On Baseball
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: August 15, 2011
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More Than a Streak (August 16, 2011)
Major League Baseball
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Jim Thome hit 30 homers or more in 12 of his first 20 seasons, but has only 11 this year.
Thome played his first two decades in the majors without winning a World Series, and now, in his 21st year, he seems headed for a familiar ending. But Thome made certain this season would be memorable by swatting his 600th home run on Monday, becoming the eighth player to reach the milestone.
The opposite-field blast, his second home run of the game, came at Comerica Park off the Detroit Tigers left-hander Daniel Schlereth and helped the Twins to a 9-6 victory. The Tigers, who lead the American League Central, acquired outfielder Delmon Young from Minnesota for two prospects earlier Monday. Young led the Twins in runs batted in last season, with 112, and Thome led in homers, with 25.
Last September, as the Twins closed in on the division title, Thome sat in the visitors? dugout in Chicago and contemplated his pending milestone. At the time, he had 587 home runs and probably did not expect to need 11 months to reach 600. But he spoke with admiration of the names he had passed on the career list.
?It?s humbling to be in a class of Frank Robinson or Mike Schmidt or Harmon Killebrew ? you?re talking iconic names in the game that have done tremendous things,? Thome said. ?For me, I think the one thing I?ve always tried to do is put the team first and the game first and not get wrapped up in, ?Oh, you?ve tied Frank Robinson or you?ve tied Mike Schmidt or Mark McGwire.??
He continued: ?Look, it?s a great thing, and I think one day when you look back, you?ll go, ?This was something really special.? But as you?re going through the game, there?s a job to do every day. It?s been a great, great ride. It?s been a long ride, a lot of years and a lot of ups and downs. It?s been a lot of fun.?
Thome insisted he felt only joy for his former teammates in Philadelphia, who won the World Series in 2008, the sixth year of the contract Thome had signed with the Phillies to help them do precisely that. The Phillies traded Thome to the White Sox to make room for a younger first baseman, Ryan Howard, and prospered without him.
Thome has reached the playoffs with each of his subsequent teams ? the White Sox, the Dodgers and the Twins ? but never advanced to the World Series. He made it twice in the 1990s with the Cleveland Indians, losing both times.
Of the eight players to hit 600 home runs, half have never won a World Series: Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa and Thome. But that is not the most notable subset among productive home run hitters.
Of the 14 players to amass 550 career home runs, six have been strongly tied to steroid use: Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sosa, McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Manny Ramirez. Griffey and Thome are the only ones from recent years who have never been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
?I think the bottom line is not everybody did it in that era,? Thome said. ?I think that has to be remembered. There were guys that still did it the right way. And if you?re lucky enough to play a long time and you do it the right way, then you feel good about yourself. In the end, you really feel good.?
Thome has played the game at an extraordinary level and always, it seems, with honor. He does not need a championship ring for validation.
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