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Tomorrow’s the 2018 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

55,000 people are expected in Cooperstown tomorrow.

Will TO be there?

As soon as they induct Rose, I’ll care

he broke gambling rules as a manager of a major league team. I used to think be deserved to be in the hall, but I no longer do. I also think he's low-class. I could provide reasons why but it would take all freaking night.

It's nobody's fault but Pete's.

Nice.

They would induct him as a player, not a manager. He’s the games greatest hitter He never bet against the Reds, so his gambling, while an addiction that he suffered from, didn’t cause him to do anything questionable against his team so he could win a bet. It’s petty and baseball sucks.

That makes sense to me. (That Rose makes it as a player.)

Isn't OJ Simpson still in the NFL HOF?



But not in prison.

Tribe key in Thome's path to Hall
https://www.mlb.com/news/indians-at-center-of-thomes-hof-career/c-287509032

As slugger nears Cooperstown induction, a look back at storied career

The Jim Thome Story will not be written by Jim Thome. Not here, not now. Thome is still having a hard time processing the baseball life that led him to Cleveland and to Cooperstown. The corn-fed, Midwest-bred ballplayer with the broad shoulders and big swing arose out of obscurity to become not just one of the most productive players in Indians history, but surely one of the most beloved. Now he's headed into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and words escape him.

"I'm going to need to find a dictionary," the 47-year-old Thome said. "I don't know enough words to describe my feelings."

So we'll provide the words for Thome. We'll tell the story of this humble hero -- a gentleman who graced the game not just with his prodigious power, but with his pleasant personality and pure heart -- who can now call himself a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

The childhood story

Hall of Fame hitting wasn't just the hallmark of Thome's Major League career. It was rooted deep into the Peoria, Ill., native's DNA.

Let the record show that long before Big Jim got his Cooperstown call, his grandpa Chuck, his uncle Art and his aunt Carolyn were all inducted into the fast-pitch softball wing of the Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. And Carolyn is also a member of the Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame and the Illinois State Softball Hall of Fame.

"Jimmy's a good young player," a Peoria native named Chuck Siebel told Sports Illustrated in 1998. "But his aunt could rip it!"

Thome's emergence in the Majors was like some predestined family feat finally realized. Perhaps his grandpa would have preceded him as a pro had he not taken a job at a distillery to support his family. And Thome himself likely never would have made it if not for the input, advice and never-ending support of his father Chuck Jr., himself a star in Peoria's Sunday morning semipro softball league.

With bat and ball firmly embedded in his background, it's no surprise that Thome shined on the diamond, though it was his brother Randy's urging that he move from the right-hand side of the plate to the left-hand side around the age of 5 or 6 that really sprung him there.

Hall of Fame: Jim Thome
Hall of Fame: Jim Thome
02:21
Jul. 26th, 2018

But Thome was actually a two-sport star, earning of all-state honors in baseball and basketball at Limestone High School.

"I was so fortunate and so proud that I grew up where I did," he said. "Peoria was such a special place. The people there are so special. All my high school coaches, youth coaches, my dad, my brothers who motivated and pushed me, my buddies, our high school team … all those players through high school that we were fortunate to be around and have fun with and play the game, it was just so special. I love Peoria. It's where it all started."

But Major League teams didn't catch on to Thome in Peoria. He went undrafted out of high school. It took a scout's intuition in an unlikely place to get him the opportunity he needed -- and that opportunity would appropriately come in a Midwest market that fit Thome's unassuming style so well.

The scout story

The Illinois Central College Cougars were between games of a doubleheader in the spring of 1989 when Tom Couston approached the club's gangly shortstop from behind.

"Stand right there and don't turn around," Couston told Thome. "Act like you're not talking to me."

Couston was a scout for the Indians, and he didn't want any of the other scouts on hand to know he was interested in Thome.

"If we draft you," Couston asked Thome, "will you sign?" Thome was stunned for a second. Then he answered.

"Draft me!"

And that's how it happened. That's how the Indians officially began their relationship with the man who would become the most prolific slugger in franchise history.

