Two strikes and you’re out — says Frank Thomas.
The retired White Sox slugger, nicknamed “the Big Hurt” because of his enormous power, told The Post that Major League Baseball should institute a lifetime ban for players who test positive for performance enhancing drugs a second time.
“I wouldn’t give a guy three times,” he said at a luncheon in Midtown in advance of the start of Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft, in the wake of an ESPN report that revealed MLB is looking to suspend 20 players, including Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, up to 100 games apiece for for their alleged connection to a Biogenesis clinic in Miami, its owner Anthony Bosch and a possible link to performance enhancing drugs. “Two times, you’re done.”
Baseball is aggressively pursuing suspensions of the 20 players after Bosch reportedly agreed to testify to MLB in exchange for the league dropping its lawsuit. According to ESPN, Bosch is expected to begin meeting with officials within a week.
“I’m really worried about the game,” Thomas, a five-time all-star and two-time MVP with 521 career home runs over 19 seasons, went on. “It’s time for the game to take a stance.”
Thomas didn’t stop there, blasting Rodriguez and Braun.
“They’re legacies are tarnished forever, no doubt about it,” said Thomas, one of two White Sox representatives who will announce the club’s first two draft picks Thursday night. “When it’s gotten this kind of attention, for A-rod, it seems not to go away for him. They’re going to be tarnished forever.”
Kerry Wood, who played a single season with A-Rod, lauded the potential 100-game suspensions for the 20 players, saying “it sends a message” baseball is serious about eliminating steroids. He wouldn’t go as far as Thomas regarding Rodriguez, who has been sidelined the entire year after undergoing hip surgery, but said the latest news is disappointing to hear.
“He’s made it more difficult for himself to go out and play and to have the legacy he wanted,” Wood said. “I played Al for a little while, he’s not a bad guy, he’s a good teammate. The guy works really hard. We all make bad decisions, and his is unfortunate in the public eye and under the microscope and blasted all over the country.”
zbraziller@nypost.com