After knocking out three home runs in a game against the White Sox in the summer of 1994, Indians third baseman Jim Thome was thinking about his family and friends back home in Peoria.
"They're probably dancing in the streets,” he said afterward.
Twenty-four years later, the dancing began anew as the former Tribune All-Stater from Bartonville-Limestone High was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Thome and Braves third baseman Chipper Jones cruised into the Hall on their first year of eligibility, joining slugger Vladimir Guerrero and closer Trevor Hoffman, who got in on their second and third years on the ballot, respectively.
Thome, who currently serves the White Sox as a special assistant to general manager Rick Hahn, played for six teams in his 22-year-career, including the Sox, but never forgot the people who helped make it happen.
“Everything starts at your roots,” Thome said Wednesday after learning the news. “I’m proud that I grew up where I did. Peoria is a special place… It’s where it all started. Every Midwest kid can dream of a day like this, and I’m living it today.”
Thome and the other three inductees will join Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, who the Baseball Writers’ Association of America rejected during their years on the ballot before the Modern Era committee selected them last December.
The numbers of the newest members of the Hall speak for themselves. Thome is eighth on the all-time home run list with 612, while Jones was the best switch hitter of his era, averaging 32 home runs and 107 RBIs with a .961 OPS during an eight-year span from 1996-2003.
Hoffman’s 601 career saves are second to Mariano Rivera, a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer next year, and Guerrero finished with a career average of .318 while slugging 449 home runs and using his cannon arm to gun down baserunners from right field.
Thanks to the online Hall of Fame tracker, we already knew Thome, Jones, Guerrero and Hoffman were good bets to get in. Jones wound up with 97.2 percent, leading the pack, while Thome finished third with 89.8 percent. There were 422 ballots cast, including one blank one, down from 442 in 2017.
The only real question was whether Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martinez would join them. Though he came close with 70.4 percent, Martinez just missed the necessary 75 percent cutoff. He figures to get in next year in his final year of eligibility, along with Rivera and perhaps starting pitcher Mike Mussina.
As for Hall of Famer Joe Morgan’s controversial “steroid” letter to BBWAA voters last fall, it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the electorate, which always had been divided on whether PED-tainted superstars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens belonged.
Morgan’s letter said: “We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here.”
After six years on the ballot, Bonds and Clemens remain a ways off, with Clemens picking up three votes (from 239 to 242) and Bonds remaining the same at 238. In 2013, their first year of eligibility, Bonds was at 36.2 percent, while Clemens was at 37.6 percent. Now they’re at 56.4 percent and 57.3 percent, respectively, with four more shots at a spot in Cooperstown.
Former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa wound up with 33 votes (7.8 percent), down from 38 last year. The meager total keeps Sosa on the ballot at least one more year, prolonging the inevitable.
Last week I asked Cubs great Billy Williams if Morgan spoke for him and the rest of the Hall of Famers with the “steroid” letter.
“All the players, this is what we think,” Williams replied. “We talk about it at the Hall of Fame, and he just sent a letter to us that this is what we’re going to send to the writers.”
Isn’t it likely some alleged cheaters already are in the Hall?
“They’re in already,” Williams admitted. “But it’s a letter you (writers) are having a problem with. They don’t know about (whether to vote in) the steroid guys. We’re just giving you guys an outlet, to ease your conscience knowing this is how we feel. We don’t vote.”
I told Williams Morgan should have had all of the Hall of Famers sign the letter if he wanted it to have more impact. Nevertheless, the voters seemingly are entrenched in their views on Bonds and Clemens, with little movement this year.
Two players picking up momentum in ’18 were Mussina and Curt Schilling. Mussina went from 51.8 percent to 63.5 percent in his fifth year, and Schilling from 45 percent to 51.2 percent in his sixth. Schilling was at 52.3 percent in 2016 but dropped down last year after sharing on Twitter a photo that suggested journalists should be lynched.
Omar Vizquel, the perennial Gold Glove-winning shortstop, garnered 37 percent in his first year, which bodes well for his chances down the road.
As for the other Chicago candidates, Jamie Moyer, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano were all one-and-done on the ballot, failing to get the necessary 5 percent in their first years of eligibility to be listed again in 2019.
Moyer had 10 votes, Wood received two votes, while Zambrano was shut out.
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