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On September 1, 1999, after eight stellar seasons with the White Sox, Frank Thomas hit rock bottom. He'd lost the edge on the baseball diamond-his last two years were mediocre at best. The Chicago sports beat writers were pounding him, many were writing him off.

Thomas knew he had to do something, so he called his former hitting instructor, Walt Hriniak for help. The front office agreed to bring Hriniak back in to try to salvage Thomas' career. After studying tapes of Thomas at bat, Hriniak knew what was wrong, mechanically that is, with Thomas' swing. He'd lost the pace to the swing, it was too long and the movement of his head wasn't smooth anymore, it was jerky. Hriniak could fix those problems in less than an hour in the batting cage. But something else was wrong-something only Thomas could fix.

Thomas had lost his focus. Along with some family problems, Thomas was getting hammered in the business world. "Big Hurt Enterprises," his sports marketing company went belly up and "Un-D-Nyable," his record company was draining his personal finances. Thomas had a decision to make, did he continue to dabble in this and that, including his baseball career, or did he funnel his attention back into what made him great in the first place-baseball.

He made his decision. He put the distractions behind him and today he is leading his team into a pennant race.

In baseball, as in life, focus is not optional.

"And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." (Mark 3:25 NASB)

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