In a story that mirrors the folkloric tale of Cy Slapnicka finding Bob Feller in the Iowa corn fields, Couston plucked Thome virtually out of nowhere. Thome had just struck out in a crucial situation when Couston approached him. But the scout loved the way the kid hustled, saw something in his swing, had that gut feeling that those in search of the Next Big Thing sometimes have to ride for all it's worth. Even in the smallest of samples and low-profile of settings, Couston thought Thome might amount to something, and that June he implored the Indians to take Thome with the 333rd overall pick in the Draft.

It was the 13th round and, well, we can safely say now that it was a lucky 13. There were 26 players taken in that round. To say that Thome was the only one of the 26 to reach the Hall of Fame is to state the obvious. But only one other guy -- right-hander Mike Oquist, who went No. 323 overall -- even reached the big leagues. Heck, the only other Draft pick in the 13th round in 1989 who went on to have a sustained career at the highest level of his sport was Oakland A's draftee Rodney Peete … the eventual NFL quarterback.

Thome himself had some visions of grandeur in another athletic avenue. He still loved the hardwood. But the Indians' opportunity proved too good to pass up. And with the help of one very specific coach in the Indians' system, he would maximize that opportunity.

Thome on playing for Indians
Thome on playing for Indians
01:17
Jan. 25th, 2018

The coach story

On the morning of the announcement, before all the hubbub associated with getting into the Hall was about to swallow up his schedule, Thome had a warm, emotion-packed phone call with the man whose impact on his career was outsized.

Charlie Manuel was on the other end of the line, and that's not atypical for these two. Formerly pupil and student, Thome and Manuel have become, in Thome's wife Andrea's words, "like father and son," and they talk at least a couple times a month.

This call was a little bit different than the rest. With Thome, at that moment, on the cusp of selection into baseball's most prestigious place, Manuel was very much a proud "father."

"It's just so special," Thome said about their relationship. "I would not be [in the Hall] if it wasn't for him. I can truly and honestly say that. What he meant to my career, what he meant to me personally, the changes that we made. Yes, I think I had to do it, but I think what he did so well is he made every player feel like they were a great player. I reaped the rewards of his thought process with that."

The process occurred in the spring of 1990. Thome, who shifted from short to third, had had an uninspiring start to his professional career, batting .237 with zero homers in 55 games at the Tribe's Gulf Coast League affiliate in '89. Manuel was a hitting coach in the organization, and after watching the kid in the cage, he proposed that Thome open up his stance.

"I wanted to put him close to the plate, yet I didn't want to lose his strength to the opposite field," Manuel said. "Therefore, I opened him up, put him a little bit so his back foot was close to the plate. I told him I wanted him to keep his rear end under him, and instead of stepping right toward the pitcher, he would be stepping right there where the corner of the grass is on the right. It was very important that he stayed in a good, strong hitting position. Once we did that, he started hitting balls all over the yard. Started pulling the ball strong and hitting the ball hard the other way, too."

There was one other element to all this: the Roy Hobbs pose. The Thome mystique is incomplete without it.

Manuel and Thome liked the way Robert Redford, in the movie "The Natural," holds the bat out in front of himself with his right hand, shoulder high, in his setup. So they tried it, and from that point forward, basically, Thome was, himself, a natural. He hit .340 with 16 homers across two levels in 1990 and began to find his way onto top prospects lists. Thome split the 1991 season between Double-A and at Triple-A, where Manuel was the manager.

It was in September of that year, just two years and a few months removed from playing for Illinois Central, that a 20-year-old Thome reached the big leagues for the first time. The Indians won just 57 games that year, but one of those victories was clinched when the baby-faced infielder from Peoria smacked a two-run shot off Steve Farr on Oct. 4.

That was the first time a Jim Thome homer impacted the Indians. It was far from the last.

The stats story

When Thome was growing up, he knelt at the throne of a king … or a Kingman, rather. Dave Kingman, he of the 442 career homers and 1,816 career strikeouts, was his baseball hero, and Thome would do a pretty good job in his own career of following the Kingman model of power and punchouts (in baseball history, only Reggie Jackson struck out more than Thome).

