“His hunger was unmatched:” Konerko looks back on time with HOF teammate Thome

By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 

When SportsTalkPhilly.com reached out to six-time All-Star first baseman Paul Konerko to get his thoughts on his former teammate Jim Thome being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Konerko had way more positive things to say about Thome than could be fit in one paragraph. 

"It would be impossible to sum up Jim with one story," Konerko told SportsTalkPhilly.com. "I think with Jim, it's a feeling you get when you're around him. I mean, everyone around him. You know you're hanging around with a legend."

Before he ever played a game with Thome, Konerko had hit 217 home runs in his major league career and won a World Series with the Chicago White Sox. Still, Konerko says he doesn't think he would have played until he was 38 years old had he not shared a clubhouse with Thome for nearly four seasons.

"I was very fortunate to have Jim join the White Sox right around the time I was turning 30, Jim was probably 35," Konerko said of Thome. "Watching him taught me what I'd have to do to play the game until an older age. He would say, 'when you get to be about 35, you're going to spend more time getting ready to play than actually playing. You gotta want that.'"

Thome's time in Chicago is curiously overlooked. He, of course, will go into the Hall of Fame as a member of the Cleveland Indians. He's beloved in Philadelphia, the second stop of his career, where he was inducted into the team's Wall of Fame in 2016. He hit his 600th home run in Minnesota.

But Thome, in his mid-30s, found a second life to his career in Chicago. Following the emergence of Ryan Howard during Thome's absence in the back-half of the 2005 season, the Phillies traded Thome to the White Sox, who play under three hours from Peoria, Illinois, where Thome grew up. In nearly four seasons playing on the South Side, Thome hit 134 home runs, while driving in 369 runs. 

Power doesn't normally age well, but Thome hit over 25 home runs 14 times in his career, four of which came at an advanced age with the White Sox. What allowed him to have such tremendous longevity? Konerko says that an all-time great work-ethic from Thome had much to do with the all-time great numbers that he put up. 

"His work ethic was insane," Konerko said about Thome. "He did more before 2 p.m. on a 7 p.m. game than most players did all day. His hunger for it was unmatched." 

Related: Charlie Manuel Says 'The Natural' Inspired Jim Thome's Batting Stance

The hunger that Konerko spoke of allowed Thome to become one of nine players in the history of the sport to hit over 600 home runs. Of those nine, he's one of just six not connected to performance-enhancing drugs. His 72.9 bWAR is ninth all-time in the history of first baseman. He's seventh in the history of the sport in walks. You get the point. Thome was one of the very best to ever do it, which was a big reason why he was able to cruise to election in his first time on the ballot, despite what's become an extremely polarized voting process. 

Still, when Thome appeared on MLB Network shortly after it was announced that he was part of the 2018 Hall of Fame class, Harold Reynolds made sure to point out that Thome's nice-guy reputation didn't hurt his chances of being elected. In that interview, shortly after praising his father and Charlie Manuel, Thome name-dropped Konerko. The relationship that the two developed during their time together was special in-terms of the on-field impact that it had on Konerko, no doubt. Still, like anyone you speak to about Thome, it's his character that had the biggest impact on Konerko. 

"He is just a very genuine human being that understands that although baseball is great and the Hall of Fame is great, there are far more important things in life," Konerko said. "There's a saying, 'you can tell all you need to know about someone by how they treat someone they don't have to treat well.' Jim never seems to miss on that one. He treats anyone he comes into contact with with respect."