Jim Thome

Looks as if Jim Thome will be retiring as an Indian rather than reuniting with Charlie Manuel as a Phillie. The Twins slugger accepted a trade from Minnesota on Thursday night to return to Cleveland, the team he started with. Now his hopes of getting back to the World Series rest with the battered Tribe, a sub-.500 team hoping he can lift it past the first-place Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. That would be some fairy-tale ending, if he can do it. Somehow, we think that rejecting a release waiver, becoming a free agent, and signing with the club with the best record in baseball would have made a happy, title-winning ending more likely.

PHILLIES FANS are never satisfied, never complacent. We are always seeking ways to make the Fightins better. Fortunately for us, so are David Montgomery and Ruben Amaro Jr. In most cities, if their team was 82-44, with the best record in baseball; had the best starting rotation perhaps in the history of the game; and had Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Hunter Pence and Placido Polanco in their batting order; the fans would likely relax...

The Phillies don't have a lefthanded home-run threat on the bench, which helps explain why they signed Jack Cust after he was released by the Mariners . . . Jim Thome, rapidly approaching the end of his career, has never won a World Series . . . The non-contending Minnesota Twins have already reaped the publicity benefits from Thome hitting his 600th career home run for them earlier this week . . . It remains to be seen whether these free-floating baseball...

CHARLIE MANUEL'S relationship with Jim Thome dates back to when the future Hall of Fame slugger was an anonymous 19-year-old minor leaguer who few thought had the tools to develop into an everyday big-leaguer. In fact, Manuel, who was a coach in the Indians' minor league system, initially paid more attention to another first-base prospect named Mike Davis. "I used to work with Mike Davis every day, and Jimmy would always hang out with him," Manuel said. "Really, I just kind of wondered, because I didn't think Jimmy was real good at that time.

Minnesota slugger Jim Thome has become the eighth player to hit 600 home runs, connecting twice in a 9-6 win over the host Detroit Tigers last night. Thome, 40, hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning for No. 599, then came to bat again in the seventh. He hit a 2-1 pitch from Daniel Schlereth over the fence in leftfield, then circled the bases as the Detroit fans gave him a standing ovation. "It's an unbelievable night, obviously," Thome said. "It's something you never dream of doing.

For anyone who joined this program already in progress, the name Jim Thome might not seem all that familiar or all that important. By the time the Phillies won their first of four straight division titles in 2007, Thome was in his second season with the Chicago White Sox and his replacement at first base had already won a National League MVP award. A year later, the Phillies won the World Series and as the years have passed it has become easier and easier to forget that the foundation for this golden era of Philadelphia baseball was Thome's decision to leave Cleveland and take a chance on a place that most elite free agents had erased from the baseball map. Sure, it helped that the Phillies blew the Indians out of the water in the two-team bidding war, but that was significant, too, because for years president David Montgomery and the team's ownership partners only collected free-agent leftovers.

AH, BASEBALL! The greatest sport ever played. The Phillies are again in the playoffs. So are the Twins, and I have to root for Hall of Famer-to-be Jim Thome, who played for our Phillies for three years and was a most-liked player. And, at age 40, he's led his team in homers with 25. The best story about him is his camaraderie and gentlemanliness. He's one of the decent men in the game, and well-liked by his peers. He overshadows the A-Rods in life and gamesmanship. It would be a thrill for the Phils to play the Twins in the World Series.

LOS ANGELES - Jim Thome was comfortable playing for the White Sox, with playing so close to his home. He didn't have to accept a trade to the Dodgers and, honestly, there were plenty of reasons why he might have wanted to stay right where he was. With the Sox, he would play almost every day. Which, in turn, would give him a better chance to add to his career total of 564 home runs; he has admitted that reaching 600 is a goal. With the Dodgers, he would be limited to pinch-hitting.

Thome climbs the home-run ladder When Ryan Howard broke Mike Schmidt's record of 48 homers in a season by a Phillie, Schmidt said he had always thought Jim Thome would be the one to do it. On Monday night, Thome passed the Hall of Fame third baseman on the all-time list when he clubbed his 549th homer in the Chicago White Sox' 17-3 rout of the Los Angeles Angels. Thome is 13th in career homers and third among active players, behind Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez. The big lefthanded slugger still has the photograph of Schmidt raising his hand aloft as the two of them stood at home plate at Veterans Stadium when the Phillies played their final game there in 2003.

Jim Thome was on the phone the other day, rattling off some of his favorite Philadelphia memories. There was the rousing greeting that workers building Citizens Bank Park gave him on a recruiting visit in November 2002. There was that electric weekend series against the Cardinals in August 2003, when he homered three nights in a row, earning three curtain calls from the fans at Veterans Stadium, as the Phils pulled off a sweep to stay a half-game up in the National League wild-card race.