devine had no interest in pursuing the trade Lane had put together with the Pirates. “Stan Musial is the only player not tradeable, but Boyer comes close to it,” Devine said to The Sporting News.
Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson had other ideas. Asked by the Post-Dispatch whether he would have made the deal with the Pirates that Lane had proposed, Hutchinson said, “I’d still be inclined to give it a considerable amount of attention. Boyer has potential, all right, but I don’t know whether he’s determined enough to achieve that potential.”
In December 1957, the Phillies offered outfielder Richie Ashburn and pitcher Harvey Haddix (a former Cardinal traded by Lane) for Boyer, but Devine declined, the Globe-Democrat reported.
Boyer said to the Post-Dispatch, “I told my wife that if I’d have been the Cardinals, I’d have made that trade.”
(In his autobiography, “The Memoirs of Bing Devine,” Devine said Lane had initiated talks with the Phillies about Ashburn for Boyer before departing St. Louis.)
Bob Broeg of the Post-Dispatch also revealed that the Pirates approached Devine with an offer of outfielder Bill Virdon (another former Cardinal traded by Lane) and Freese for Boyer, but that was rejected, too.
Returned to third base in 1958, Boyer hit .307 with 23 home runs and 90 RBI, and won the first of five Gold Glove awards. He remained a force for the Cardinals, powering them to a World Series title in 1964 and winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award.
Thomas had a big year in 1958 for the Pirates, batting .281 with 35 home runs and 109 RBI, but was traded to the Reds after the season.
Breaks of the game
After stints with the Cubs and Braves, Thomas was a Met when he hit a walkoff home run to beat the Cardinals’ Curt Simmons on July 9, 1964. Pinch-hitting with one on, two outs and the Cardinals ahead, 3-2, in the bottom of the ninth, Thomas pulled a changeup over the wall at Shea Stadium in his first at-bat since developing a glandular infection May 31. Boxscore
A month later, Thomas was traded to the first-place Phillies, who wanted him as their first baseman for the pennant stretch. Thomas provided a spark, hitting .294 with seven home runs and 26 RBI in 143 at-bats before fracturing his right thumb on Sept. 8.
The Phillies, who held a six-game lead at the time Thomas was injured, went into a slide soon after, allowing the Cardinals to overtake them and win the pennant.
RetroSimba 
The Cardinals did obtain a centerfielder in the winter of 57-58 (for the 1960s): Curt Flood. Willard Schmidt was one of the players dealt to the Reds in that trade.
Thanks for your comment. On Dec. 5, 1957, the Cardinals traded Marty Kutyna, Ted Wieand and Willard Schmidt to the Reds for Curt Flood and Joe Taylor. It was the first trade made by Bing Devine as Cardinals GM.
In his autobiography, Devine said, “I certainly had some fear and trepidation” about the deal. He was having second thoughts about going through with it. Devine said, “Flood was a third baseman then … We didn’t need a third baseman because we had Ken Boyer.”
Devine credited manager Fred Hutchinson with encouraging him to proceed. Hutchinson said to Devine, “I’ve heard about Curt Flood and his ability. Flood can run and throw. He could probably play the outfield. Let’s don’t worry about it.”
As Devine noted, “Curt Flood was just a kid … I didn’t know that Curt would be our center fielder for 12 years and play in three World Series for the Cardinals. It wasn’t my thinking to move him to the outfield. That was Hutchinson’s doing.”
A young Frank Thomas had some pretty heated discussions with Branch Rickey. You have to ask yourself how many homeruns he would have hit at Forbes Field if they had kept the fences in. His candidness and humility in saying that the Pirates might not have won the 1960 World Series had they not traded him is pretty amazing.
Frank Thomas could tell some entertaining stories. In the book “We Played the Game,” he had this to say about playing for minor-league Tallahassee and its manager, ex-Cardinal Jack Rothrock: “He told me, ‘You can’t get to the big leagues walking.’ So I left the dugout swinging. My salary was $150 a month, but I made more than that hitting home runs. Every time I homered they would pass the hat around in the stands, which was a common practice in the minors at that time. I made $750 in salary and $900 in tips.”
Ah yes, 1964. A very young tyke, I got my first dose of Phillies Phrustration!
