Jim Thome: hard work pays off for Cleveland slugger; Indians first baseman chips away at club record book with every mighty swing.(Interview)

WHEN JIM THOME WAS EIGHT years old, he strode into the kitchen of his home in suburban Peoria, Illinois, and announced to his mother, "I'm never going to work. I'm going to play big league baseball."

The boy was crazy about the sport. His father, Chuck, 66, recalled that he would walk all over the neighborhood rounding up friends for a game. At other times, he would stand in the driveway of his home for hours, tossing up rocks and batting them into a field across the street.

"I honestly think my two older sons, Chuck Jr. and Randy, who were both all-state, had a better chance to make it in baseball than Jim did," said the father. "But they didn't want it as bad as he did. Jim's living his dream. I'm awful proud of the things I've seen him do."

Thome, the Indians' first baseman, had his greatest season, with 49 homers and 124 runs batted in last year. He became the team's career leader in home runs and bases on balls in 2001. He needs 275 runs batted in to break Earl Averill's club record. As manager Charlie Manuel said, "By the time he retires, he could have most of the club records."

At age 31, he has plenty of time to break Averill's club marks of 1,154 runs and 724 extra-base hits.

"When I came up, I never thought I'd be the team's all-time home run leader," Thome said. "Right now I'm hoping I can play eight or nine more years, or even longer. I'd like to play my whole career in Cleveland." His contract expires at the close of 2002.

When the lefty hitter started with the Indians in 1991, he rapped almost everything to left field. He weighed about 205 pounds. Now he has grown into a 6-4, 240-pound powerhouse who can pull. He struck the longest homer in Jacobs Field history, a clout of 511 feet in 1999.