It’s easy to overlook the fact that Thomas was four home runs away from leading the American League four years in a row, when he led the league with 45 in 1979, fell three short the following year, one short during the strike year of 1981, and again led the league (tied with Reggie Jackson at 39) in 1982.
Take out the strike year of 1981 when he hit .259, Thomas never hit above .246 in any season where he saw full-time action.
Yet he topped 20+ homers seven times, with five of those seasons topping 30, while driving in 100+ runs three times in an era when those were serious numbers.
By the time he retired after the 1986 season, he hit 268 homers and drove in 782 runs over 1435 games in 13 years with only 4677 at-bats.
Not bad when you consider that if he had double the at-bats during his career, or just as many as contemporary Dave Parker had during HIS career, that’s a pace of 536 homers!
