Jim Thome never knew the launch angle or the exit velocity of all those baseballs that crashed so violently off his mighty bat during his 22-year career.
“You’re probably glad you didn’t know,” the former Phillies slugger said early Thursday afternoon following a brief ceremony at Citizens Bank Park to commemorate his upcoming induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. “We just talked about hitting it hard.”
Thome hit the ball hard enough 612 times during his career that the result was a home run. That ranks eighth on the all-time list; 101 of those came with the Phillies, including the 400th of his career exactly 14 years ago Thursday at Citizens Bank Park.