Thome’s 500th Homer Clinches Victory

White Sox slugger Jim Thome sure picked the right moment to club his 500th career home run on Sunday.

With the game tied 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, former Angel Darin Ersted led off with a base hit to right field. Thome followed with a dramatic, game-winning home run to left center field which sent 35,000 fans into a state of delirium. It is perhaps the most memorable moment in Sox history since Game 2 of the 2005 World Series when Scott Podsednik’s deep fly ball landed in the seats to clinch a victory for the Sox.

Until Sunday’s magical moment, Thome had gone 0-11 in the series, and the Sox had climbed back from a 7-1 deficit to tie the game. You couldn’t have scripted a better ending than that.

There have been 23 players who hit more than 500 home runs in their careers, but Thome’s homer on Sunday was the first as a walk-off game-winner.

The fan who caught the ball, Will Stewart of Austin, Texas, who flew into town that morning for an accounting conference, promptly returned the ball to Thome during a post-game interview. At a time when most fans would rather grab the ball and sell it to the highest bidder, it’s rare to see a fan remain humble and modest in the face of so much excitement. In fact, Stewart said he did not know until that morning that Thome was on the brink of a major career milestone.

Thome and the Sox offered a generous gift package to the person who caught the home run ball that included season tickets for the 2008 and the use of Thome’s skybox for a Cubs-Sox game next year. Stewart, who is not from the Chicago area, accepted the skybox, but declined the season tickets. Instead, he donated the tickets back to Thome’s charity. You don’t see that very often.

With everything we’ve been hearing these days about what is wrong about baseball, Jim Thome is everything that is right about it.

The Big Hurt Joins Baseball’s “500 Club”

Congratulations to Frank “the Big Hurt” Thomas, who smashed his 500th career home run today against the Minnesota Twins, becoming only the 21st player in MLB history to reach that milestone, the Chicago Tribune reports. While the Toronto slugger rounded the bases, the Metrodome crowd gave Big Frank a standing ovation.

Thomas, who spent 16 seasons with the Chicago White Sox before playing for the Oakland A’s last season and the Toronto Blue Jays this year, has been an outspoken opponent against doping in baseball. You can be sure that this milestone wasn’t tainted with performance-enhancing drugs.