Jim Thome: Forever Known As 'The Man Traded For Aaron Rowand'

I can't stand Jim Thome.  Ugh.  Blech.  Ptooey.  Okay, 98% of my disdain is directly attributable to what he did against me in the World Series when I played Triple Play 97 (from EA Sports, which I totally won from KNBR!).  I used Mark Gardner, Shawn Estes, Rod Beck, and even the great William VanLandingham, but I just could not get him out.  I mean, what a jerk, right?  That game was also where I first noticed his not-quite-calling-his-shot way that he holds his bat way out in front of him while the pitcher gets set.  All arrogant and confident.  I hate that.  I'm pretty sure I woke my wife up at least once by yelling something like "Yeah, that's right, Jim Thome!  You do that thing with your bat, and we're going to be coming inside like that all day long!"

Although now that I'm thinking about it, that bat pointing thing might only bug me in that game, as I don't think I even notice it when I actually watch him hit.  So I might have adjusted my Thome-hate to being 100% from that game, except for this horror:

Jim Thome, dodger

I had actually totally forgotten Thome was a dodger until I was looking at his stats to write this.  Sure, it was only 17 at-bats (4 hits, all singles) in 2009, but still.  There are players who have achieved redemption after wearing the blue, but I think you're forever stained a little bit.

So now Jim Thome has hit 600 home runs.  It really feels like it was just a couple of weeks ago that there were only 3 players in that exclusive club, and now there are 8.  Of course, some members had more "help" than others (and you can read why PED's make me angry in this post).  While many of Thome's power-hitting contemporaries are either known or suspected to have unfairly or illegally enhanced their abilities, his reputation has remained untainted.  Is that about race?  I suppose it's possible that it plays a part, but if it does, it's a small part.  I suspect that the truth is much simpler.  I think Thome has maintained a clean reputation because he has remained clean.  It's amazing what not using steroids, and not going to the same gym as known steroid users, does for ones' reputation.  

I can't remember ever thinking that Thome was "the best" at anything.  Not the best slugger.  Not the best first baseman.  There were plenty of years I didn't even consider him the best player on his team (Manny, Rollins, Konerko, to name a few).  I must not be alone in this thinking, because he was an All Star only 5 times, and only finished in the top 5 of MVP voting once (2003).  But man-oh-man does he have some amazing numbers.  We know about the 600 home runs, but his slash line, at this moment, is a ridiculous .277/.403/.558 (that's a .961OPS).  He's closing in on 2,300 hits and has almost as many runs scored as RBI (1553 to 1662) in just under 2,500 games.  The $138,461,667 Baseball-Reference says he's earned is also an impressive number.

Ultimately, Jim Thome kept up with, and often surpassed, his contemporaries, an indeterminable number of whom were cheating.  Performance enhancing drugs will muddle Hall Of Fame credentials and criteria for years, but a guy who played clean and thrived through baseball's most tainted era, that is someone who belongs in Cooperstown.

My pal Rich summed it up nicely in a late-night text conversation, "I always thought he was a third tier kind of guy.  I mean, Bonds, McGwire, Sosa and here is blue collar Thome.  Just some dude who grips it and rips it.  Joke's on me.  He is a stand up guy who respects the game in a tainted era.  Damn you Thome.  And congratulations at the same time."