No. 550 brings the White Sox back to .500

I really can't say enough about Jim Thome. His career, his White Sox tenure, the fact that he's probably the nicest professional athlete in the world, the fact that he could be the greatest 16-inch softball player of all-time even when he retires....the guy is just great.

And can we officially give Kenny Williams another check mark next to his name for the post-World Series trade that brought him here? I loved Aaron Rowand as much as everyone else - nothing is more Chicago than bleeding (even when it happens in Philly) - but the dude has had two very good seasons, and a bunch of lackluster ones*. Thome is still a true middle of order power king, something too many lose sight of amid his strikeouts o' plenty and abundant slowness. We all have our flaws - I, for one, can't remember anyone's name even moments after meeting them and am prone to losing, um, everything - but Thome's deficiencies are two I can live with if he OBP's around .400 and hits 35-plus dingers. So back off, haters.

Oh yeah...that game that happened yesterday. The Sox won it thanks to a JT homer (or "Thomer", if you prefer) in the 8th. As you may have deduced from the headline of this post, it was No. 550 of his career. The win was the Sox' fourth in a row and brings them back to .500 on the season....

But 550 homers. I think that falls somewhere between a shitload and a fuckton. I mean, think about that number for a second. My calculator tells me that's the equivalent of hitting over 36 every year for 15 years. 15! That's a lot of years, and a lot of homers. And Jim Thome has done it.

I consulted Wikipedia - per usual - to find out where that placed Thome all-time. It puts him at No. 13. In the seemingly endless history of baseball, only 12 guys have ever hit more homers than Thome. Cool. But take a look at some of the names on that list...


Yeah. The last thing we need in this post is a steroids rant - nothing harshes my buzz like a steroids rant - but, yeah, I'm just sayin'. Cross those guys off the list and Thome is 8th. Pretty impressive, I must say.

(Ok, quick steroids rant. Here's what I propose: no more home run trackers for steroid guys. That means when A-Rod hits No. 564 later this month to pass Frank Robinson for 11th all-time, I don't want to see it in big lights at Yankee Stadium, or as a side graphic on SportsCenter. Just treat it like any other home run. I think that's fair.)

One other thing: I have faith in this White Sox team. As long as this crew is still intact, I always will. I love Thome, Dye, Konerko, Buehrle, Jenks, Thornton, AJ...the guys who have made the second half of this decade the best time ever to be a White Sox fan. I saw so many people write off the White Sox early. I just couldn't do it. And guess what? It's not early anymore. The time stamp on this post says June 2. The Sox sit at 25-25, 3.5 games back of Detroit, a half game behind the Cubs (ha!). The Sox are right where they need to be. I said at the beginning of the year that this team will - at worst - keep us entertained all summer, and I have no reason to believe any differently with two months in the books.

* Defense counts. Yeah, yeah, I know, but the only reason A-Row had to dive so much was because he was too slow to catch a fly ball any other way. Duh.

Extra Thome (Stompy does it so I can too):

- This great fan video of his 500th home run, which kind of makes me want to see how many pushups I can do and how fast I can run a mile (even at 1:15 a.m.).

- This old school picture of him grabbing his crotch. For some reason I can't think of any athlete who could make crotch grabbing funnier. With the possible exception of Fred Hoiberg.