Frank Thomas

"I've got a problem with him not doing the shuttle [run]," [Jerry] Manuel said to [general manager Ron] Schueler. "I told him he couldn't be on the field. How do you want to handle it?"

Schueler thought for a moment. "This is something you have to work out," he said.

They worked it out, all right. The manager tracked his star player into the clubhouse. "Come into my office," Manuel said. He closed the door, but one could hear the two men shouting at each other, their voices rising and their words often profane. "That's a bunch of bulls—and it had better stop!" Thomas yelled. "I'm not having it."

"This bulls—is the reason why we are always butting heads!" Manuel said….

The confrontation cleared the air and left both men looking relieved and at peace with each other. That same day Thomas called a meeting in the clubhouse to address his teammates. He apologized for not having done the shuttle, explaining that his foot was not completely healed, and told them why he could not pinch-hit in Texas. "I didn't quit on you guys," he said. "It was a medical thing. Jerry didn't know how bad it was." Thomas said all those media reports about him being "an individual player"—read, selfish—were not true. "I just want you to know I'm with you," he said.

Source: Nack, William. Sports Illustrated (Mar 13, 2000).