Sports: Thome gets 500th dinger

September 16, 2007
By Billy Dennis

jim_thome.jpg

I agree with Marathon Pundit. Jim Thome is a classy guy and I’m glad he reached the 500 home-run milestone. Too bad it’s wasted on the typical White Sox fan (present company excluded).

The Cubs beat the Cardinals today, and remain alone at the top of the Central Division.

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16 Responses to “ Sports: Thome gets 500th dinger ”

  1. BobSam on September 16, 2007 at 7:25 pm

    500th today!

    http://www.pjstar.com/php/index.php?/sports/wap/chicago_thomes_500th_walkoff_winner_for_sox/

    And here are the PIXS I haven’t deleted from his visit last winter to the Power Alley in Peoria
    http://imageevent.com/midillini/tho0118

    A 30 second video from a few of the above images.
    http://animoto.com/play/5a927d3680593dcbaf5ac737c437f5cd

    Congrats To JIM! A True American Hero! NO JUICE HERE!

  2. Peo Proud on September 16, 2007 at 7:55 pm

    Was at the Cubs-Cardinals game today. Other than one big 1/2 inning – nothing that spectacular out of the Cubs…unfortunately that was all it took.

  3. Anon E. Mouse on September 16, 2007 at 10:08 pm

    Wow, the Cubs take 3 of 4 from the Cardinals and the bird fans are still talking smack. Well, I politely took what they (yes THEY, THEM – the dirty bird fans) dished out this season. I am done taking it.

    The Cubbies absolutely PWNED the Cardinals this season. (Zip it, CJ – they wont even get to attempt a defense the “World Champion” prefix you so often note).

    So, on a personal note to all you stinking Cardinal fans out there – PUT A SOCK IN IT. Root for the Brewers (or the Mets – ha ha! That’ll leave a taste in your mouth that all the toothpaste and Listerine in the world won’t wash away!) if you must.

    So, to the writer and all those who laughed at the “No Tinker, No Evers, no chance!” poem in the Post Dispatch – UP YOURS!!
    To CJ, especially CJ and his “you mean World Champion” I say to you…I say…HA, HA ha HA!
    To my buddy, A.H. (yeah, those are his initials doesn’t MEAN that A.H. couldn’t also stand for something else) who sent me an email a week ago Friday night that said “The Cubs lost, the Brewers are losing – if the Cardinals win tonight, there will be a three-way tie for first.” – I say STFU.

    Now, the Cubs might just win the World Series or they could flop the last two weeks and not even make the post season, but it doesn’t really matter at this point. The Cubs consistently and soundly beat th St. Louis National League Ball Club this season. That right there is enough to keep me warm all winter long.

    To the rest of you Cardinal fans, I say, go away or I shall taunt you again!

  4. BJ Stone on September 16, 2007 at 10:34 pm

    “nothing that spectacular out of the Cubs…unfortunately that was all it took.”

    In the Comedy Central, that’s all it takes. Sad that Cub fans are so excited…10 years ago they’d be playing out the string. The BEST team in the NL Central would be about 15 games BELOW .500 in the American League.

    But hey, you guys stay excited, because the rules are the rules, despite their best efforts somebody has to win the division, and therefore somebody gets to go to the playoffs.

  5. BJ Stone on September 16, 2007 at 10:43 pm

    BTW, there shouldn’t be any Cub news attached to a story about Jimmy Thome, local boy made good. I think his 500th homer earned the right to have it’s own post and not one polluted with other news.

    Congrats to Jimmy! And yes, from the times I’ve talked with him, he has never been anything but gracious and a great guy. I wish, like his father said in Kirk Wessler’s story last week, his career had not been at the same time as all these steroid geeks who’ve ruined the sport. If steroids weren’t around, Jimmy would be rivaled only by McGwire (who didn’t need the ‘roids and stupidly did them anyway) and Junior Griffey as the greatest sluggers of our generation. Jim Thome is a throwback slugger. A real baseball player in the mold of Harmon Killebrew and Boog Powell from my childhood. He’d have fit right in amongst those great power hitters.

  6. John Ruberry on September 16, 2007 at 11:12 pm

    Hey, we won the game. And the Cubs had their chance, but the Phillies signed him as a free agent a a few years ago. Now it’s too late, injuries and age have made him DH material.

  7. Anon E. Mouse on September 17, 2007 at 7:43 am

    BJ, I thought you quit baseball (and NASCAR).