But the comparison to Kingman ends there. Because Thome added another "p" to the equation: patience. Indeed, his career on-base percentage of .402 was a full 100 points higher than Kingman.

All of which is to say, Thome put himself in some extremely rare statistical terrain. We're talking about a player who notched an at-bats-per-home-run rate (13.76) bested only by Mark McGwire (10.61), Babe Ruth (11.76) and Barry Bonds (12.92) and put up an OBP one point higher than that of Hall of Fame leadoff man Rickey Henderson.

It's what made Thome so special, and it's what made comparisons to Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew -- another slugger with Paul Bunyan-like strength and a heart of gold -- far more apt than any comparison to Kingman.

Thome's career will primarily be noted for his inclusion in the exclusive 600-home run club, which holds just nine men. But simply because Thome, through no fault of his own, played at a time when the 600 mark became watered down slightly by the game's power surge, it's his 1,747 walks (seventh all-time) that add weight to that waypost.

To strike out at least 2,000 times with an OBP of .400 is unheard of. Quite literally, nobody else in baseball has done it. You want to know Thome's batting average in plate appearances in which he didn't walk or strike out? It's .396. Craziness.

Thome on his walk-off homers
Thome on his walk-off homers
01:01
Jan. 25th, 2018

There's one other Thome stat that requires recognition: 13. No, that's not another reference to his Draft round. That's how many walk-off home runs Thome hit in his career; the most all-time.

"As a young player, you go through this phase of anxiety," he said. "As you evolve as a player, you want to take that pressure off of yourself. As my career evolved, I wanted to be in a situation where you have a chance to win a game."

All of this is to say Thome gave his team a chance to win many games -- in Cleveland and elsewhere. With the Indians, he compiled franchise records in homers (337) and walks (1,008) and win probability added (32.1). Thome also hit the most prodigious blast in Progressive nee Jacobs Field history -- a 511-footer in 1999. That's all impressive stuff.

But in Cleveland, they don't remember the numbers. They remember the man.

The legacy story

Jim Thome caught the out that sent the Indians to their first postseason appearance in 41 years. It was a lazy popup, an easy play, and by that point in early September 1995, in the midst of a strike-shortened 144-game season in which the Indians somehow won 100 games, it was a foregone conclusion that the American League Central was in hand. Thome's catch just made it official.

But that didn't make the play any less special for a franchise and for a city that for too long endured bad baseball in a bad ballpark while serving as the butt of bad jokes. Thome was one of many homegrown products and wily pickups that made the Indians such a devastatingly dominant ballclub upon arrival to the sparkling new stadium at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. But his induction into the Hall of Fame makes him the official face of the Tribe's mid-'90s renaissance.

"It means everything," he said. "When a team drafts you and you're able to wear that hat and go in, I don't think it gets any better. With our teams in the '90s and all those early stages in the Minor Leagues with Dave Keller, Johnny Goryl, Brian Graham, Mark Shapiro, Dan O'Dowd … I could name the names all day long. But it's so great, too, what it did for that city. How we transcended from moving from the old ballpark to The Jake and to watch that city become what it is now. There was so much electricity, and we brought so much excitement. To go in as an Indian, I feel so honored. You're talking a storied franchise that's been around forever. It's an honor to do it."

Only 12 other players have been immortalized in Cooperstown's gallery wearing a Cleveland Indians cap. The last such player voted in by the Baseball Writers' Association of America was Bob Lemon, way back in 1976. So Thome's Hall call represents something bigger than just Thome.

Castrovince on Thome's HOF tour
Castrovince on Thome's HOF tour
01:33
Feb. 28th, 2018

There was a time when this was all a little more complicated. With the Indians' ballpark-opening run of greatness wound down, Thome left Cleveland -- the place where he made his mark and met his wife -- bound for Philadelphia in free agency before the 2003 season. It hurt. It was a move governed by money, and there's always a sense of bitterness when fiscal finality overtakes the concept of constancy. Looking back, it's pretty easy to assert that the divorce might have been necessary, and that an Indians team in dire need of a rebuild on the farm would have had a cumbersome contract on its hands and, perhaps, not done the fun things it did in that run to the 2007 AL Championship Series.

