Game: Twins vs. White Sox
Date: August 17, 2010
Announcer: Dick Bremer

So I have a close friend who was Jim Thome’s biggest fan. He would bring Thome signs to Twins games, and would always root for the Indians against his hometown team. He desperately wanted the Twins to sign Thome in 2003, but he went to Philadelphia. He desperately wanted the Twins to sign Thome in 2006, but he went to Chicago. And then the Twins got him when they usually get superstars, when they’re old and crippled.

But Jim had one crazy good year in him left, and he helped propel the Twins to their last division title. And my friend, by all sorts of luck, was AT THIS GAME. And, by the worst luck imaginable, he was at the game with someone who insisted they leave after 9 innings because they wanted to go to bed.

After Thome’s moonshot to win the game, I call him. He’s on the way back to the car and he heard the cheers when he answered the phone this way:

“Thome just hit a walk-off homer, didn’t he?”