Jim Thome
James Howard "Jim" Thome (born August 27, 1970 in Peoria, Illinois) is a Major League baseball player who currently plays for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Thome originally played for the Cleveland Indians, joining the team for the first time in 1991 as a third baseman. In 1997, when the Indians traded for Matt Williams, Thome shifted over to first base. At the plate, Thome began to come into his own by 1995, when he hit 25 home runs and 73 runs batted in with a .314 batting average. Thome then hit 38 home runs in 1996 and 40 in 1997.
Thome became a prolific home run hitter, once hitting a 511-foot shot at Jacobs Field, the longest home run ever recorded at a Cleveland ballpark. By 2001, Thome hit 49 home runs with the Indians and then a career-high 52 homers in 2002.
For the 2003 season, Jim Thome accepted a six-year offer from the Philadelphia Phillies. Many thought that he would struggle in the National League, facing an entirely new set of pitchers, but Thome proved the critics wrong, hitting 47 home runs in his first season with the Phillies. By 2004, Thome had hit his 400th career home run before a home crowd at the brand new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, surpassing Al Kaline for 37th on the all-time home run list.
Off the field, Jim is putting all 10 of his nieces and nephews through college and it was reported on ESPN's Sportcenter that shortly after his nephew was paralyzed in a tragic accident he asked jim to hit him a Hr in a game, not only did jim fulfill the request but he hit more than one that day.