But yeah, Thome was persona non grata among Indians fans for a while there. He logged three years with Philadelphia before getting dealt to the White Sox, and that meant multiple trips to his old park and multiple choruses from the boo birds each year. His 500th and 600th home runs would come not in a Tribe uniform, but in the colors of division rivals in Chicago and in Minnesota. Through it all, Thome was on a nomadic quest for a World Series title that would never materialize, and the folks in the Indians' front office were rooting him on from afar, until or unless their goals came into direct conflict. It was all pretty weird.

Until 2011. That August, the Indians found themselves on the fringes of contention, and Thome, in the final year of his deal with the Twins, had just notched No. 600. There was nothing tying him to Minnesota anymore, and the Indians and Twins found a way to make it work on the waiver wire, even as Thome himself was worried about how he'd be perceived.

"Jimmy was so nervous about coming back," Sandy Alomar Jr. said. "He wanted to come back so bad. We'd talked on the phone a few times, and he was so nervous about it, about peoples' reaction. And rightfully so. He had a huge contract in Philly, but that's baseball. Our fans are going to get mad, because they don't want to lose people of that caliber. It's a natural reaction from fans. They get upset about teams stealing our players and stuff like that. I told Jimmy, 'They love you here, man. You're one of the most prolific players who has played this game. The people here, they love you. They're going to give you a standing ovation.' He was like, ' I don't know about that.' He was nervous."

Thome had nothing to be nervous about. The response to his brief-but-uplifting return was rapturous. And if you were in attendance at Progressive Field on Sept. 23, 2011, when Thome homered one last time as a member of the Indians on the night the team honored his legacy, well, if you didn't gain goosebumps you must have required extensive medical attention. For that was a magic moment -- the kind Thome specialized in.

Now, there is no more awkwardness when it comes to the Indians and Thome. He has a statue at Progressive Field. He has the one-day contract he signed with the Tribe when he officially hung up his big league cleats for good. And quite soon, the aw-shucks slugger plucked out of Peoria will have a plaque in Cooperstown bearing his name and the logo of his "hometown" team.

It's a pretty good story, don't you think?

The newest class of inductees L-R, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Jim Thome, Alan Trammel and Jack Morris @baseballhall @Indians



https://twitter.com/stomattu/status/1023261022352822272

I’ve heard Braves fans have taken the city over.

City ... *LOL* ... you’ve obviously never been ...

I’m with Tulsa...

Rose the player should have been a unanimous 1st ballot inductee ...

One of the greatest ever ... he made the all star team at 3 or 4 positions ... his fielding was overlooked ...

I actually have. Where I live everything is called a city no matter how big.

Also, Pete Rose broke the one rule you can't break. He knew it when he did it. On top of that he is a horrible, horrible person.

Go figure ... living in cali you’d figure something as small as Cooperstown would be a small hick town ... i guess since its is twice the size as Mayberry its a city ... *L* ..

Rose is a pos human being ...

it was never proven he bet on baseball as a player ... no reason for him not to be in as a player ...

Not gonna debate that ... im not gonna change your opinion and u have no shot of changing my since i’m Right ... *L* ..

Its bedtime for me ... enjoy your evening ...

Bringing up a player's character?

Rose is - in my opinion - a jerk.

So what?

Ty Cobb was nasty.



Those were hand-sharpened metal cleats on his shoes. Cobb is trying to disembowel this catcher.

Gosh, I sure hope he didn't bet on baseball games.

Sorry.



Congratulations and thanks guys!

PS. Jack Morris is still ugly.

Shhhh ...

The Babe, the Mick and Whitey Ford were “characters” also ...

The HOF is full of “characters” ...

Well, yeah.

It's not the "Good Guys Hall of Fame".

