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1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome was elected to the National Baseball |
3 | | Hall of Fame on January
24, 2018 as a first ballot inductee, |
4 | | after an illustrious 22-year career in Major League Baseball |
5 | | (MLB); and
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6 | | WHEREAS, Over the course of his baseball career, Jim Thome |
7 | | hit 612 home runs, batted in 1,699 runs, had a batting
average |
8 | | of .276, and a total of 2,328 hits; he was a five time |
9 | | all-star, Silver Slugger Award
Winner, American League |
10 | | Comeback Player of the Year, Roberto Clemente Award Winner, and |
11 | | National League home run
leader in 2003; he has been inducted |
12 | | into both the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame and the |
13 | | Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame; and
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14 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome was born in Peoria on August 27, 1970, |
15 | | the
youngest of five children, all of whom were athletic and |
16 | | involved in sports; and
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17 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome's earliest baseball instruction came |
18 | | from his father and older brothers
before he began to play |
19 | | American Legion Baseball for Bartonville Limestone Post 979; |
20 | | and |
21 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome attended Limestone High School, where he |
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1 | | received all-state honors in both
basketball and baseball; he |
2 | | continued his career in both basketball and baseball at |
3 | | Illinois
Central College, where he was drafted by the Cleveland |
4 | | Indians in the 13th round of the 1989
MLB draft; and |
5 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome's 22-year professional career began |
6 | | with the Cleveland Indians in 1991,
where he was an offensive |
7 | | leader for a team that went to two World Series in the mid-90s; |
8 | | and |
9 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome continued his career by playing for the |
10 | | Philadelphia Phillies from 2003 to
2005 until he was traded to |
11 | | the Chicago White Sox after the 2005 season; and |
12 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome had a very successful career for the |
13 | | Chicago White Sox, where in his first
season he set a team |
14 | | record for most home runs in the month of April, and also a |
15 | | Major League Baseball
record by scoring in each of Chicago's |
16 | | first 17 games; and |
17 | | WHEREAS, On September 16, 2007, with his father and several |
18 | | other family members in
attendance, Jim Thome joined the 500 |
19 | | home run club with a walk-off home run against the Los
Angeles |
20 | | Angels; and |
21 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome spent the 2009 season with the Los |
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1 | | Angeles Dodgers before signing with
the Minnesota Twins, where |
2 | | he hit numerous home runs, including the longest ever at Target |
3 | | Field,
and became only the ninth MLB player to hit at least 600 |
4 | | home runs in his career; and |
5 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome spent the 2011 season with the Cleveland |
6 | | Indians, where he became the
Indians' all-time home run leader, |
7 | | and it was announced that a statue of him would be erected, |
8 | | which
was unveiled in 2014; and |
9 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome spent the 2012 season with the |
10 | | Philadelphia Phillies, where he became the
fourth MLB player to |
11 | | hit 100 home runs with three different teams and set the new |
12 | | record for
most walk-off home runs during a career in the |
13 | | modern era with 13; and |
14 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome spent the remainder of the 2012 season |
15 | | with the Baltimore Orioles, where
he surpassed Sammy Sosa to |
16 | | become the MLB player with the eighth highest number of
home |
17 | | runs in a career with 612, a statistic which still stands |
18 | | today; and |
19 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome was well known in MLB for several |
20 | | memorable traits, such as wearing
high socks, which his team |
21 | | donned in the 1997 season all the way to the World Series, and |
22 | | his
unique batting stance that featured him pointing his bat to |
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1 | | centerfield prior to the pitch; and |
2 | | WHEREAS, Even more memorable than those traits, Jim Thome's |
3 | | personality has been the subject of
much praise across the MLB; |
4 | | a former teammate called him the "nicest, gentlest, kindest guy
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5 | | you will ever meet ... " and his positivity was cited as one of |
6 | | the main reasons for his resigning in
2012 with the Phillies; |
7 | | he was known for frequently signing autographs for fans and for |
8 | | his endless patience; in Philadelphia, magazine sportswriter |
9 | | Stephen Silver wrote of Thome: "It's not just the
numbers. |
10 | | Thanks to his gregarious personality, Thome is the rare athlete |
11 | | who played in several
cities and was beloved everywhere he |
12 | | went. I saw the Twins and Phillies play each other in
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13 | | Philadelphia when Thome was with the Twins, and the same two |
14 | | teams in Minnesota two years
later when Thome was a Phillie, |
15 | | and the opposing crowd cheered Thome both times, even when
he |
16 | | hit home runs for the road team. Thome was similarly loved in |
17 | | his long stints in Cleveland
and Chicago, as well as shorter |
18 | | runs in Los Angeles and Baltimore."; and
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19 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome and his wife, Andrea, have three |
20 | | children, Lila, Grace, and Landon, and currently reside in Burr |
21 | | Ridge; and
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22 | | WHEREAS, Jim Thome is known for his many philanthropic |
23 | | works to help provide help to
communities in the cities where |
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1 | | he played; in recognition of his efforts, he was given the |
2 | | Marin
Miller Man of the Year Award in 2001 and 2004 and the Lou |
3 | | Gehrig Memorial Award in
2004; he and his wife are avid |
4 | | supporters of Children's Home & Aid, a child and family service |
5 | | agency, which raises money for the Children's Hospital of |
6 | | Illinois; therefore, be it
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7 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE |
8 | | HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we |
9 | | recognize Jim Thome and
everything that he has accomplished |
10 | | throughout his distinguished career, and we respect and
admire |
11 | | his continued philanthropic efforts towards the sport and |
12 | | communities he loves; and be it further |
13 | | RESOLVED, That we declare May 9, 2018 as "Jim Thome Day" in |
14 | | the State of Illinois as a sign
of our esteem and respect; and |
15 | | be it further
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16 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be |
17 | | presented to Jim Thome as a symbol of our respect and esteem.
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