"Those who think Jim Thome derived his greatest pleasure in baseball from circling the bases 600-plus times nonstop never will have understood him fully.

Yes, the homers were important. Each and every one. But they did not drive him.

The endless hours in the cages did.

Session after session, often in the dank bowels of venues across the country, when no more than one other person was looking.

In search of the perfect power swing.

Thome knew there is no such thing as the perfect swing, but he lived for the chase.

The results Thome got from the callused hands were not too shabby. He will end his career, perhaps at the end of this season, ranked among the game's greatest sluggers. "