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Hello everyone and welcome to today’s “The Stack” with me, Nathan Stacken. Somedays, you just don’t know what to expect when you think about what you’ll write about the next day. Well Jim Thome helped. We’ll have plenty on Thome and his accomplishment as well as the other big sports news from Monday in today’s “stack” so let’s get right to it:

1. Jim Thome hits HR 599 and 600.

Headed into the series with the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twin Jim Thome was sitting just two homeruns shy of the 600 homerun club. Only seven players have ever reached that plateau before. After last night, an eighth member has joined. Thome hit a homerun in the sixth inning and hit one in his next at bat in the seventh inning off Tigers pitcher Daniel Schlereth, son of former Denver Broncos and Washington Redskins offensive lineman Mark Schlereth. That is the fastest anyone has hit homerun number 600 after hitting homerun 599. Zero at bats. It took Babe Ruth one at-bat and Hank Aaron two at-bats. As he rounded third heading home, all of his teammates came to homeplate to welcome the eighth member in the 600 HR club. Even better was the touching moment when his dad, wife and two kids came out to share in the moment and celebration with him. Tigers fans gave Thome a much deserved standing ovation. It was a classy move by the Tigers fans. The Tigers congratulated Thome on their video board. All well deserved and very appreciated for one of the nicer guys in baseball. The Twins wound up winning 9-6, but it was all about Thome as well it should have been. But now an even bigger question remains…

2. Is Thome a hall-of-famer?

This is a big debate amongst fans of the game and writers. When you thinnk about it, there shouldn’t be much of a debate. Thome is one of eight guys to ever hit 600 homeruns. And he did it without steroids. How do we know this for sure? We don’t, but Thome has never been suspected of using steroids or performance-enhancing drugs. He did it the right way. The only problem is, Thome hit most of his homeruns as a DH (designated hitter). He didn’t play a whole lot in the field, but when he did, he primarily played first base. Wasn’t a great fielder. He has never won a world series and has never been an MVP. So there are arugments out there against him that should at least be heard. But again, only seven other players have hit 600 homeruns. And they are all in the hall of fame.

Another question is whether or not this was the quietest pursuit of 600 homeruns or any big statistical achievement in baseball history ever? Sure the media was not what it is today back when Babe Ruth and Cy Young were tearing it up on the diamond. But where were the stories, the accolades regarding Thome’s chase for history? It’s like he was forgotten, an afterthought. And we can thank steroids and guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Alex Rodriguez who used steroids and have tainted the significant numbers in the game of baseball. It’s really a shame that Thome didn’t receive more attention, but then again, giving his gigantic but quiet nature, maybe that is just the way Thome wanted it.

3. Mark Sanchez wanted to fight Rex Ryan, Jets lose to Texans.

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