Thomas Is Choice of All Voters : Baseball: White Sox first baseman is unanimous pick as most valuable player in American League.

Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas received all 28 first-place votes from a committee of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America and became the eighth unanimous winner of the American League’s most-valuable-player award Wednesday.

Paul Molitor, playoff and World Series hero of the Toronto Blue Jays, finished a distant second, and teammate John Olerud, the league batting champion, was third. Another Blue Jay, Roberto Alomar, tied Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners for fifth, behind Texas Ranger outfielder Juan Gonzalez. Voting was based on regular-season play.

Thomas set a White Sox record with 41 home runs, was second in the major leagues with 128 runs batted in and hit .317. His 77 extra-base hits broke a White Sox record set by Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1920, and he was among the league’s top 10 in walks, runs and both on-base and slugging percentages.

The other unanimous American League winners were Hank Greenberg in 1935, Al Rosen in 1953, Mickey Mantle in 1956, Frank Robinson in 1966, Denny McLain in 1968, Reggie Jackson in 1973 and Jose Canseco in 1988.

“It’s a proud and special day for me, especially since it was unanimous,” Thomas, 25, said. “It was a shock to win it so easily. I thought four or five guys would split the first-place votes, but I think the voters may have had a tough time separating the three or four Toronto players in consideration, and that helped my chances.”

Thomas was disappointed when he finished eighth last season behind winner Dennis Eckersley of the Oakland A’s, but he said that he didn’t consider the 1993 award as being overdue.

“This was the first season I really put everything together, and I think (the award) reflects on how the team did, too,” he said.

The White Sox won the West Division title before losing in the playoffs to the Blue Jays in six games. Thomas, who prides himself on patience and discipline at the plate, drew 10 walks in the playoffs after drawing 112 in the regular season. He said Wednesday that he hoped the White Sox would be successful in the pursuit of another proven hitter to provide lineup protection behind him.

“We need another serious bat, a guy capable of hitting a home run every (at-bat) or hitting a ball in the gap every AB,” he said. “There aren’t many guys like that out there, but I think something will happen.”

Thomas, who received a $100,000 bonus for winning, was asked if the memory of the playoff loss took away from the MVP satisfaction.

“Nothing takes away from it,” he said. “It’s my piece of history.”