Sox's Shields on Thome: 'One of the best dudes I've ever been around'
Not long after the deal went down, Aaron Rowand talked to his cousin.
"He was bittersweet," James Shields recalled on Saturday. "He grew up with the White Sox and they were the team he wanted to play for. But at the end of the day he understood it was a business and to be traded for a guy like that, it's obviously pretty special."
On Nov. 25, 2005, less than a month after helping the Chicago White Sox win the World Series, Rowand was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jim Thome.
It was a shocking move at the time, given Rowand's performance and popularity.
But the Sox did get Thome in return, and they had the future Hall of Famer on the roster for almost four full seasons.
With the White Sox hopelessly out of contention in late August of 2009, Thome was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. His final season was in 2012.
On Sunday, Thome enters the Hall of Fame after easily being voted in on his first ballot. Needing 75 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers' Association of America for enshrinement, the left-handed slugger and Peoria native netted 89.8.
Shields, a starting pitcher for the Sox and Rowand's cousin, is one of the few players in the clubhouse who played against Thome.
"I think I did OK against him," said Shields, who held Thome to a .273 batting average (9-for-33), 1 home run and 3 RBI to go with 11 strikeouts.
Shields got to know Thome when he was a player and furthered the friendship after Thome joined the White Sox's front office midway through the 2013 season as special assistant to general manager Rick Hahn.
"I know Jim real well," Shields said. "The guy was an unbelievable baseball player. He's the epitome of the role model you want for major-league baseball. Obviously, he's going to the Hall of Fame for his numbers and what he did on the field.
"To me, what stands out the most is his character and what kind of guy he is off the field and how much he cares about people in this game and people in general. He's probably one of the best dudes I've ever been around."
On the field, Thome ranks No. 8 in baseball history with 612 home runs. He went deep 337 times with the Cleveland Indians, the team he broke in with in 1991 and the team his cap will represent in Cooperstown.
Thome hit 134 homers in his brief run (2006-09) with the Sox. No. 500 of his career came at Guaranteed Rate Field (formerly U.S. Cellular Field) on Sept. 16, 2007, a 2-run walk-off shot against Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Dustin Moseley.
On Sunday, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, vice president Kenny Williams, former teammate Paul Konerko and Frank Thomas will be at the Hall of Fame for Thome's induction.
Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Jack Morris and Alan Trammell are also going into the Hall of Fame Sunday.
"It's a great class," Thomas said. "Great guys, deserving guys, guys who were big in that era who played really well. It's going to be a good day. I look at Thome, Chipper Jones and Vlad, those guys were big-time players. It's fitting they're going in at the same time."