Nurse the Hate: Jim Thome Redux

As expected, a spate of articles have come out after Thome's 600th home run talking about how he has "done it the right way" and how he's a great all around guy. Cleveland sports writer Terry Pluto: "Jim Thome's Better Than A Good Story, He's A Good Man". Plain Dealer sports writer Bill Livingston offered up the irrefutable evidence of Thome's family being "big". My Aunt is "big", but she also doesn't get paid for athletics, you know what I mean? I don't doubt Thome's a great all around guy. I do doubt he did it "the right way". Seriously, you expect me to believe that he was the only Super Performer of his era not to do steroids? Is that right? This is the same guy that came up with Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez, but the secret creams and jells of the franchise were only shared with those guys? Ssshhhh.... Keep it quiet! Here comes Jimmy!

If Jim Thome wasn't a big likeable white lug, the mainstream media would be crawling up in his ass asking some tough questions. Has anyone even asked? Has anyone but me looked at these pictures? Thome's biggest home run years were from age 30-35. That isn't the way it works. The only guys to hit more home runs than him after age 30 were Aaron, Ruth and Mays. Oh yeah, and Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmiero. After Thome on the Home Runs After Age 30 list? McGwire and Sosa. Let's recap, shall we? The Big Three of All Time. Four Steroid Users from The Steroid Era. And Jim Thome. Nothing to look at here people! Let's all move along.

"It irritates the hell out of me that they bring [steroids] up with Jimmy," said Mike Hargrove. "He has never been mentioned as using it. I was around him every day [from 1993-99] during the season, and he never had the mood swings, the change of complexion or other signs." Of course, that's if you buy into the idea that the teams who had invested tens of millions into their players didn't take the trouble to check into what their guys were doing. I know the Giants would have put a stop to Bonds, his 79 home runs, and massive post season revenues had they only had an inkling of foul play! I know the Cubs also would have stopped those cash registers at Wrigley from ringing had they known that formerly spindly Sammy Sosa was on the juice. A team can tell if a guy has a degenerative condition in his shoulder, but they don't notice 40 extra pounds of muscle. Sure. Makes sense.

Take a look at those pictures. You tell me what was going on.

Baseball wants to move past all of this ugliness. The last thing anyone wants is more questions about how all this was allowed to continue for so long. You notice how the Bonds and Clemens trials quietly got swept under the rug? No one is going to say shit about Thome. His timing, like on those 3-1 fastballs, was perfect.