Jim Thome
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Early years
As a youngster, Jim spent a lot of his time going to watch the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. At Limestone High School, he was a two sport star in both baseball and basketball. As a junior he hit 12 home runs, which led all prep players in the United States. He then enrolled at Illinois Central College, where he played both baseball and basketball. The Cleveland Indians then selected him in the 13th round in the 1989 Major League draft.
MLB career
Thome originally played for the Cleveland Indians, joining the team for the first time in 1991 as a third baseman. In 1997, when the Indians traded for Matt Williams, Thome shifted over to first base. At the plate, Thome began to come into his own by 1995, when he hit 25 home runs and 73 runs batted in with a .314 batting average. Thome then hit 38 home runs in 1996 and 40 in 1997.
Thome became a prolific home run hitter, once hitting a 511-foot shot at Jacobs Field, the longest home run ever recorded at a Cleveland ballpark. By 2001, Thome hit 49 home runs with the Indians and then a career-high 52 homers in 2002.
For the 2003 season, Jim Thome accepted a six-year offer from the Philadelphia Phillies. Many thought that he would struggle in the National League, facing an entirely new set of pitchers, but Thome proved the critics wrong, hitting 47 home runs in his first season with the Phillies to finish one behind Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt's single-season team record of 48 in 1980 (and ahead of Schmidt's 45 in 1979).
In 2004, Thome hit his 400th career home run before a home crowd at the brand new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, surpassing Al Kaline for 37th on the all-time home run list. He ended the 2004 season with 42 homers, giving him 423 for his career, which placed him 35th on the career list.
Off the field, Jim is putting all 10 of his nieces and nephews through college. It was reported on ESPN's SportsCenter that shortly after his nephew, Brandon, was paralyzed in a tragic accident, he asked Jim to hit a home run for him; not only did Thome fulfill the request but he hit two homers in the game.
External links
- BaseballLibrary.com: Jim Thome (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/T/Thome_Jim.stm)
- Baseball-Reference.com: Jim Thome (http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/thomeji01.shtml)
- ESPN.com: Jim Thome (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4762)