By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
In 2016, the Philadelphia Phillies honored former slugger Jim Thome by enshrining him into their Wall of Fame. With all due respect to that honor, Thome has a bigger honor coming his way in 2018.
Thome, who played parts of four seasons with the Phillies, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2018. Thome, along with former National League MVP Chipper Jones, was elected in his first year on the ballot. Those two will be joined by Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman, the Hall of Fame announced Wednesday. Additionally, Alan Trammell and Jack Morris were elected late last year by the Modern Era Baseball Committee, and will also be part of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2018.
In 22 major league seasons, Thome made five All-Star teams, accumulated a 72.9 bWAR and bashed 612 home runs. Thome is one of nine players in major league history with over 600 home runs, and of that group, he's one of just six that has never been credibly linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
"Big Jim was a great teammate," said former Phillies closer Billy Wagner, who played with Thome on the Phillies for two seasons. "[As an opponent] he was dangerous! I always enjoyed our battles, because he was truly a tough competitor."
Thome had two different stints in Philadelphia. His first came from 2003-2005, after the Phillies signed him to a six-year/$85 million free-agent contract. During that stint, Thome hit 96 home runs. After the 2005, Thome was traded to the Chicago White Sox, following the emergence of then Rookie of the Year Ryan Howard. However, Thome, much to the delight of a fanbase that revered him, returned to the Phillies briefly in 2012, his final season in the major leagues.
Remarkably, Thome is perhaps known best not for the colossal home runs that he hit, but for the kindness that he exhibited to everyone that he came in contact with.
"They didn't call him 'Gentleman Jim' for nothing," former Phillies RHP Brett Myers told SportsTalkPhilly.com. "He was a great family man and treated his teammates like his family."
Thome will enter the Hall of Fame as a member of the Cleveland Indians, the team he spent the first 12 seasons of his career with. But many credit him with changing the culture of the Phillies, and helping to push them towards being the team that ultimately dominated the back-half of the 2000s. He also hit over 100 home runs as a member of the White Sox, and was quite popular in the year-and-a-half that he spent in Minnesota.
Hall of Fame voting has become an extremely polarizing discussion over the past decade, but Thome cuts through that – he has first-ballot Hall of Fame numbers, wasn't connected to PEDs and is one of the kinder stars that the sport has ever seen. This is a moment that nearly everyone in the sport, including Thome, will get to enjoy. That's pretty awesome.
