Jim Thome, the “lovable bumpkin”. That’s how Greg Couch from the Chicago Sun Times brands him in his article. Chicago folk love talking about downstaters like that.
To his credit, Couch’s article is pretty flattering of Thome. Thome is from “up the road just a spell” (that’s how us country bumpkins talk, ya know) in the town of Peoria, Illinois.
According to the article, Thome’s hero when he was a kid was Dave Kingman.
“As a kid, Thome was a Cubs fanatic. His hero was Dave Kingman. And when Thome was 8, he once jumped onto the field and into the dugout before a game at Wrigley to try to get Kingman’s autograph. Cubs catcher Barry Foote grabbed Thome and got him back to his father in the stands.
“Kingman used to have a boat, and we’d come up Lake Shore Drive and Jim would be saying, ‘Dad, you think that’s the boat? That one?”’ Chuck Thome said. “That day, Jim was standing along the fence, and Kingman came out and walked 15 feet from Jim. Jim’s screaming, waving the ball. Kingman looked like he was going to take a step toward Jim, then thought, ‘Aw, hell with it,’ and walked away. Jim came back and said, ‘I’m still going to get his autograph.’
“All of a sudden, he’s gone. Foote says, ‘Does he really want Kingman’s autograph?’ I said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ He said, ‘I’ll go down there and come back with a ball with his name, but it won’t be his signature. He’s such a [bleep] that no one talks to him down there.”’
Funny, Kong seemed like such a stand-up guy.
Barry Foote, said about somebody ELSE, “He’s such a [Bleep}…”
What was that about a pot and a kettle?
Barry Foote complained 1) when he wasn’t playing, and 2) when he had to play more than two consecutive games.
hehe… never knew that about Footie.