Sixteen years ago, Phillies first baseman Jim Thome hit his 400th home run.
Jim Thome did so much for Philadelphia Phillies in the short time he spent with the club across his 22-season Hall of Fame career.
Most notably, he helped transition the team from Veterans Stadium to Citizens Bank Park, and created a lot of good memories along the way. Among those memories include Thome launching his 400th career home run, 16 years ago: June 14, 2004.
It was a rare time in baseball, as the team Thome and the Phillies played against that night, the Cincinnati Reds, had another player on the brink of a significant home run milestone: Ken Griffey Jr. needed just one more to reach 500. The slugger was not in the lineup, however, as the Reds wanted him to reach the feat back in Ohio.
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A then-Citizens Bank Park record 44,710 fans did not have to wait long to have their hopes of seeing Thome hit a home run to reach 400 fulfilled. The sights were great; being before the time of smartphones, flashbulbs could be seen throughout the stadium; and, in the first inning, Thome took an 0-2 count against Reds starter Jose Acevedo to a full-count, before connecting on a two-run blast.
The home run made Thome just the 37th player to ever reach 400 home runs.
As Thome’s wife, Andrea, celebrated in a luxury box with their daughter, Lila Grace, the slugger rounded first base pumping his right fist and pointing to the crowd. Teammates greeted him at home plate as excited fans provided a standing ovation before Thome responded with a curtain call.
One of Thome’s 2004 Phillies teammates, outfielder Doug Glanville, vividly remembers the special night and calls him a “phenomenal teammate.”
“What made it even more special was how Jim Thome insisted on sharing it with all of us, he recently said on Twitter. “We had a giant toast together after the game and he spoke about the importance of his baseball family. Thome was an phenomenal teammate.”
At the time, it was the greatest moment in Citizens Bank Park history. Just three seasons later, the 2007 postseason run to overcome the New York Mets would overtake it, before, of course, the 2008 World Series clincher.
The game itself ended in a 10-7 win in favor of the Phillies, but it featured three rain delays that totaled six minutes shy of four hours, before being called just after 2 a.m. the following morning.
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The bad weather was well worth it for Phillies fans; at the time, there were some nerves as to whether the game would become official. It eventually did after a two-hour rain delay before the start of the bottom of the third inning.
Thome would hit 212 more home runs in his career through 2012, before his summer 2018 induction into Cooperstown. The Phillies inducted him onto their Wall of Fame in 2016. And, on the 14-year anniversary of his 400th blast, the team honored him with a pregame ceremony.
Through parts of four seasons in red pinstripes (2003-05, 2012), Thome slugged 101 home runs and drove in 218 runs.
As Harry Kalas said, “Take a bow, big man!”