Jim Thome
Jim Thome
James Howard "Jim" Thomeis a retired American baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1991 to 2012. He played for six different teams, most notably the Cleveland Indians during the 1990s and the Philadelphia Phillies in the early 2000s. A prolific power hitter, Thome hit 612 home runs during his career—the seventh-most all time—along with 2,328 hits, 1,699 runs batted in, and a .276 batting average. He was a member of five All-Star teams and won...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth27 August 1970
CountryUnited States of America
You look at our club, you look at the guys we have, everyone in the room knows how to play. We knew the way Detroit was playing coming into this series. That makes it even bigger to come in here and win the first two, with the momentum they had. It's good to get back on track.
It puts a little closure on everything. You play to win the game. You don't play to hear boos.
It will all even itself out. It's good to do that, but it's even better to win games.
They've accomplished something I haven't. I've been close a couple of times, but I haven't reached that ultimate goal. At this stage of my career, it's about winning. It really is. It's all about winning that final game of the year, and they've done that.
That was a big reason why I came here ? because of the success they had, winning it a year ago. Going to spring training and seeing the guys, how they prepare and how they go about their business, you can tell why they won it.
Starting with spring training, from Day 1, they really talk about winning here, and preaching winning. It's been very fun. It's been great. I can see now why this team wins. They're very focused, they're very upbeat about playing every day, and it's great.
This is a tremendous honor (winning the 2002 Roberto Clemente Award), to be considered in the same class as Roberto Clemente. He is a hero and role model for all of us who play the game and strive to be as good a player and person as he was.
Not playing every day, I kind of healed up a little bit from the little injuries that I had the year before. Then, when I got home this winter and my body wasn't beat up, I said, 'Wait a minute, this may work out.'
I've been out half the year, so today was a big day for me, getting out there, just seeing the pitching. The two balls I hit were good passes. For me, that's where I look. What kind of passes, how I feel in the box. Being out half the year, I was really happy with the first day, for sure.
To be honest, I don't comment on things like that. I try not to go there.
That was probably one of the toughest decisions I ever had to make. But you make the decisions you make and you move on.
It felt good. It was a big situation for us. Playing the Indians brought back a lot of fond memories for me. I have a lot of respect for all those guys over there.
With the emergence of Ryan Howard, who had a tremendous year, to be honest, I didn't really know what would happen,
We swung the bats really well today. This was a huge series for us - we knew we had to step it up against them, because they have been playing really well.