Frank Thomas drops out of ESPN The Weekend 2010?

As a kid I grew up a big White Sox fan with Frank Thomas as my favorite player. I had all the Frank Thomas baseball cards and dreamed of one day meeting him and getting his autograph. Now, as a self providing young man living in central Florida I was very excited to see Frank Thomas on the initial list for athletes attending ESPN The Weekend at Hollywood Studios in Disney World in Orlando. ESPN The Weekend goes from February 25-28, 2010 and is a great way to see athletes and ESPN personalities up close, ask them questions and even get autographs. I have gone the last 2 years and have been able to get many autographs including Dennis Eckersley, Jim Palmer, Carlos Lee, Tom Glavine, Derek Lowe and many more. John Kruk is perhaps the most accessible ESPN personality there. He is always willing to talk baseball, pose for a picture and sign autographs.

When I saw Frank Thomas' name on the list this year I was so excited I got tickets to attend all 4 days for the sole purpose of obtaining my childhood dream. However, after months of anticipation it seems this will not happen. Right around the time that Frank Thomas announced his retirement I also notice Frank Thomas' name was not on the list of players attending ESPN the weekend. This leads me to believe that Frank Thomas will not be attending ESPN the Weekend. I am guessing this has something to do with him hanging  up his cleats and planning a nice retirement vacation.

If you read this and believe I am wrongly assuming Frank Thomas is not going to be at ESPN The Weekend in 2010 please comment. Please tell me I am wrong. While ESPN The Weekend will still be amazing with great athletes such as Chad Ochocinco, CC Sabathia, Curt Schilling, Maurice Jones-Drew, Steven Jackson and many more I was very much looking forward to seeing Frank Thomas.

I will note that last year (2009) Curt Schilling did everything he could to avoid giving out autographs as he quickly left the stage after every event he was at while the others he was with stayed around to sign some autographs.

Frank Thomas, I will be very sad if you are indeed not going to be in Orlando this year as you would have made the 13 year old boy inside of me very happy.