Usually when an athlete leaves Philadelphia, regardless of how they leave, the city turns on them a bit. This was never, never the case with Jim Thome.
Thome had 2 tremendous years with the Phillies in 2003 and 2004, but injuries and the emergence of Ryan Howard made him expendable, and he was traded after his third season (for Aaron Rowand and Gio Gonzalez), where he played less than 1/3 of the games.
The real impact Thome had on our team was the statement both he and ownership made when he signed his 6 year, $85 million contract in December of 2002. Up until then, the Phillies were never aggressive in the FA market, and this signing, coupled with the building of the new stadium was the FIRST step in the long-term plan that has us where we are today.
In the 9 years leading up to the Thome signing, the Phillies were 641-751. In the nearly 9 years since, we are 794-621.
This will obviously start the required “is Jim Thome a HOFer” discussion. Which to me, isn’t a discussion at all. He is, and should be a first-ballot selection.
Some fun with Thome stats…
- He is the 8th player in the 600 HR club – Bonds, Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Griffey, Rodriguez, Sosa, Thome
- He is the 5th in the 600 HR, not-linked-to-PEDs club – Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Griffey, Thome
- Only Thome, Bonds and Ruth have 600 HR with an OBP over .400
- Thome is the only member of the 600 club to hit a HR while with the Phillies. He hit 96 in a Phillies uniform, good for 24th on the all-time list.
- Had 110 walks in 7 seasons. The only other players to do that are Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Joe Morgan, Barry Bonds and Eddie Yost.
- Thome is 4th all-time for the Phillies in OPS for a player with at least 1,500 PA (Foxx, Howard, Abreu)
- Thome has hit 367 HR’s from age 30-40, 5th all-time, tied with Willie Mays
- Thome is 8th all-time in walks, and 2nd all-time in strikeouts
a good old-fashioned slugger.
while we all love flash and pomp these days, he sorta makes me nostalgic for a period when baseball could be described as – stare…chew…spit…swing…hit the dirt…tip your cap…do it again the next day.
He never did on steriods or hot dogs! It was a great feat and a great one to see live with more on the way!
Congrats to one of the most under appreciated stars in today’s game. Come back to Philly this year so you can hit a big pinch hit homer in the playoffs to win the world series and ride off in the sunset…….
congrats to Thome. Truly did mark the beginning of the revitalization of not just the Phillies, but a golden age in Philly sports.
Now just hoping and praying Cole is OK….
Congratulations to Thome – a great player and great representative of baseball.
“Heartland” kind o’ guy. Yes, he played in Peoria.
Hometown sources say he was selected #1 at recess invariably. 20-minute gms limited him to 2 HRs per day. Even Mrs. Fickleweather and Mr. Pumpernickle were awed, so they say.
Once saw Jim hit one completely out of the Vet in right … bounced off the parking lot macadam
onto I-95 and an open-bed produce truck heading N to Trenton.
600. And good-naturedly.
Once saw Jim hit one completely out of the Vet in right … bounced off the parking lot macadam
onto I-95 and an open-bed produce truck heading N to Trenton.>>
If you actually saw all that, you must have been watching the game from the same vantage point as the baseball gods. Real, real high up. Sources tell me that in the enclosed Vet, it’d be hard to have seen the open bedded veggie truck from inside said park. But it does make for a nice legend.
.
“Trenton Makes, the World Takes”
I did have a bird’s eye view on a Jimbo 2-out, 1-on 6th inning RF deep blast against Marlins, 9/16/03, last season of the Vet. Phils won 14-0, closing gap to just a half-game between the two teams in race to wild card (Padilla beats Pavano; Thome #41, Lieby w/6 RBIs, Abreu RBI 96). My final visit to the big concrete doughnut, a delivering cruller of a venue.
Love that sign. It did well in cameo performances in movies “Stealing Home” (starring Mark Harmon) & “Baby, It’s You” (John Sayles directed; starring Rosanna Arquette) … pithy, concise, well-lit, articulate.
Up until then, the Phillies were never aggressive in the FA market, and this signing, coupled with the building of the new stadium was the FIRST step in the long-term plan that has us where we are today.>>
It’s completely true that the signing of Jim Thome represented an historic development in Phillies history. But to say it never happened before is wrong. First of all, it’s fairer to put it in spending terms, since free agency hasn’t always exsisted. And I’m sorry I can’t rcall the specifics, but I recently read a piece about around the time the A’s were still around, and a new ownership “decided they wanted to spend money, and win.” The 1950 Phillies were the byproduct of that. The theme of the article was how it was almost the Kansas City Phillies that came to be, and then suddenly, the Phils were competitive because they spent, the A’s were not because they didn’t, and I’m goin to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come was laid out for one Wilbert harrison..
More in tune with certainty of accuracy would be the club’s highly profiled signing of Pete Rose in the winter of 1978. A history thoroughly discussed in detail at least once on this site itself. And in many ways, an extremely similar course of events. You couldn’t have gotten more aggressive on the free agent market then than the Phils did that year.
This in no way takes away from the Thome developments, it simply reminds that while this organization has a long history of cautious spending, the breakthrough to the other side might be even more common than I’ve recalled here, as it’s 125 years or so. Maybe the real uniqueness of the Thome signing was the follow through with RyHo’s long extension at a high per annum, and just Doc and Cliff as headline examples as was suggested by the phrase first steps to where we are today. But initial efforts to spend, via free agency, or in times before it did definitely exsist before JT.
And way to go, Jim.
Should have said “up until then, since I’ve been following them…”
You can, in large part, thank Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller of Baltimore and Queens, respectively, for Kansas City. (Wilbert Harrison’s ’59 version was phenomenal; 7 wks at the top of the charts.) The all-time R&B jukebox/turntable/radio home run-hitting composing duo also banged out Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Yakety Yak, Searchin’, Poison Ivy, Charlie Brown, On Broadway, Spanish Harlem, Love Potion #9, Iko Iko, Is That All There Is, among others.
