Slugger Jim

Anyone who isn’t happy for Jim Thome probably also hates ice cream and loves velour. OK, I like the way velour looks on some people but it’s not in my wardrobe. What I do have in my closet is an abundance of Chicago White Sox items and one of the reasons I’m proud to wear them is Jim Thome looked so good with the scripted S-O-X on his lapel and noggin from 2006-2009.

Thome, though, is long gone from the South Side and I’m sure there are fans in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and, especially, Cleveland who, like Chicagoans, were thinking when Thome circled the bases after hitting number 600 on Monday night that “he should have been doing that for us.” Be that as is it may Thome seems at home with the Minnesota Twins. In the same year that Harmon Killibrew died it’s fitting that good ol’ Minnesota would have a big country boy slug one out and make history.

Thome now stands only behind Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds on the all-time home run list. Most of those guys, maybe all of them, were better overall players than Thome but none of them were more gracious, hard-working or as affable as the skinny kid from Peoria.

Thome will probably never play for a World Series winner but he has certainly earned an all-expense paid trip to Cooperstown. What did Thome say after his tremendous feat? “It’s a neat thing, it really is.” Yes. It’s neat. And it’s really nice when neat things happen to great players. And good people.