Former Detroit Tigers utility man George Thomas, who signed with the club out of the University of Minnesota in 1957 and played parts of six seasons for the organization, died Friday at age 88, according to Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse.
Born Nov. 29, 1937, in Minneapolis, Thomas received a $25,000 bonus from the Tigers and was forced under the bonus rules of the day to remain on the major league roster rather than report to the minors.
He made his big-league debut that September as a pinch hitter for Detroit. Limited opportunities followed in his early years with the Tigers before a midseason trade in 1961 sent him to the expansion Los Angeles Angels.
With the Angels, Thomas appeared in 79 games and batted .280 with 13 home runs, earning regular playing time before returning to Detroit in 1963.
Across his full tenure with the Tigers, he played in 252 games and hit .253 with 16 home runs and 65 RBIs while filling a variety of defensive roles.
Detroit dealt Thomas to the Boston Red Sox on Oct. 4, 1965, along with second baseman George Smith and a player to be named later, in exchange for pitcher Bill Monbouquette.
In 13 major league seasons and 685 games overall, Thomas posted a .255 batting average, .316 on-base percentage and .389 slugging percentage. He collected 46 home runs and drove in 202 runs while appearing at every position except pitcher.
Ray Birch, in his chapter on Thomas in the Society for American Baseball Research’s book “The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: ‘Pandemonium on the Field,’” wrote: “In 1966, Thomas played in only 69 games for the Red Sox and batted .237. But he had a sense of humor that was appreciated in the Red Sox clubhouse, and was a versatile, hustling player, a quality that earned him esteem in the eyes of manager Billy Herman.”
After the trade, Thomas spent six seasons with Boston from 1966 through 1971. He took part in the Red Sox’s 1967 American League pennant run, appearing in 65 regular-season games and making two plate appearances in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Boston released him in June 1971, and he finished his playing days with a short stint for the Minnesota Twins later that year.
Thomas later returned to his alma mater, serving first as an assistant baseball coach and then as head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1979 to 1981. His teams went 95-43 during those three seasons.
The university still presents the George Thomas Most Improved Player Award in his honor. His professional career, though, opened with the Tigers, the club that signed him as an amateur and brought him back after his Angels stint.
Thomas’s defensive flexibility proved valuable during his Detroit years, allowing managers to deploy him in multiple spots as needs arose. That same skill set later defined his role with other clubs.
His production in a Tigers uniform reflected the typical output of a reserve player of the era, with steady but not starring numbers before the Monbouquette trade shifted him to Boston. The deal addressed Detroit’s pitching requirements at the time.
Across four organizations, Thomas’s career totals of 46 home runs and 202 RBIs came largely in part-time duty rather than as an everyday regular. The Tigers were the team that first introduced him to major league baseball.
His passing ends the story of a player whose path began under the Detroit banner in 1957 and stretched more than a decade across the American League. The organization that signed him remains the starting point of that journey.
