Jim Thome’s 600th home run should have been the story of the day on Aug. 15, 2011. Instead, Minnesota made it weird before the first pitch was even thrown.
Hours earlier, the Twins dealt Delmon Young to Detroit. By the end of the night, Young had already come back to haunt them, launching a first-inning homer off Francisco Liriano in his Tigers debut. Thome answered later, lining career home run No. 599 off Rick Porcello in the sixth inning of Minnesota’s 9-6 win.
The next swing turned into the real drama. One inning later, Thome stepped in against reliever Daniel Schlereth and sent a 2-1 slider toward left field. Young went after it, and for a split second it looked as if the man Minnesota had traded away just hours before might deny Thome a place in baseball history.
He couldn’t quite get there. The ball kept carrying, cleared Young’s reach, and landed in the bullpen, giving Thome home run No. 600 and making him just the eighth player in MLB history to reach the number. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire later joked that if Young had caught it, he "might have went out there personally and kicked his butt."
Thome got to 600 in 8,167 career at-bats, a total topped only by Babe Ruth’s 6,921 among players in the club. He also became the first player ever to hit Nos. 599 and 600 in the same game.
The 600-home run club has always had a certain mythic quality, filled with names tied to some of baseball’s loudest power explosions. Ruth set the standard with 60 homers in 1927.
Barry Bonds broke the single-season record with 73 in 2001. Sammy Sosa reached 66 in 1998 during his race with Mark McGwire.
Thome’s path was different. He built his way there with steady production year after year, putting together 17 seasons with at least 20 home runs. He still had plenty of thunder when everything lined up, too: 49 homers in Bonds’ record-setting 2001 season, then a career-best 52 the next year.
Now, 15 years later, Thome remains one of only nine players ever to join the club, with just one addition since he got there. That kind of company has only made 600 feel even bigger with time.
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