Thome Tear-jerker

[RockRaines]

Thome definitely has his swing back

 

Editor's note: This is an expanded version of a story that appears in the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine.

 

The champs staged Jim Thome's "homecoming" the day after Thanksgiving weekend, right there at U.S. Cellular Field. It was all so warm, so fuzzy, so downright all-American, there should have been a marching band playing in the back of the room.

 

At one end of the podium, White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn helped recreate a scene we've witnessed about 1.6 billion times before, holding up a White Sox jersey with "THOME" on its back and smiling for the popping flashbulbs.

 

Jim Thome

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Jim Thome is tied for the AL lead with 21 RBI and is tied for second in home runs with nine.

 

But it was the words he spoke that still reverberate though baseball's best comeback story of 2006.

 

"It's a great honor to welcome Jim to Chicago," Hahn said, "and to welcome Jim home."

 

But the South Side wasn't really Thome's home, not then anyway. It was the North Side that tugged at Thome's soul growing up. He wasn't a guy who dreamed of hitting cleanup on West 35th Street. He dreamed of pumping homers onto Sheffield Avenue.

 

"People will say to me, 'Who was your favorite player?' " Thome says. "But to be honest, I didn't really have a favorite player. I just enjoyed the whole Wrigley thing, the whole Wrigley aura. As a kid, walking into Wrigley, that's the point when I think I got hooked on baseball."

 

But there were a few days -- special days -- when Thome's dad, Chuck, wrangled a day off from his job at Caterpillar so they could make the 130-mile drive in from Peoria, catch a game at Wrigley in the afternoon, then rush to a game beneath the light towers of Comiskey at night.

 

So there is still a place in their memory banks where the old Comiskey Park connects Jim Thome and his father. And now, across the street, where Thome finds himself hitting cleanup for the World Series champs, there is a whole new connection, more powerful than most people realize.

 

There's a reason the best start of Thome's career has a deeper meaning than career redemption. That reason is the bond between father and son. Less than a year and a half ago, Thome's mother, Joyce, died of cancer at age 68, a painful blow for one of baseball's tightest families.

 

"My dad, as we all did, went through an extremely tough time after we lost my mom," Thome says. "So what this has done, coming back to Chicago, is that it's really revitalized him. And that's a wonderful thing that baseball brings. As an older guy in the game, I see now how baseball has a great way of bringing families together."

 

But the Thome family's gain has also been the best thing to happen to the White Sox since they mopped up the champagne -- because Jim Thome has been an energizer and a unifier for this team, with his easy smile and daily thunderbolts.

 

He needed just 52 at-bats to blow by his home run total from all last season (seven -- in 193 at-bats). He became the first player in modern history to score a run in every one of his team's first 17 games. And he could take the rest of the month off and still finish with more homers (nine) and RBI (21) than he has piled up in any April of his career.

 

"I've really, really enjoyed all this," he says.

 

But six weeks ago, not even Uri Geller could have seen this eruption coming. On March 12, Thome's spring batting average was a scary .188. He'd hit zero homers. He'd driven in one run.

 

He seemed locked into many of the bad habits he'd picked up last year in Philadelphia, when his back was stiff and his elbow throbbed and he was cheating mightily trying to yank a ball inside the foul pole once in a while. Asked back then what kind of review he'd give Thome, one scout replied: "Terrible."

 

The next day, though, Thome played every inning of a game against Oakland, went 4 for 4 with a walk, and began 2006's most riveting U-Turn. From that day on, he hit a scorching .463 for the rest of the spring. But it actually wasn't until nearly two weeks after that game with the A's that he found the stroke that turned him into the NASA launching pad he has been for the last month.

 

The White Sox headed out of Tucson to Phoenix for a three-day road trip. Thome, however, took a different trip -- to the Sox's minor-league camp, where he was allowed to scarf up as many at-bats as he wanted.

 

The Year After

No World Series winner in history has ever added a player who hit 40 home runs the year after that title.

