Cleveland Indians: Celebrating Jim Thome’s legendary career

Cleveland Indians fans have a reason to be excited this January now that Jim Thome has officially been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Jim Thome was essentially a lock for the Hall of Fame in 2018, but it was still special when the announcement became official.

Thome has a statue in Cleveland and will always be a legend in Northeast Ohio. Now he can be immortalized as one of the greatest players the game of baseball has ever seen.

He joins Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman to form the 2018 class, with Edgar Martinez being the notable snub once again. However, his chances look good to make it in 2019.

Thome’s 612 home runs easily makes his career one of the best ever, and the fact he never fell into the PED conversation with the likes of Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez helped voters see him as a no-brainer on the ballot.

The next step will be for the Indians to retire Thome’s number, which may happen soon given the fact he already has his statue. Becoming the first Indians player in decades to reach the Hall of Fame should help the team make a decision on jersey retirement sooner rather than later.

ICYMI

Jim Thome elected to Hall of Fame

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Chills

I totally didn’t tear up watching this.

Not too bad

This stat is truly insane when you really think about it.

Final offseason milestone

The Hall of Fame ballot results are now in and that means the next newsworthy event is the start of Spring Training.

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The only thing to change that would be the Indians making a major trade. Something to break up the slow news cycle would be nice.