Frank Thomas: offensive numbers rank him among game's elite hitters: despite a questionable reputation, White Sox slugger continues to solidify his Hall of Fame credentials with production few have matched.

FRANK THOMAS, IN HIS WORDS, has "turned the corner" on his career.

At 35, Thomas knows his best days, the days when he was perhaps the most dangerous hitter in baseball, are behind him. But he doesn't plan on going meekly into retirement, whenever that may be.

"My focus is on a (World Series) ring and giving the best individual effort that I can," Thomas said.

But now that he's closer to the end than the beginning, Thomas has begun to look back on what he has done, what he still might do and where he will rank in the history of the game when he's finished.

"He's a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer," Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said succinctly.

Whether Thomas is Hall of Fame-worthy might be influenced by his personality and the issues that have surrounded him off the field as much as by the numbers he has produced on it.

From 1991--his first full season in Chicago--to 1997, Thomas became the only player in history to hit better than .300 with at least 20 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 walks and 100 runs scored for seven consecutive seasons.