"Someday very soon, Jim Thome will become the eighth player in major league history to hit 600 home runs. Among those he will recall most fondly is one that Twins fans would like to forget, one of 57 Thome hit against his future team.

Thome hit No. 541 as a member of the Chicago White Sox, and it accounted for the only run in a one-game playoff against the Twins. Tied atop the American League Central standings after 162 regular-season games, the Twins and White Sox settled it by playing a 163rd on Sept. 30, 2008, at U.S. Cellular Field.

Ultimately, Thome settled it with his bat, hitting a solo home run to dead center to lift the White Sox into the postseason.

"At no point when he was up there did I think he was trying to shoot one to get a base hit and get on the basepaths," said Nick Blackburn, whose hanging changeup to Thome was the only mistake he made that night. "I think he's up there looking for something he can drive and put in the seats.

"I didn't execute the pitch, and that's what he did. That's why the guy's got almost 600 home runs; he hits pitches that are left up."

Thome entered Saturday night's game against the White Sox with 598 home runs, eighth all time. He doesn't remember every home run he's hit, but he does remember a few.

His first, he recalls, was a two-run homer to beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in October 1991. He also remembers his fourth, a two-run homer against Craig Lefferts in August 1992 at the old Cleveland Stadium, "