Frank was another in a long line of victims of the curse of turning 32. What curse is that? The curse of having your eyesight get a bit worse, that curse. So many players hit the wall at that age that it's ridiculous. And what's even more ridiculous is that it's not something that is discussed. Very few players get past that age without a dropoff, and those that do probably had super incredible vision in the first case.
Frank's line after the 2000 season:
| .321 | .440 | .579 | 1.018 |
And at the end of his career:
.301 .419 .555 .974 156
Those last 9 seasons:
| .273 | .387 | .528 | .915 | 136 |
I always loved watching that swing!
ReplyDeleteFrank was hampered by a lot of nagging injuries those last nine years. It even kept him out of the 2005 World Series.
Oh for sure, injuries are often a big part of the decline. But even guys who stay healthy go through it.
ReplyDeleteIt was sad that Frank didn't get to play in the Series, but considering how useless Jeff Bagwell was for the Astros, maybe it was best that he wasn't taking up a roster spot.
One thing about that series that I remember clearly is Geoff Blum's homer. He was previously an Expo of course, so I knew of him, and according to one of his early cards, he had size 15 feet. Well, seeing as I'm a Geoff(rey), and have size 15 feet, naturally his hitting that homer was as if I'd hit that homer. Not that that makes much sense, but you know what I mean.