Jim Thome

Jim Thome is on the brink of a historic milestone. With his next home run, the 573rd of his career, he will tie Harmon Killebrew for 10th place all-time on the major league home run list.

The Twins have had a knack of signing veteran players just in time to make history.

On September 16, 1993 Dave Winfield became the 19th member of the 3,000 Hit Club with a single against the Oakland A's. It was Winfield's 20th season and first of two he played for the Minnesota Twins.

It is always hard to watch a player that was once at the top of his game not know when to call it a career.

I understand, and fully respect, the fact that these guys love the game of baseball and want to play as long as they can.

Jim Thome is one of my favorite players ever, certainly current players withstanding.

It is painful to see his apparent value diminish to a pinch hitter's role with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Thome loves Chicago, considers it home, and would love to come back to the White Sox. They would like to have the slugger back. White Sox GM Ken Williams has not discounted the idea of re-signing Thome, after having traded him to the Dodgers for their playoff run in 2009.

It's late November, which means the NFL is in full swing, the college football season is coming down the home stretch, and all I can think about is baseball.

Don't get me wrong; I love football, but the Winter Meetings up ahead are getting me very excited.  However, after the meetings are over, it's back to Bowls, NFL Playoffs, and March Madness until baseball season begins again.  That isn't so bad.

The 1999 Cleveland Indians had one of the best lineups in the history of Major League Baseball.

They had incredible individual accomplishments. Three sluggers combined for 108 homers. Four hitters had RBIs in the triple-digits. Five players scored 100 or more runs.

They became the first team in nearly 50 years to score 1,000 runs in a season.

Now that the baseball season is winding to a close and the races are essentially over, it's time to look back and evaluate what went on in 2009.

The Sox were picked to finish in third place by most publications and that is exactly where they are right now. Though they were in the race for the division most of the year, they never built enough momentum to take a lead and fell out of the race in late August.

The Chicago White Sox are playing really bad baseball right now.

Their offense is as bad as it gets in the majors right now. As a team, they rank 26th in baseball in batting average (.246), on-base percentage (.315) and slugging (.391). They rank 27th in runs scored (136) and total hits (303). Through 37 games, they've been held to two or fewer runs 15 times. They have been shut out six times.

There is only one player on the entire roster, no matter the number of at bats, that is hitting over .300 (Paul Konerko, .316).

You do not win with a mixture of inexperience, awful starting pitching and extremely old baseball players.  It just does not work.  Lucky for the White Sox, they have the possibility of a bright future, but the present is going to be hard to put in the past.

When it rains, it pours, and when the White Sox offense is on fire, it's an inferno.

In all fairness to the White Sox pitching staff, Gavin Floyd did his best not to be outdone by the great starts of Mark Buehrle and John Danks, or the suddenly explosive offense.

Floyd threw seven strong innings, keeping a shutout all the way into the seventh inning. His control was back in a big way, striking out seven and not walking a single batter. He did give up six hits, but he spread them out well, and only yielded two earned runs.

White Sox fans, REJOICE!

It feels so good to actually be able to post that and have a proper meaning behind it. Worry not, this isn't some kind of a joke article about how to pass the time during the long season.

This is an article about the White Sox dramatic victory in their home opener against the Kansas City Royals, squeaking out a win right at the end of the game, coming behind Jim Thome's three-run blast into center field.