Pirates Veteran Player who responds to erroneous Fox News segment saying he died just decided to Exit
Former longtime Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder/corner infielder and three-time All-Star Frank Thomas passed away in January.
During an “in memoriam” segment on “The Faulkner Focus” on Friday morning, Fox News accidentally “misidentified” that Frank Thomas had died in 2023. The program instead showed clips of 55-year-old Hall of Famer and former designated hitter/first baseman Frank Thomas, indicating that the Chicago White Sox legend had died (then issued a correction afterward).
The two-time AL MVP quickly responded to the miscue Friday afternoon on X, formerly known as Twitter.
As he pointed out in his social media post, the “Big Hurt,” ironically, used to work for Fox Sports. Thomas worked as a studio analyst for “MLB on Fox” from 2014 to 2023 until he was replaced by fellow Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
Although the pair of Frank Thomases both played Major League Baseball and spent hundreds of games manning first base, that’s more or less where the similarities end. Not only did the modern-day Frank Thomas capture a pair of MVP awards but his career started in 1990 (34 years after his counterpart’s ended).
In fact, when the late Frank Thomas retired in 1966, the four-time Silver Slugger Award winner was just two years old. The former Pirates player was already 61 years old when the 1995 Home Run Derby winner debuted in MLB and was 79 when the younger Frank Thomas retired.
When the “Big Hurt” was enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, the ex-outfielder was 85 years old.
Chicago White Sox legend Frank Thomas called Fox News “irresponsible” when the network included him in an “in memoriam” segment honoring celebrities who died in 2023.
During the segment on The Faulker Focus, Thomas was shown with his year of birth and alleged year of death as 2023. The revelation that the “Big Hurt” had suddenly passed without any big announcement was surely an eye-opening one for viewers, but the network clarified that it was supposed to be the former Pittsburgh Pirates player of the same name. The Pirates’ Frank Thomas, born in 1929, died January 16, 2023.
“We also need to quickly issue a correction in the ‘in memoriam’ feature that we showed just a few minutes ago,” guest anchor Julie Banderas said. “We misidentified the late Frank Thomas, the three-time all-star for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Frank Thomas we showed you, unfortunately, was also a former pro baseball player. He is very much alive. We apologize for that mistake.”
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Hours after the segment, Thomas took to Twitter to confirm he is infact still alive. The mistake, he noted, was especially egregious considering his past work as an analyst on Fox Sports.
“Ladies and Gentlemen I’m very sorry my ex employer Fox would be this irresponsible on National TV this morning,” Thomas tweeted with a photo of himself. “Yes I’m alive and doing well. This blows my mind also.”