In the book “We Played the Game,” Frank Thomas said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that, if I remained healthy, the Phillies would have made it to the World Series … It was difficult just to sit and watch as the Phillies lost their big lead. The worst loss was when the Reds’ Chico Ruiz stole home to beat us. Other than my injury, the key to the collapse was Gene Mauch pitching Jim Bunning and Chris Short too often … When Bunning or Short had four days of rest, they’d win.”
Incidentally, Frank Thomas had an altercation with teammate Dick Allen in 1965. Thomas told author Danny Peary that he and Allen patched up their differences. “Years later, I would play with Richie in an old-timer’s game,” Thomas said. “I would extend my hand and he would hug me, saying, ‘We’re brothers.’ “
Great write up as always. Mark. That’s kind of crazy that Josh Gibson gave him a ball as a young boy. For one thing, balls were treasured back then and they didn’t just toss them to the fans willy-nilly like they do today….especially in the Negro leagues where crowds were more scarce. What a great story. It must have been a treat to watch Gibson hit.
I am so glad that you picked up on that Josh Gibson anecdote, Gary. I found it fascinating, too, for many reasons, including the ones you cited.
In the “We Played the Game,” book, Frank Thomas said, “I was a Knothole kid and sat in the right field bleachers at Forbes Field watching the Pirates or Homestead Grays.”
Years later, as a big-leaguer, Thomas recalled to the Pittsburgh Courier that when he was a youth he saw Josh Gibson hit a ball on a line that cleared a 14-foot brick wall at the 457-foot mark at Forbes Field.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson said of Josh Gibson, “He can do everything. He hits the ball a mile, and he catches so easy, he might be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Bill Dickey is not as good a catcher.”
Surprised to hear that someone actually thought about trading Stan Musial! I took a quick look at b-ref and what a year he had at 41 years old in 1962. It amazes me how productive a player can be for so long which reminds of something a friend told me recently, that Musial had the same number of hits at home as he did on the road. What an awesome stat.
In his autobiography, “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said, “Except for the boldness of my business partner, Biggie Garagnani, and the intervention of August A. Busch Jr., I would have been sent to the Phillies for Robin Roberts at the trading deadline” in 1956.
According to Musial, Biggie got a tip from someone in New York in June 1956 that Frank Lane was in the process of completing the Musial trade. Biggie called the publisher of The Sporting News, J.G. Taylor Spink, and asked him to check out the tip. Spink did and told Biggie the report was accurate. Biggie complained to Cardinals officials, who then contacted club owner Gussie Busch. Busch stopped the trade.
In August 1959, Spink reported in The Sporting News that the Cardinals were ready to trade Musial to the Yankees for St. Louis native Yogi Berra, but it didn’t happen: https://retrosimba.com/2010/06/03/musial-for-berra/
In 1960, when he was benched by manager Solly Hemus, a frustrated Musial made it known that he would accept a trade to the Pirates. The Pirates wanted to do it, but it couldn’t be worked out: https://retrosimba.com/2020/06/28/why-stan-musial-nearly-sought-divorce-from-cardinals/
Musial’s consistent excellence was astounding. Another example: He got two hits in his first big-league game in 1941 and two hits in his last big-league game in 1963.
I didn’t know the Reds had moved Curt Flood from CF to 3B. I used to play golf with an Italian guy whose cousin was CF for Visalia in ’57, i.e. the Reds had Vada Pinson playing right. (for some reason b-ref has blanked out Pinson’s ’57 stats – full time .367). So they had two great centerfielders playing out of position in the minors.
In a related noted, in 1959 the Reds, managed by Mayo Smith, opened the season with Frank Robinson at first base, Frank Thomas at third base, and an outfield of Jerry Lynch in left, Vada Pinson in center and Gus Bell in right. The shift from outfield to first base didn’t hurt Robinson’s hitting (.311 batting mark, 36 homers, 125 RBI), but Thomas slumped to .225, 12 homers, 47 RBI in his only season with the Reds. He told author Danny Peary, “I had a bad hand that wasn’t healing. I had tears in my eyes every time I put any pressure on it, and when I hit the ball on the fists, it really jarred it.” Pinson led the 1959 Reds in hits (205), doubles (47), triples (9), steals (21) and batting average (.316).