Jim Thome’s return has prompted near-unanimous jubilee in Cleveland.
Just as Kenny Lofton was hailed as a conquering hero when he came back to the Indians in 2007, Tribe fans have embraced Thome like he’d never left. Regardless of the impact he’ll be able to make this season, Clevelanders are thrilled to have him back. The only person I’ve talked to who isn’t thrilled about seeing Thome suit up in Indians gear again is a Twins fan.
Saturday at Progressive Field—he’d already had his big debut—he received a long ovation each time his name was announced. And when he launched a solo shot into the left-field bleachers, the stadium exploded. The cheers were louder and the ovation much longer for Thome’s homer than for the three-run, go-ahead bomb Asdrubal Cabrera hit shortly after.
But it wasn’t always this way. When signed his $85 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies after the 2002 season, Clevelanders thought of Thome more the way they do LeBron James than Omar Vizquel—to many, he was yet another hometown player who sold out his loyalty for a paycheck. Had Thome been traded back to Cleveland while the wound was fresher, he would have been seen not as a hero but as a carpetbagger.
But while such sentiment was understandable, it was misguided and inappropriate. It appears now that the issue is moot, but in the interest of gaining some closure, I have a message for whatever silent minority is not ecstatic to see Thome back in town or the disingenuous bandwagon fans who hated him then and profess to love him now: it’s time to let Thome off the hook.
Let’s forget for a minute that Thome is well known around the game for being a great guy, and that his head has never swelled from ego or steroids. Put aside the fact that he was being pressured by the players union to take the highest offer (the Indians offered only $60 million) or that he didn’t have a real place with the rebuilding Indians. And pretend, too, that Thome had already delayed hitting the open market to say in Cleveland—he earned only $8 million when he swatted 52 homers with a 197 OPS+ for the Tribe in 2009.
Even ignoring those important external factors: would you really walk away from $25 million? I mean Cleveland’s great, but $25 million great? If someone offered you a $25 million raise to do the same job somewhere else, would you pass on it? I bet most people would do it for $250,000 or $25,000 or maybe even $2,500, company loyalty be damned. It would be a nicer world if money were not the driving force in it, but it is, and you can’t hold Thome to a higher standard than you yourself could meet.
No, that money probably doesn’t mean as much to Thome as it would to you or me, but that doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant. As Fire Joe Morgan‘s “Junior” once wrote:
How could saving $10 million not factor into anyone’s decision about anything? If Mexican uberbillionaire Carlos Slim gets his bathroom re-grouted and the grouter is like, “That’ll be 10 million two hundred thirty-six dollars,” Carlos Slim would be all like, “You said it would be just two hundred thirty-six dollars no way what the f***?!” And he’s Mexican uberbillionaire Carlos Slim. The last guy who should care about money.
But even if you expect Thome to exhibit the platonic ideal of altruism, to say he should have stayed is to betray not generosity but egocentrism. If Thome were a living saint, he wouldn’t have taken the lesser offer—he would have taken the extra $25 million and given it to UNICEF or the Red Cross or some other charitable organization. Obviously we are well past the point where this is relevant to anything, but the point is: employer loyalty was not the highest ideal in play, so Cleveland fans’ holier-than-thou mindset was out of place.
Moreover, if there were any doubt of the purity of his soul, Thome put it to rest when he approved the deal that sent him to Cleveland last week. He had a no-trade clause, so he was fully within his power to simply stay in Minnesota. And a more ornery player would have demanded his outright release so he could circumvent the waiver-claim process and sign with a team that had a better chance of getting him a World Series ring. But he didn’t—he chose to return to C-Town for a curtain call at the ol’ Jake and a real longshot chance at leading a bunch of ragtag youngsters to the postseason.
Thome is a class act, a great guy, and a local hero. Heartbreaking though his departure nine years ago was, he did nothing wrong. For those who were holding a grudge—or worse, those who still are—it’s time to forgive and forget.
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