A Piece Of History

This has been a disappointing baseball season for the Noonan household. Our beloved White Sox have fallen from the heights of baseball greatness faster than a certain President's popularity. We kept the faith however and still attended a number of games and followed our struggling team on radio and TV. Yesterday, all the fans got a little bonus.

Jim Thome, the Sox DH hit his 500th homerun, becoming only the 23rd man in the history of the game to do so, and "Wife" and "Daughter" were there to see it.

We had gotten tickets to this game long ago because it was "Jim Thome Bobblehead Day" at the ball park. Two years ago, "Daughter" decided that Thome was her favorite player. She could never really explain why, but she was steadfast in her decision. She collects Thome cards, medals, and even wears a Thome jersey to the games, so the chance to have a bobbly headed statue of the slugger was too much to pass up. I'm glad she picked a guy like Thome to admire. In a sports world that is dominated by cheaters, thugs and miscreants, Thome seems like a genuinely good guy. All reports about him are positive. Nobody has a bad thing to say about him, except for the fans of Cleveland who still hold a grudge because he left. Can you blame him? He's also a native son of Illinois and grew up watching Chicago baseball. We were all supposed to go to the game, but I ended up going to the Bears game. There was some discussion as to whether "Wife" and "Daughter" would go to the game, and now they are sure glad they did.

A scenario like this couldn't have been scripted better by a Hollywood scribe. An aging slugger on the verge of a career changing milestone battles for two days to pass the mark. The air is crisp an a beautiful Sunday afternoon. the team has chosen this day to make him the object of a fan give away, never predicting that all the events would collide in a "perfect storm". The team, down six runs, battles back to tie the game. The winning run is on base with two outs and the slugger steps into the batter's box. Earlier in the game he has traced the name of his deceased mother in the dirt so that "she could be a part of this." His family and the fans stand and cheer. The pitches come and finally....a fastball driven deep into left center field for a walk off home run to cement his place in baseball history. Not since the crowd chanted "Rudy, Rudy" or Rocky Balboa went the distance has there been a more screen ready moment.

"Wife" and "Daughter" were sitting only a few feet away from the fan who caught the ball. (He gave the ball back to Thome, in what I think was a class act. Sure he could have sold it, but karma is a bitch, and denying a man his hard earned trophy wouldn't set you up for good things.) It was a historic moment that I had tried to explain to "Daughter" before they left for the "yard". I think it has finally sunk in . As a baseball fan, she will enjoy many great moments, but few will have historic consequences. As James Earl Jones said in Field of Dreams, "the one constant through all the years is baseball." She now gets to have a constant memory of the day "her boy" joined the elite "500 club". I'm happy for her and I'm happy for him. Later...Brian