At least induction in to the baseball HOF isn't as subjective as, for instance, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

I've listened to Rock & Roll music for over 40 years and I have two older brothers and an older sister who all listened to rock & roll for years before me.

I've never heard of a bunch of the R&R HOF inductees.

The R&R HOF selection committee obviously has a social agenda.

Pretty sure they have a minimum entrance requirement of certain levels of snorting coke, shooting up herion and having had at least x # of orgies ...

Barry Bonds should be in the HOF.

People can't tell me that guys like Jim Thome didn't use 'roids. His head tripled in size over the course of his career.

Also, I was never a fan of Thome. He is like a lot of current players. Big power numbers and a ton of strikeouts. A lot of the homers came in games where the outcome wasn't in doubt.

Out of stupid curiosity, I thought I'd look into this. You may be on to something.

I think a larger percentage of players from that era were using, albeit in varying degrees. I think that some were dangled in front of the media due to their own stupidity and/or as sacrificial lambs for the media to feast on.

every era has its own "fad" that players use IMO ... whether that was spitballs, doctoring the ball, drugs, PEDs, supplements, etc. So, it's really hard to say who shouldn't be allowed in ... so, just go straight by numbers IMO. If the numbers say the're a HOFer, just let them all in.

Ever take a look at a picture of yourself when you were 20, and compare it to how you look now? I know for me, my face looks a lot fleshier now than in my early-20's, 25-lbs-lighter face. There was never so much as a hint of the steroid scandal about Thome. I'll go further - I met him once in Winter Haven, and he was as advertised: a big, kind of doofus-y farm boy, without a bit of guile about him. He sat at the bar of in the Outback restaurant, nursing a beer, watching Final Four hoops, and chatting with anyone who approached him. Just an open-book type of friendly guy from "the country". I don't think he cheated. He's just a big guy that grew into his body as he matured.

Fleshier maybe, but not a lot of extra bone growth as these pics seem to indicate. Verse said his head's a lot bigger, and it is.

Did he break out with acne right around the time he “bulked up” and did that coincide with a huge burst in power numbers ... I don’t follow major league baseball that much now and didn’t watch it all for about a decade after they struck and cancelled the World Series ... so I have no clue about most ...

Guys like Pudge and Bonds and a bunch of others clearly were on roids ... just like when Big Mac and Jose “introduced” them to the sport a decade or so earlier ....

Its ironic i dont follow Major League Baseball hardly at all now ... as i sit in Pittsburgh after going to the Pirates game last night and am headed there in a bit for an afternoon game today ... *L* ...

I do it for my nephews and the fact Pitt has an INCREDIBLE stadium and i just love the atmosphere ... for some reason walking across a stupid bridge really adds to the atmosphere for me ... *L* ...

The pics don't seem to indicate anything in terms of "bone growth", as far as I can tell. They're not in the same scale, and he's wearing a hat in one. He's also 21-22 yrs old in one and approaching 50 in the other. Its pretty unfair to ask someone to prove a negative, when he's never been accused of juicing and there has never been any evidence of it.

Jim Thome on why he never took PEDs

Nice find!

Very appropriate response to that question.

Thome is clearly a class act.

yeah, that's a great response

About time Morris got the nod!

I'm gonna bow out of this. I feel dirty, not only for talking about this during Thome's HOF celebration, but also for agreeing with Vers. lol

I'll bow out, too. Different opinions on players are not really allowed.

If everyone juiced, no one really was at a disadvantage tbh. The Senate Committee's witch hunt killed baseball for me. This is a wired day, because this class was the last baseball class I stopped heroizing. I could tell you a lot about all of these guys, but couldn't for the life of me tell you what position Bryce Harper plays.

Yet Thome never got caught up in all of that. Any explanation?

I don’t know, I’ve seen that happen to a lot of men. It’s mostly attributed to beer and cheetos.

I wouldn't even have minded if they had held him out a few years as a slap on the wrist.. but enough is enough... he should have been in long ago.

He broke the one rule you can't break and then agreed to the punishment.

he's also a pedo, which kinda killed the #freepeterose movement for me.