Two days before he turned age 41, Jim Thome was purchased from the Minnesota Twins and brought back to Cleveland and added three more home runs in the 2011 season to his franchise-leading total of 337. Shown here, fans and the scoreboard had signs saying, “Welcome Thome” with the “home” emphasized. Thome was a star at bat for Cleveland from 1991 to 2002. His career home run total of 612 ranked 8th on Major League Baseball’s all-time list heading into the 2023 season. (Courtesy of David Richard)
An excerpt from our Cleveland Landmark’s Press Book, Game Day! Today in Cleveland Sports History. Learn more about the book and purchase it here.
September 4, 1991 — Thome breaks in to the majors
The odds are against a 13th-round baseball draft choice reaching the major leagues. And so Jim Thome’s rise up the Indians’ organizational ladder was a nice surprise. It led to him showing up for work at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on this day, and he was penciled into the starting lineup as a third baseman.
He had spent the season playing AA and AAA ball, and displayed a good average but not a lot of power – seven homers. It appeared Cleveland had little to lose in giving playing time to the youngster, since the team had a record of 43-88.
Thome struck out in his first at-bat in the majors against the Twins’ David West. But in the fourth, he singled for his first big league hit against Tom Edens. Thome later came around to score. After a fly out in the fifth, he singled to get his first RBI for the Indians to complete a 2-for-4 day.
Thome wasn’t quite done with the minors at that point. He spent parts of 1992 and 1993 there before coming up to the majors for good. He became one of the most feared sluggers in the game and finished with 612 homers – 337 in Cleveland. He was a first-ballot choice for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
