"Jim Thome's 600th career home run caused little more than a ripple in the vast sea of sports information emanating from our major media outlets.

The next day in Cleveland, Thome's deed became a topic on radio talk shows. Not so much because of the rarity of the achievement - eight players have hit 600 homers, only five without the help of steroids - but because he left the Indians as a free agent when the Philadelphia Phillies paid him more in 2002.

Naturally, that sort of bizarre decision called for a thumbs up or thumbs down referendum on Thome's character by talk-show callers, emailers tweeters and bloggers.

Only in the distorted world of diehard fandom is it a sin to leave town because an employer elsewhere is willing to give an employee a raise. If two Tribe partisans sitting on bar stools ripping Thome were offered five grand apiece more to do whatever they do in Youngstown or Pittsburgh or Gary, Ind., they would be packed and on the road in a matter of hours.

But if an athlete signs a contract for millions of dollars more to play for a team other than the Indians, he is exhibiting the worst kind of greed and avarice."