Yet, the party wasn't exclusive to New York. Major leaguers from coast to coast sent praise Jeter's way for accomplishing the feat. It's a great number, many of them said, but what made it even better was that Jeter was a great man who played the game the right way.
At some point this season, Twins designated hitter Jim Thome will become just the eighth player in the history of baseball to surpass 600 home runs. It will no doubt be a cause for celebration in Minnesota (not to mention Cleveland where Thome made a name for himself as the slugging first baseman on those Indians teams of the 90s), but it will likely come with far less pomp and circumstance than Jeter's historic homer.
And that, is unfortunate.
For a multitude of reasons, Thome's 600th will come with far less fanfare than Jeter's accomplishment. There likely won't be any collectable bats commemorating the moment. There probably won't be a special New Era cap released the moment 600 clears the fence. And it's pretty unlikely that whoever ends up with the ball, that person won't be immortalized with a baseball card anytime in the near future.
But this is not to compare and contrast Thome's accomplishment and Jeter's, rather it is to give the pursuit and the ensuing accomplishment the recognition and praise it deserves.
For much of his career, Thome has gone about his business in a quiet, yet professional way. He was never the center of attention on an Indians team in the mid-90s that featured the likes of Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle or even Mike Hargrove.
Still, Thome bashed home runs year in and year out. Yes, he did his best work in the heart of the steroid era. Piles of evidence have began to and continue to mount against those suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs. And across the board those who were suspected have some sort of evidence, damaging their reputations and their resumes. But not Thome. There is no evidence against Thome because there are no whispers, either.
And it's true that if Thome was one of the few clean guys, he was benefiting from tight baseballs, smaller ball parks and suspect pitching. But he's still knocking on the door of a number that sluggers only dream of. In an era where power numbers will always be questioned for validity, Thome has seemed to (we hope, at least) do it all the right way.
He's spent the better part of the past two decades as one of baseball's best sluggers. He was a virtual lock to hit at least 35 home runs and drive in 100 runs from the mid-90s up until about 2008. He has those hard-to-believe numbers like the time in 2002 when he hit 52 home runs, despite being walked 122 times, more than anyone else in the National League. That was also the same year he had an insane 1.122 OPS.
Perhaps just as endearingly, in the time of juiced players seeing warning-track fly balls turn into home runs, Thome was leaving no doubt with a feast-or-famine swing. His unmistakable hell hacks led to an average of 145 strikeouts per season from 1996 to 2009, and he even struck out 185 times one year. He was the personification of a bigger-than-life Paul Bunyan type of character, something that was literally personified once he got to Minnesota.
With all of his prolonged success, you might think that Thome would let it get to his head. That, however, couldn't be any further from the truth.
"I really do try hard to be a good teammate," Thome told Sports Illustrated last fall. "I can't run very fast, but I try to always run hard. I may strike out a lot, but I try to walk to set up the guys who are hitting after me. The other day I didn't score from first on a double. I cost my guy an RBI. I felt terrible about that. I told him, 'Look, I really tried, but I'm old and I'm slow. I hope I can make it up to you in another way.'"
"He's the best teammate I've ever had," teammate Glen Perkins said in the same SI story. "I think everybody thinks that."
There's really nothing on the resume of Jim Thome that should keep him out of Cooperstown and keep him out of the spotlight as he approaches 600. He's one of the best sluggers of his generation, and he's approaching a milestone that literally a handful of players have ever reached. By all accounts, he's done it the right way.
Thome is no doubt a great guy who has played the game the right way his entire career. He's about to achieve an an incredible feat. It's time to start paying attention, and it's time to start celebrating.
