Daily blurb
Much has been made of the fact that Albert Pujols has never been linked to steroid use. But another slugger who has probably aroused even less suspicion is Jim Thome, who bombed home run #600 last night in Detroit. It’s hard to believe that he’s already 40, with 20 years in the big leagues. I can still remember going to see him play for the Canton-Akron Indians AA team when they visited New Britain, CT, probably in 1991. He was one of the lynchpins of the Cleveland teams that regained respectability in the 90s, and one of the last from their '95 and '97 World Series teams to jump ship when he signed with the Phillies in 2003 (for which my mother still hasn’t forgiven him!) In addition to hitting 600 dingers, he has a career OBP of .408, as he was always willing to take a pitch when the opposition pitched around him. His career total of 1710 walks ranks #8 all time, sandwiched in between Mickey Mantle and Mel Ott. But when he swung, he swung hard – racking up 2453 career strikeouts so far, second only to Reggie Jackson.