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James Howard "Jim" Thome (;〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/2604/jim-thome )〕 born August 27, 1970) is a retired American baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), 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 (RBIs), and a .276 batting average. He was a member of five All-Star teams and won a Silver Slugger Award in 1996. Thome grew up in Peoria, Illinois, as part of a large blue-collar family of athletes, who predominantly played baseball and basketball. After attending Illinois Central College, he was drafted by the Indians in 1989 and made his major league debut in 1991. Early in his career, he played third base before eventually becoming a first baseman. With the Indians, Thome was part of a core of players that led the franchise to two World Series appearances in three years during the mid-1990s. He spent over a decade with Cleveland before leaving via free agency after the 2002 season to join the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he spent the following three seasons. Traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 2006 season, Thome won the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award that year and reached the 500 home run club during his three-season tenure with the team. By this point in his career, back pain limited Thome to being a designated hitter. After stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins, he made brief returns to Cleveland and Philadelphia before ending his career with the Baltimore Orioles. Upon retiring, Thome accepted an executive position with the White Sox. Throughout his career, Thome's strength was power hitting. In six different seasons, he hit more than 40 home runs, and in 2003, he led the National League in home runs with 47. His career on-base plus slugging (OPS) of .956 is 19th all time. In 2011, he became the eighth MLB player to hit 600 home runs. One of Thome's trademarks was his unique batting stance, in which he held the bat out with his right hand and pointed it at right field before the pitcher threw, something he first saw in ''The Natural''. Thome was known for his consistently positive attitude and "gregarious" personality. An active philanthropist during his playing career, he was honored with two Marvin Miller Man of the Year Awards and a Lou Gehrig Memorial Award for his community involvement. ==Early life== Thome was born in Peoria, Illinois, on August 27, 1970, the youngest of five children. Everyone within the blue-collar Thome family played sports: Jim's grandmother was hired at a local Caterpillar plant solely to play for the company's softball team; his father built bulldozers for Caterpillar and played slow-pitch softball; his aunt is a member of the Women's Softball Hall of Fame; and his two older brothers, Chuck III and Randy, played baseball at Limestone High School. Thome learned to play baseball from his father on a tennis court, and also played basketball in what he described as the "ghetto" of Peoria, noting that he was the only white kid there but that he earned the respect of his fellow players.〔 One day during his youth, Thome sneaked into the Cubs' clubhouse at Wrigley Field in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain an autograph from his favorite player, Dave Kingman. Though Thome received signatures from several other players, this experience influenced him to be generous with signing autographs for fans during his playing career.〔 Like his older brothers, Thome attended Limestone High School where he achieved all-state honors in basketball and as a baseball shortstop.〔 Although he had hoped to draw the attention of scouts, at just he was relatively underweight for his height, meaning that he attracted only passing interest—the average Major League Baseball (MLB) player weighed in 1993.〔 Thome graduated in 1988 and, after not being drafted, enrolled at Illinois Central College where he continued his baseball and basketball careers.〔 After one season, he was drafted by MLB's Cleveland Indians as an "afterthought" in the 13th round of the 1989 MLB Draft.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jim Thome」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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