 

In fact, only 10 players (a total of 12 times) have ever hit 40 or more homers for a defending champ, even when you include players who were there the year before:

Year Team Player HRs

2005 Red Sox David Ortiz 47

2005 Red Sox M. Ramirez 45

1997 Yankees T. Martinez 44

1985 Tigers Darrell Evans 40

1977 Reds G. Foster 52

1956 Dodgers Duke Snider 43

1955 Giants Willie Mays 51

1946 Tigers H. Greenberg 44

1937 Yankees J. DiMaggio 46

1929 Yankees Babe Ruth 46

1928 Yankees Babe Ruth 54

1924 Yankees Babe Ruth 46

Source: Elias Sports Bureau

By Day 3, 20 at-bats later, he'd stumbled upon That Swing. And it hasn't been safe to be an American League pitcher ever since.

 

He crashed eight home runs in his final 28 spring at-bats. Which means that over the last four weeks, this man has smoked 17 homers in only 94 at-bats. That's one trot for every 5.53 at-bats, a rate that would get him to 60 by about the 4th of July.

 

And for a guy who left Philadelphia, silently steaming over the boos and the he's-all-done pronouncements from the short-attention-span geniuses, this rampage isn't merely another hot streak.

 

Jim Thome is proving something to the world. He's just cool enough not to ever feel the need to spout off on what it is.

 

The last thing Thome will ever be accused of is being a slop-stirrer. So he still finds upbeat things to say about Philadelphia. But his friends know how he really feels. From the day last July when he noticed the Phillies weren't exactly denying they were trying to trade him, he was a man who clearly knew it was time to move on.

 

"When he found out about the trade talk, I think that really hurt him," says his longtime friend and mentor, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, "because I know him. I know what kind of guy he is. I think he felt like some people lost confidence in him. He'd never say anything about that at all. But it hurt him."

 

So when the season ended and it was obvious the Phillies weren't going to trade the rookie of the year (Ryan Howard) to keep a 35-year-old guy with back issues, Thome told the team he would waive his no-trade clause to go to only two places: Cleveland (because "that was really our home in the game") and Chicago ("because it was close to home, to where I grew up").

 

In a perfect world, naturally, it would have been the Cubs, not the White Sox, on Thome's list. But with some guy named Derrek Lee hanging out on the North Side, "I didn't think that would ever happen," he said, astutely.

 

So when the White Sox agreed to take on $24 million of Thome's $46 million I.O.U. for the next three years, and to give up Aaron Rowand and two pitching prospects, it was time for Thome to start rewriting the words to "Sweet Home Chicago."

 

When he left Cleveland for Philadelphia in 2003, he was the winter's No. 1 marquee free agent, marching in to try to rescue a fallen franchise. But this time, he was the one who had fallen. And this time, the best team in baseball was trying to rescue him.

 

"The way I looked at it," he says, "was: Here's a team that just won the World Series, and they added me -- who was hurt. And there's a part of that, within yourself, where you have that pride that hey, I don't want to let these guys down. They made a big move to get me, and they're trying to win again, and they want me to play a little bit of a part in that."

 

Or possibly an extremely large bit. No World Series champ in history has ever gone out that winter and picked up a player who came in and hit 40 home runs the next season. But the White Sox -- a franchise that has had one 45-homer man in team history (Albert Belle) -- had no assurance that that was the Jim Thome they were getting.

 

They also didn't know they'd just traded for a guy who would be leading their team in homers, RBI, runs scored, on-base percentage and slugging percentage nearly a month into the season.

 

But Thome has proven that all he needed was a little health -- and a grueling, daily, one-hour workout regiment to maintain it -- to morph back into his old 40-bomb-a-year self.

 

"I think I had something to prove -- to myself," he says. "When you have surgery, you always think, 'Will I ever be the same?' "

 

Well, now he knows he's the same player. But he's not the same guy.

 

"Baseball can be very humbling, and I had that experience a year ago," he says. "And that's the reason I'm having so much fun -- because I was hurt. And I understand now it's not going to last forever. So I'm going to cherish every time I step on the field, because you never know when it's going to end."

 

"Baseball can be very humbling, and I had that experience a year ago. And that's the reason I'm having so much fun -- because I was hurt. And I understand now it's not going to last forever. So I'm going to cherish every time I step on the field, because you never know when it's going to end."

-- Jim Thome

 

So now he takes a moment every night to gaze into the seats -- to catch a glimpse of his wife, his 3-year-old daughter, his sisters and brothers and old friends. And it means a little extra -- "especially when I look up and see my dad in the stands."

