Minnesota Twins DH Jim Thome joined an elite group last night, hitting his 599th and 600th career home runs to join this group:
Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Ken Griffey Jr. 630
Alex Rodriguez 626
Sammy Sosa 609
Jim Thome 600
Jill wrote me last night to say she, Byron and 10-year-old Mack had seen five of the eight play in person. Only two for me I think, Rodriguez and Griffey. (Jill also reminded me that we saw Rodriguez play in the first series of his career, July 1994 Seattle at Boston.)
I realized later that Mack has only seen four – he never saw Griffey.
Didn’t you say that you saw Bonds in the minors? That counts.
I saw Bonds a few times between ’98-’03. He hit the ball so hard during pre-game batting practice it was audible. So if you were goofing around and not paying attention for a few minutes you could tell it was Bonds’ turn in the cage again by the sound of the contact.
Saw Sosa quite a few times during that period too. In ’01 or sometime around there he got so big, so puffy, you could see he had a hard time getting the bat around when he was on the on-deck circle. At that time the manager and coaches asked him to drop weight and he shed 25lbs in a couple weeks. That’s when I knew.
Saw Griffey hit one out in the old Kingdome. That place was awful. Just a big ugly cave. We talked about how unbelievably crappy it was the entire game. Griffey comes up in the 7th and jacks one to right-center and transformed that awful cave into something so marvelous we just stood there in amazement with our jaws hanging open.