  8. BJ Stone on September 17, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    Mouse…I did, quit ‘em both. But I read the news about Thome and was happy for him. Plus, I checked the standings in the paper for the Comedy Central before I posted to see what all the fuss was about. I was right. The whole division still sucks.

  9. Rob B. on September 18, 2007 at 7:39 am

    Lets see; 30 teams, 21 of whom are worse than the Cubs. I’m ok with that at this point. Are they an offensive juggernaut? No. Are they doing well enough to get into the post season? Yes. Since ultimately that is what matters, go Cubs. The Sox and Cards are 2 recent reminders of this point.

    Following BJ’s logic, since he is in a relatively miniscule media outlet town, he may as well watch CNN wide eyed and mail it in. Or, perhaps he would like to see no post season; maybe the team that gets the streakiest in 162 games, or the team that has the fewest injuries wins, or the team with the most jersey sales wins.

    For a guy who has “quit” whatever it is he has “quit”, we sure do see a lot of posting about what he doesn’t care about.

  10. Anon E. Mouse on September 18, 2007 at 7:57 am

    BJ
    A. The Cubs have a way better record than the Twinkies. In fact, the Twins, 3rd place in the AL Central would be in…wait for it…3rd place in the NL Central.
    B. You can’t indulge your freaky ‘Cubs lose’ fetish.
    C. You admittedly no longer pay attention. How can your opinion be an informed one?

  11. BJStone on September 18, 2007 at 9:39 am

    Rob – I quit watching games. I quit spending money on jerseys and hats and anything else associated with the game. I quit paying daily attention to the standings. I quit playing “fantasy baseball”, which required that aforementioned daily attention to the standings.

    Now, does all that mean I’m no longer “qualified” to talk about baseball? Hardly. With all due respect and trying to say this as humbly as possible, I’ve forgotten more about baseball than most people know about the game, present company included. It has been a big part of my life. I played it, I got paid to play it, I learned it from the best, I taught it, I umpired it, I coached it, I studied it, and for many years I just flat-out lived it.

    I am not qualified to talk in depth about the inner workings of a small-block Chevy, even though I like working on cars with my limited ability. I am not qualified to talk in depth about home construction or plumbing or lawn care, even though I have enough knowledge to mow the lawn and do simple repairs.

    However, know this: I am incredibly qualified to talk about baseball. I am of the firm belief that the teams with the best records are probably the best teams and should therefore go to the playoffs. I am of the firm belief that “divisions” are artificial ways to create playoff excitement where sometimes it shouldn’t exist (see: NL Central) because it means more money. I also understand it, and if the Cubs “win” the division, so be it, but that doesn’t make them any good. They are a flawed team at best, lucky to be in the division they are in. Period.

    Mouse, I’m quite certain (and I’m not alone), roles being reversed, the records would be more than reversed. Now matter how flawed the Twins are (and they are), they would be winning the NL Central handily right now, NOT in third place. Ask any baseball executive not working in Milwaukee and Chicago, and he’d tell you the same thing. The Kansas City Royals and the White Sox, if they were in the NL Central, would be battling for the lead. Team for team, the AL is vastly superior to the NL right now, again, any exec will tell you the same.

    You guys are fortunate that your team is in a pennant race. Enjoy it. But remember, in today’s baseball, being in a pennant race doesn’t make you any good. To use a musical analogy, even Vanilla Ice had a #1 song once.

  12. Anon E. Mouse on September 18, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    BJ seems to agree with John McGraw.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_World_Series

    Baseball hasn’t been the same since 1903. It just ruined the game.

  13. Anon E. Mouse on September 18, 2007 at 5:03 pm

    BJ – you shot your mouth off without looking at the facts.

    NL Team with winning records vs AL teams 2007:
    Chi Cubs .667
    Colorado .556
    NY Mets .533
    Philadelphia .533
    Milwaukee .533
    Arizona .533

    You are right, though, when you say playoffs are “artificial ways to create playoff excitement where sometimes it shouldn’t exist (see: NL Central) because it means more money.” That is why the World Series was created. You seem to forget that there aren’t six teams in each league – there are 16 & 14 teams. Cry and whine (which you do over almost ANY subject) the fact is that the fans, in general, LOVE it.

  14. BJ Stone on September 18, 2007 at 7:49 pm

    We’ll continue this at my blog. I’ve got too much to say in this comment section.

  15. Good Year For The Outlaw » Response to the Mouse, Who's Running HIS Mouth Without The Facts. on September 18, 2007 at 8:01 pm

    [...] Discussion continued from Billy’s blog. [...]

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