Thomas Hurts Number 500

The 500 homerun mark just isnt impressive anymore 21 people have passed it maybe 15 of them are great players

love the username

when you figure that thousands have played major league baseball from approx. 1876 hitting even 100 homeruns in a career is a feat never mind 500. Especially when now only 21 people have ever done it.

COngratulations to the Big Hurt. He is one guy who likely never used any juice to get him to 500. A true Hall of Fame caillber player right here.

500 is damn impressive minus the "steroid factor". Congrats to Thomas.

I think it's great he got tossed from the game as well! That's good stuff!

Congrats to Frank Thomas. I guess he didn't want to wait to hit #500, but who would want to hit #500 in Canada?

Then he gets ejected in the ninth.

If you're not going to cheapen the Hall, it's looking like 500 home runs isn't a valid bar anymore....especially if exclusions are going to be made for the likes Palmero and McGuire.....and tell me McGuire/Sosa didn't almost by themselves save baseball in 1998....

Did they cheat? Did anyone at the time raise the question? Is the media, especially ESPN and the baseball writers, writing revisionist history to sell TV time/papers?

I didn't say steroids were or weren't rampant in the MLB. You're failing to see the point being made. NOT ONE writer of note in 1998 questioned the validity of either Sosa or McGuire or their ability to hit home runs unaided. ESPN aired zero exposes on "the behind the scenes shooting gallery in MLB clubhouses".....so two things are missing from making a case against home run hitters of the time: collaborated evidence and contemporary reporting. I'll take a single source of evidence in this case like I take a single source of evidence in any situation I evaluate: lightly.

If Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa are suspect from this era, then even A-Rod, Frank, and every other "bomber" has to have earned a question as to their skill vs the aid of the needle. To be non-hypocritical is to be consistent. I'll stick with Hank and Willy and y'all can have your juiced dudes....

Without steriods, Barry would have around 600 or so. Without an endless trips to the buffet table, so would Frank.

Manny has a great point...Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Willie Stargell, Dave Winfield and Carl Yastrzemski had between 450-493 homers yet were great players. Ralph Kiner hit 369 home runs in ten seasons before retiring at the age of 33 and is in Hall of Fame yet Dale Murphy hit 398 and can't get in. Darrell Evans hit 414 home runs and couldn't make it. Canseco hit 462 but no telling how many of those were steroids induced home runs.

Hall of Fame has already been cheapened by some of the players admitted over the years.