“I studied the masters and, believe me, when it came to turning out songs and making records,
Leiber and Stoller are the founding fathers.” ~ Isaac Hayes
“They were the bad white boys who wrote the blackest songs this side of the Mississippi. I loved
what they did.” ~ Ray Charles
A note of irony (and a show of patience): The songwriters didn’t actually get to Kansas City until 1986.
Also, the Beatles were paid $150,000 by Athletics’ owner Charles O. Finley to perform the song (and 11 others) at Municipal Stadium on Sept. 17, 1964, the only time the Fab Four would sing that
song in the U.S. http://www.rarebeatles.com/photopg7/kansa64.htm
http://www.beatlesbible.com/1964/09/17/live-municipal-stadium-kansas-city/
I believe I’ve heard thre recording of the Beatles singing Kansas City, with some degree of regularity, in fact. Just kinda always took it for granted, assumed they liked the tune, and decided to produce it. Never had a clue that Charlie O was behind that. It’s really too bad he got lost in history, because he was a really bright businessman, and of course didn’t seem to make many friends, but did a helluva job owning that ballclub.
Can’t believe you forgot one huge stat…only Babe Ruth did it in fewer at bats!
Congratulation to Thome. I lost touch with baseball during the mid-late 90′s & early aughts, partially due to PED-enhanced apathy, and mostly just due not having much time to follow it, but he’s a guy that i’m sorry i didn’t get a chance to see more of. Class guy, plays the game the right way. His post game with his father on the field was a great thing to see.
He thanked Charlie for his longevity!
Charlie O (the Owner) or Charlie M (the Manager)? And what longevity? He’s only played 21 years. Julio Franco is laughing and urging him on! For 138 mil and 4-star room service, I’ll play 31.
What happens to our WS chances if Cole is done for the year, which I suspect he is, at least at his highest effectiveness. Pitchers don’t typically get stiff shoulders and walk away from it unscathed.
On your hypothetical: Might actually help them. Minus one of their Big 3, expectation is reduced, but talent remains swell. Alleviates some outside pressure, stokes inner fire … usually play well in that set-up … remember the Mets meetings, ’07 & ’08.
I’m not at all convinced Cole is out or even limited at this point. Did I miss something other than reported “stiffness” and precautionary MRI?
He’s missing his next start. That’s all we know at this point. I’d hazard to guess that most pitchers have at least some kind of “inflammation” or stiffness at this point in the year. Oswalt had his “dead arm” last year. With the lead we have, I’m sure they’re going to be very cautious with him, but it seems more than a bit premature to count him out for the year.
He could very well pitch next Monday – the delay is largely in part to the dye needing time to dissipate from his shoulder.
wonder if it is time to split up Utley and Howard. They are just too easy to pitch to by other teams with strong lefty arms. How about Victorino 3rd and Utley in the two hole? Utley isn’t really a prototypical 3hole hitter anymore. He just doesn’t drive in runs like he used to.
I think I figured out Jim Thome’s next destination. They’re far enough down in the standings that they would be the first “contender” to be eligible for a claim, and considering what’s been going down, and I mean down with Adam Dunn, it’s hard NOT to think in terms of his going back to the White Sox. I assume that Jim’s name was on the waiver list earlier, and it may just be a matter of executing a deal after the celebration’s over.
Paul hagen, I guess Friday had written about JT returning to the Phils positively, pointing to the no trade clause. I guess I’d forgotten/been unaware of that. Still, Chicago would be a return home, but you have to be moronic to think the White Sox are going anywhere. Any fool predicting they’d win this year has been proven misguided and underintelligencized. gee, I wonder who picked the ChiSox. I wondered when reporters would get around to asking Thome about his future, and finally saw this clip from Larry Stone’s Sunday Seattle PI piece, courteousy MLBTR…
“I think it’s every player’s dream to win, and I don’t know, to be honest,” he told reporters when asked, 24 hours after his 600th homer, if he would consider joining a contender for the rest of the season. “That’s something, until that happens, is hard for me to comment on that out of respect, out of respect to this (tapping his Twins jersey).”
I mean, seriously. Where else is he gonna go, but here. It’s the lock of all locks, as Ruben at this very minute might be trying to play Jack Z for Ed Wade. That’s the only problem. Who does Jack Z want. You talk about a locker room presence on top of a locker room presence. You better believe JT is singing a different tune privately than this politically correct quote. This is gonna be a fun couple months. I’d say one way or another, but this looks like such a one way street. What did we ever do to deserve this? Roy O throws the stuff you get exited to see an ace do, and all we have to look forward to is Doc the next day, and then Cliff. Wow.
Be pretty cool if Jack Z was actually cutting the deal. He’d be less demanding than I think it’s still Bill Smith would be.
Not alot of people have hit 6oo homeruns. WAIT TO GO JIM, wish i could of been there. Lets keep the season going into october.
can do no worse than finish .500 for the year and it is only Aug 20. Nice job fellas. Hate to be greedy but they should have wan their last two losses as well. Should be 83-41…slackers
44.500 at the game tonight. At least 30,500 were philly fans (I was one). Unbelievable turnout. No wonder Nats management complained two years ago that the league doesn’t schedule the phils in DC on weekends enough. Their best money nights are when Phils are in town. I can’t believe there is another experience like this in baseball. Boston and New york flock to Camden Yards, but it ain’t nothing like this!!!
Class guy, one of the easiest players to root for in MLB. I’d love to have him for the stretch if tehre was a way to get him before the deadline.