 

"My dad has always been a baseball guy," Jim Thome says. "He's always loved the game of baseball. And more than anything else, that's why it makes me so happy to be here."

 

This, Thome says, "is keeping him active. Now he has more than just fishing to keep him active. He can watch 150-something games on TV. Or he can get in his car and come to the game, and still get home that night."

 

Or, as he did during the last home stand, Chuck Thome can hitch a ride to the park with his buddies. Then, after a Wednesday day game, with an off day the next day, father and son can hop into Thome's car and take the 150-mile ride to Jim Thome's hunting lodge outside Peoria.

 

"That's the part that's really neat," says Thome, one of the few men in America who can utter a phrase like "really neat" and sound genuine. "Just to have that two-hour ride together and talk baseball. We never had that chance before."

 

But this, of course, is the perfect time and place. It's Jim Thome's second-chance season. And he's thankful for everything about it. ...

 

For the championship clubhouse that allowed him to fit right in. ... For the good health that has allowed him to enjoy being a baseball player again. ... And, most of all, for the special time this change of area code has delivered to his family's doormat.

 

Soon, it will be summer. And that will mean even more visits from more members of the Thome delegation: His father. His two brothers. His two sisters. All those nieces and nephews.

 

They'll all be descending on the Thome residence, "where we'll have some cookouts," Thome laughs. "Definitely."

 

And they'll be descending, too, on the suddenly pulsating ballpark on the South Side of Chicago. It isn't Wrigley. But it's now a place that's feeling more like home to Jim Thome every day.

 

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Edited April 27, 2006 by RockRaines

[Heads22]

I love Jim.

[Texsox]

 

There was one guy in all of baseball that the Sox could have picked up, while letting Frank go, and KW found him.

[retro1983hat]

Thome's Home! On the South Side.

[southsider2k5]

Wow.

 

The Year After

No World Series winner in history has ever added a player who hit 40 home runs the year after that title.

 

In fact, only 10 players (a total of 12 times) have ever hit 40 or more homers for a defending champ, even when you include players who were there the year before:

[AddisonStSox]

And now, across the street, where Thome finds himself hitting cleanup for the World Series champs, there is a whole new connection, more powerful than most people realize.

 

This guy could have told me what size Jockeys Jim wears, but messes this up.

 

Editing. It's editing, Stark.

[daa84]

This guy could have told me what size Jockeys Jim wears, but messes this up.

 

Editing.  It's editing, Stark.

yeah he did make that slip up, but i must say thats one of the best baseball articles i have ever read...and normally i dislike jayson stark

[Gregory Pratt]

I wonder if he'd take less money from the White Sox to stay in Chicago when his contract is up.

[greasywheels121]

I wonder if he'd take less money from the White Sox to stay in Chicago when his contract is up.

 

He'll be 39 when this contract is over.

[greasywheels121]

I know the Hall says what team you go into it with, but WHEN Jim hits his 500th HR with the Sox, and IF Jim wins a World Series with us, does he go into the Hall a White Sox?

 

I don't know if I can predict that; that's something I can only look at in hindsight. It's definitely possible, but right now I see a Cleveland hat.

[Heads22]

I see him in a Cleveland hat as well unless he hits 150 homers in the next 3 years.

[southsider2k5]

I know the Hall says what team you go into it with, but WHEN Jim hits his 500th HR with the Sox, and IF Jim wins a World Series with us, does he go into the Hall a White Sox?

 

Not a chance. When all is said and done, Jim Thome is an Indian through and through. Its how he should be remembered.

[WCSox]

I see him in a Cleveland hat as well unless he hits 150 homers in the next 3 years.

 

I agree. He was in Cleveland for 12 years. Him going to Cooperstown in a Sox hat would be like Frank winning the WS with Oakland this year and wearing an A's hat during his induction. Since Manny will likely go in a BoSox hat, Jim will likely feel even more inclined to represent the Tribe.

 

That was a nice article, despite the fact that it came from ESPN The Mag. I freaking hate them. I decided to not renew my subscription not long ago and stopped sending payments to them. Apparently they automatically renew your subscription every year and will actually send you a letter threatening action from a collection agency if you don't pay for a subscription that you never agreed to renew in the first place. And, interestingly, this "outstanding balance" can be magically "forgiven" by a simple phone call requesting a cancellation of your account. (Since they didn't send the magazines yet, they obviously can't demand payment through a collection agency.) It's a sleazy predatory tactic where they try to frighten and intimidate customers into renewing a subscription. I'm going to enjoy writing my letter to the Better Business Bureau this weekend.

