Jim Thome is my favorite current baseball player. I like many of the Royals a lot but Jim Thome still comes out on top. He is today’s custom card of the day with the great set: 1984 Donruss.
I saw a graphic in The Sporting News the other day about the top 10 home run hitters since 1990. Of the 10 listed, 9 have been linked to steroid use. The one that hasn’t been linked to the juice; Big Jim.
Thome blasted his 591st long ball of his career the other day in Camden Yards. He should get to 600 very easily this year barring an injury. At one time that number would have been monstrous, only 3 people had done it when I started liking baseball, now some skinny little juiced-up punk playing third base in New York is already past that feat.
The achievement won’t be lost though, especially with Thome who hasn’t been linked to any illegal substances. All this taken into consideration, didn’t put Thome in Cooperstown, New York a couple years ago. He has been a DH for several years witch really hurts his chances but I believe he is now “in.”
When Thome joined Minnesota at the beginning of last season he was just a great player, not a hall of famer. With his simple 25 homer season as a part time player he solidified his spot in the baseball Hall of Fame. I think he may not make the first ballot, in fact, probably won’t, but I strongly believe he will make it.
I remember buying a pack of 1995 score when they were still on the shelves and pulling a Thome card and thinking; this is going to be one of my guys. From that point on I have followed his career closely, which has been a pleasure. At the time I started following him, the tall, skinny third baseman for the Indians had somewhere between 30 and 55 career home runs under his belt. It is safe to say I have cheered for him sending a lot of balls out of the yard.
I believe Thome will bow out after this baseball season, hopefully injury free. He will eclipse 600 home runs and call it a career. He will never win a World Series but he was there and didn’t exactly ride the pine at the time. He has numerous post-season heroics so not winning the big one will be a minor blemish on his record. I need to make it to a Twins game this year and hope he is playing. I would like to see him again before he retires. Take in what you are seeing with him, he is a rare breed.
A Hair Off Square 
1984 Donruss drives me crazy…I’ve wanted to make ’84 customs for a while, but those yellow stripes always get messed up when I play around with it. How did you get it so clean?
I have actually had this question before. I go in and recreate everything on the card. I know some custom card designers will use photoshop and replace what they want to change but I actually start from scratch. I use Illustrator to rebuild the cards in vector format. This gives me a nice clean look.