Friday, June 28, 2013

Thomas blasts 500; Biggio reaches 3,000

On June 28, 2007, former MVP and Toronto Blue Jays slugger Frank Thomas is the first of three players to hit career home run number 500 in 2007.

Thomas' blast came in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The longtime White Sox player had been ungracefully cut by Chicago after they won the championship in 2005.

Thomas then bounced to Oakland and then to Toronto; in 2008, he returned to Oakland after being waived by the Jays.

The fan who caught the home run ball, 24 year-old Todd Eisenlohr, gave the ball back to Thomas in exchange for a chance to meet him.

Thomas got his home run ball and awarded Eidenlohr with an autographed bat, ball, and jersey.

It would have been a perfect story... except that Thomas argued a call in the ninth inning and was promptly ejected, earning him the distinction as the first player to get ejected in a game where he hit his home run number 500.

Also reaching an important figure on June 28, 2007, was Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who got career hit 3,000.

Biggio collected five hits on a night that ended with a game-winning walk-off grand slam from teammate Carlos Lee in the bottom of the eleventh inning.

It came one day shy of the nineteenth anniversary of Biggio's first career hit.

It was not the first milestone Biggio reached in his career; a few years earlier, he passed Don Baylor for the all-time record in getting hit by a pitch (268).

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