Edited April 28, 2006 by WCSox

[Soxfest]

Awesome to have such a good clubhouse guy for players to see how to play the game the right way, reminds me of Fisk in clubhouse will speak if needed.

[Gregory Pratt]

He'll be 39 when this contract is over.

 

Provided he's not declining when his contract's over, I'd seriously consider resigning him.

[My Dixie Normus]

It was a good article and I like the guy even more now than I did before but I could have done without all of the 'second choice' stuff about the Cubs. He is a great fit here and the trade seems to be a win/win for both teams.

[Balta1701]

Provided he's not declining when his contract's over, I'd seriously consider resigning him.

His current contract has 3 years left on it including this one, and a $14 million option for a 4th year.

 

What I might consider doing if Thome gets through this season completely healthy? Pull a Chipper Jones. In exchange for giving Jones the option year of his contract as a guaranteed year, the Braves got him to agree to cut his salary by a couple million in the couple years beforehand.

 

The Sox might be able to save themselves a million or two for each of the next 2 years if they tried something similar with Thome. Jim's making a total of $14,166,667 this year and I think the next 2 years also...say we go to him and ask him if he'll take a cut to $12-$13 million for each of the next 2 years if we guarantee him the 09 season at $12 million. We'd cut the amount we're spending on him the next 2 years and lock him up for another year at a cheaper rate than we would by picking up the option that year.

[GreatScott82]

I know the Hall says what team you go into it with, but WHEN Jim hits his 500th HR with the Sox, and IF Jim wins a World Series with us, does he go into the Hall a White Sox?

Hmm thats a very good question. Well he will most likely hit #500 here, and he would win his first every world series here. It would be a very close call. However, he would probably go as an Indian. Didn't Wade Boggs win a world series with the Yankees, but still went in as a Red Sox?

[TitoMB345]

Wow, that article was very, very interesting. I loved it. Jim Thome is the man.

[Gregory Pratt]

His current contract has 3 years left on it including this one, and a $14 million option for a 4th year.

 

What I might consider doing if Thome gets through this season completely healthy?  Pull a Chipper Jones.  In exchange for giving Jones the option year of his contract as a guaranteed year, the Braves got him to agree to cut his salary by a couple million in the couple years beforehand.

 

The Sox might be able to save themselves a million or two for each of the next 2 years if they tried something similar with Thome.  Jim's making a total of $14,166,667 this year and I think the next 2 years also...say we go to him and ask him if he'll take a cut to $12-$13 million for each of the next 2 years if we guarantee him the 09 season at $12 million.  We'd cut the amount we're spending on him the next 2 years and lock him up for another year at a cheaper rate than we would by picking up the option that year.

 

I like it.

[Iwritecode]

Hmm thats a very good question. Well he will most likely hit #500 here, and he would win his first every world series here. It would be a very close call.  However, he would probably go as an Indian. Didn't Wade Boggs win a world series with the Yankees, but still went in as a Red Sox?

 

Wade Boggs was the reason MLB started choosing the hats for the players. He was going to go in as a Devil Ray because he signed a contract with them that had a condition that he would wear a Devil Rays cap in his Hall of Fame plaque.

[Balta1701]

Not a chance.  When all is said and done, Jim Thome is an Indian through and through.  Its how he should be remembered.

I agree with you 95%, but it's also not entirely out of the question that Thome could do something so memorable in Chicago that we'd wind up with a shot. I.e. he gets to 600 home runs here, wins like 3-4 rings, has some dynamite postseasons, etc.

[chisox72]

I usually hate Stark too, but this article made me smile. Thome is awesome. Its great to read some of his quotes and know through and through that he isn't just spouting off bulls*** to come off as a good guy. He really is. The guy impresses me more and more each day and it really is an honor to have him on our team.

 

[DABearSoX]

Thome told the team he would waive his no-trade clause to go to only two places: Cleveland (because "that was really our home in the game")

 

 

Is there a reason I don't understand this?

 

whose home?