On This Day: Former Twin Nearly Spoiled Jim Thome's 600th Home Run

Jim Thome reached one of baseball's most exclusive milestones on Aug. 15, 2011, with a former Twins teammate nearly getting in the way.

Jim Thome walks off the field after a ceremony honoring the 1995 team before the game. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

On Aug. 15, 2011, Jim Thome launched career home runs No. 599 and 600 in consecutive at-bats during Minnesota's 9–6 victory, becoming just the eighth player in MLB history to reach 600. Fifteen years later, only nine players have ever joined the club. The circumstances surrounding those two swings made the milestone even stranger.

Former Twin Nearly Got in the Way

Minnesota Twins designated hitter Jim Thome (25) in the dugout before the game against the Texas Rangers. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Hours before the game, Minnesota traded outfielder Delmon Young to Detroit. Young wasted little time hurting his former team, homering off Francisco Liriano in the first inning of his Tigers debut. Thome provided an answer of his own in the sixth, launching career home run No. 599 off Rick Porcello.

No. 600 was not quite as simple. Thome returned one inning later against reliever Daniel Schlereth and drove a 2–1 slider toward left field, where Young gave chase. For a brief moment, it looked like the player Minnesota had traded only hours earlier might reward the decision by robbing Thome of history.

Luckily for the Twins, the ball carried just beyond Young's reach and into the bullpen, solidifying Thome's place among baseball's elite sluggers. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire later joked that if Young had caught it, he "might have went out there personally and kicked his butt."

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire (35) during the game. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Thome needed only 8,167 career at-bats to reach 600 home runs, second only to Babe Ruth's absurd 6,921 among members of the club. He also became the first player to hit Nos. 599 and 600 in the same game.

Several members of the 600-home run club reached the milestone with almost cartoonish single-season power numbers along the way. Babe Ruth helped usher baseball out of the Dead Ball era and set an MLB record with 60 home runs in 1927. Bonds later shattered the single-season mark with 73 homers in 2001, while Sammy Sosa hit 66 during his famous home run race with Mark McGwire in 1998.

Thome instead earned his place through metronomic consistency. He recorded 17 seasons with at least 20 home runs, while still possessing the ability to produce monster seasons of his own. Thome hit 49 homers during Bonds' record-setting 2001 campaign before establishing a career high with 52 the following year.

Fifteen years have passed since Thome became the eighth player to get there, and the club has added only one member since. That scarcity has only made 600 home runs feel more extraordinary with time. Whenever the next slugger finally makes the climb, baseball will once again get to watch one of its rarest milestones come within reach.