June 17: Thome Joins An Exclusive Club

The Main Event

• June 17, 2012 – Playing in Toronto, Jim Thome leads off the second inning with a home run, his 100th as a Phillie. Thome became the fourth player in major league history with at least 100 home runs for three different teams, following Reggie Jackson, Darrell Evans, and Alex Rodriguez.

On June 17, 2012, at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, Jim Thome hit a home run that meant more than the box score showed. It was just his fourth homer of an injury-shortened, transitional season, and within two weeks the Phillies would trade him to Baltimore. But that particular blast made Thome the fourth player in major league history to hit 100 or more home runs for three different teams, joining Darrell Evans, Reggie Jackson, and Alex Rodriguez in one of baseball’s quietly exclusive fraternities. It’s a club built less on a single dramatic moment than on durability, versatility, and the kind of late-career power that lets a hitter keep cashing in milestones long after his original team has moved on.

Thome’s Path Through Three Cities

Thome’s route to the milestone ran through Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago. He spent 13 seasons with the Indians, where he became the franchise’s all-time home run leader with 337. After signing a six-year, $85 million free agent deal with the Phillies in December 2002, he delivered an immediate jolt to a franchise on its way from Veterans Stadium to Citizens Bank Park, setting single-season club records with 47 home runs in 2003. Injuries and the emergence of Ryan Howard cut that run short, and the Phillies traded him to the White Sox after the 2005 season, where he added 134 more homers over four years.

It was in his second stint in Philadelphia, signed as a 41-year-old reunited with manager Charlie Manuel, that pushed him over the 100-homer threshold with the Phillies specifically. He’d struggled badly in April, batting just .111 with no power before a back injury sent him to the disabled list. He returned in June and hit five home runs in a short burst, the fourth of which was the milestone shot in Toronto. The fifth, a walk-off against Tampa Bay on June 23, made him the all-time leader in walk-off home runs. It would also be his last as a Phillie; on June 30, Philadelphia traded him to Baltimore for two minor leaguers, closing out a Phillies career that finished at 101 home runs in 391 games, a remarkably short tenure for a player the franchise would later honor on its Wall of Fame.

The Three Who Got There First

Darrell Evans was the trailblazer, reaching the mark across the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Detroit Tigers, finishing his career with 414 home runs total despite a modest .248 batting average. Evans was never a marquee slugger in the way the others were; he built his total through sustained, unglamorous production across three organizations over two decades, hitting his 100th with Detroit in 1987.

Reggie Jackson became the second player to do it, and his path is the most stylistically different from Thome’s. Where Thome was a quiet, beloved figure in every clubhouse he passed through, Jackson was the sport’s most outsized personality of his era, a five-time World Series champion and the man nicknamed “Mr. October” for his postseason theatrics, including three home runs on three consecutive pitches in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Jackson’s 100-homer milestones came with the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics, the New York Yankees, and the California Angels, and he finished his career with 563 total home runs.

Alex Rodriguez was the third, reaching the feat with the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, and New York Yankees, hitting his 100th with New York in 2006. A-Rod’s case is the most statistically dominant of the group; he is one of the few players in history to combine 100-homer seasons in three different uniforms with 600-plus career home runs, MVP awards, and a level of power production that made the milestone almost an inevitability of his timeline rather than a surprising achievement.

What Separates Thome From the Other Three

The biggest contrast between Thome and his three predecessors is in how they each arrived at the milestone. Evans built toward it gradually as a reliable everyday player without superstar status. Jackson and Rodriguez were both perennial All-Stars and feared hitters in their primes when they crossed the threshold with new teams, the kind of move that fit naturally with their stardom. Thome’s version is different: by 2012, he was 41 years old, playing a part-time and largely ceremonial role, primarily as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter rather than an everyday force. His 100th Phillies homer wasn’t the product of a dominant season; it came in the middle of a year defined more by injury and a looming trade than by sustained excellence.

That context makes the achievement feel less like a continuation of peak production and more like a testament to longevity. Thome hit 612 home runs over 22 seasons across six different franchises, and the fact that three of those stops produced 100-plus homers reflects just how long and how thoroughly he was able to keep hitting at a high level into his 40s. It’s also worth noting that Thome’s version of the club came with extra symbolic weight in Philadelphia specifically, since the Phillies had already developed deep affection for him from his earlier 2003-2005 stint, making his return in 2012, brief and uneven as it was, still resonate with fans who remembered him fondly from the Citizens Bank Park era.

A Club That Has Grown Since

The group expanded again in 2014, when Adrian Beltre became the fifth player to reach the milestone, hitting his 100th homer with the Texas Rangers after stops with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners. That growth underscores something true about all four original members of the club: reaching 100 home runs with three separate organizations typically requires not just talent but a career shaped by trades, free agency, and the willingness of multiple franchises to bet on a player’s bat well into his 30s or 40s. Whether it’s Evans’s understated consistency, Jackson’s star power, Rodriguez’s elite production, or Thome’s late-career durability, each path to the same number tells a very different story about what it takes to sustain power hitting across a long career and multiple teams.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for June 17

• June 17, 1930 – Chuck Klein gets a hit in his 26th straight game, setting a modern team record. He had gone 0-for-3 before knocking a single in the eighth inning against Pittsburgh. He repeated the feat later the same season. Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins later completed longer streaks.
• June 17, 1957 – Released Frank Baumholtz, who had hit .270 in 76 games with the 1956 Phillies. He had played just two games with the ’57 Phillies when he was released.
• June 17, 1961 – Signed free agent Elmer Valo, who was born in Slovakia and then moved to Palmerton, PA as a child. Valo spent 13 years with the Philadelphia Athletics and one more season with the Kansas City Athletics. His time with the Philadelphia A’s was interrupted by two years of military service in 1944 and ’45. He had played 98 games with the 1956 Phillies and returned in ’61 to play 50 more.
• June 17, 1971 – Recent draft selection Mike Schmidt made his professional debut during an exhibition game between the Phillies and their Double-A team in Reading. Schmidt played on the big league roster, playing shortstop and hitting a game-winning home run. He was officially assigned to Reading following the game.
• June 17, 1988 – With the bases loaded and one out against New York, Steve Jeltz hits what looks like an inning-ending double play. Milt Thompson alertly holds up going into second, getting into a rundown that allows two runners to score before he’s retired.
• June 17, 1996 – Released left-hander Dave Leiper, who pitched in 26 games with a 6.43 ERA after signing with the Phillies as a free agent prior to the ’96 season.
• June 17, 1996 – Released outfielder Mark Whiten. The Phillies had sent Dave Hollins to Boston for Whiten during the 1995 season and he hit 11-37-.269 with the team over the rest of the season.
• June 17, 2003 – The Philadelphia Phillies enter a 25-year agreement with Citizens Bank, one of the nation’s largest commercial bank holding companies, which includes naming Philadelphia’s new baseball facility, Citizens Bank Park. They also announce that the new ballpark will feature, a gigantic Liberty Bell towering 100 feet above street level that will come to life after every Phillies home run.

ICYMI

• Philly Baseball News – What are the Phillies Options if Trea Turner Misses Time?
• PBN Extra Innings – Tuesdays With Tank: A Pinch-Hitter For Tank (subscription req’d)

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for June 17

• Bill Hubbell (born 1897) – A righty who pitched six seasons (1920-1925) with the Phillies. He finished the Phillies portion of his career with a 36-55 record and 4.77 ERA in 101 starts and 54 relief appearances.
• Joe Bowman (born 1910) – Played for both the Athletics and Phillies. The lefty made 45 starts and 28 relief appearances with the Phillies and went 16-30 with a 4.70 ERA.

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