No one wants to hear his complaints because most people can't fathom making $10 million in a lifetime.

Yes, but I wasn't looking at Thomas the person or the baseball player. This is more about Thomas the businessman. He may be good at the former, but he's terrible at the latter.

The clauses in his contract read like those for a rookie, not for an accomplished player like Thomas. Signing that contract was like saying, "This is what I hope to do in my career."

As reported, Thomas has to either be among the top 10 in the MVP voting, make the All-Star team or win the Silver Slugger Award from 2001-2006 or the White Sox could reduce his contract to $250,000 and defer $10 million.

Thomas brought up that his former agent, the late Robert Fraley, died and left him nobody with whom to go over the contract. But Fraley was alive when Thomas signed the contract. And now even his current agents, Mike Moye and former pitcher Scott Sanderson, are reportedly trying to distance themselves from him.

Thomas said he didn't want his contract situation to go public. But it became public because of Thomas, no one else.

He said he needed to develop a better working relationship with owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and then he turned around and said he's never had a problem with Reinsdorf.

So once again, I'm confused.

To Thomas' credit, he arrived at camp on time. But he was on time because he faced a fine if he reported late. And for a player who seems to be in short supply of money, every dollar counts.

He is asking for loyalty, for the White Sox to take care of him. But this is the same team that took care of him when he had subpar seasons in 1998 and 1999 and went for 0-for-the-playoffs last season. Over the first two years of the contract, he hit .283, a number far below what should be expected from one of the 10 highest-paid players in the game. But the White Sox didn't ask for the money back.

The White Sox went through a situation with Thomas last spring, only it wasn't about the money. It was about Jerry Manuel, after he and Manuel had a shouting match. All Manuel did is become Manager of the Year in the American League.

What Thomas needs to do now is internalize the situation, as he did a year ago. If he does that, then maybe the White Sox can accomplish the same goals on the field. If his contract complaints linger, Thomas won't -- at least not in a White Sox uniform after this season.

	Frank Thomas had a monster 2000 season: .328, 43 homers, 143 RBI. But he wasn't offering any money back after struggling in 1998 and '99.

His situation is a double-edged sword. Thomas wants both market value and security. At the time he signed the deal, he had both. Now he has security but no market value. However, he signed the deal and should do the honorable thing -- honor it -- regardless of how the market has changed.

In 1997, Thomas was looking at the $10 million he was going to make at that moment. He wasn't thinking about tomorrow or whether his talents may slip. But in the offseason, when he saw what Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez were going to be paid, it seemed he woke up and said, "If they are making that kind of money, I must be worth somewhere near that. Gosh, I need to get money now."

Reality set in, and he may have panicked, thinking -- as a divorced father of three -- he could be making "only" $250,000 this season with the rest of the money deferred until he's 50 if he doesn't reach his incentives.

According to Thomas' salary structure, a lot of players are underpaid, not just him. Maybe A-Rod, Manny and Jeter are part of the problem because they are overpaid. Players get overpaid, and then others naturally want a bump.

With Thomas as the case study, I hope other players will realize how they should or could sound if they gripe about being underpaid in the future. If they do, there will be a void of emotion and sympathy awaiting them.

Thomas says he is not the poster child for the greedy ballplayer. But he can serve as the poster child for how not to go about handling a contract situation.

No one wants to hear his complaints because most people can't fathom making $10 million in a lifetime, let alone a year. So Thomas should keep his thoughts to himself. He's given people 10 million reasons not to lend him a shoulder to cry on.