Alright, karma…you win.
A couple of years ago, I wrote the following about Minnesota Twins slugger Jim Thome:
Thome is very good, not great. Hall of Famer? Perhaps…but not on the first couple of ballots.
Then…I followed it up with this gem:
His home run total, while incredible, will not be as eye popping five years after Thome’s retirement. Basically, we’ve got a guy who smacked the Hell out of the ball, but was never the most dominant, much less feared, player of his era. And because of that, he’ll get lost in the mix.
Since I ignited the first Thome powder keg (and trust me…plenty of you were upset), dude has hit 89 more home runs and is sitting at 587 for his career. That’s right, the guy is now alone in eighth place all-time, having just surpassed Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.
The only players with more bombs that aren’t in the Hall are Barry Bonds (762), Ken Griffey Jr. (630), Sammy Sosa (609) and Alex Rodriguez (605) and that’s only because they are either still playing, just retired or aren’t eligible to be enshrined yet.
And yes…I know I conveniently just side-stepped the steroid discussion.
But getting back to Thome.
The Peoria, Illinois native crushed a Justin Germano pitch in the twelfth inning Saturday to give his Twins a 1-0 victory over his former team, the Cleveland Indians.
And in case you were wondering, it was only Thome’s 19th home run against the Tribe (a team that he hit a club-record 334 for) and first against the righty Germano.
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