Celebrate new Hall of Famer Jim Thome with his top five moments in a White Sox uniform

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Congratulations are in order for new Hall of Famer Jim Thome.

The Peoria native will almost certainly be wearing a Cleveland Indians cap in his Hall of Fame plaque, but his four seasons on the South Side were full of big moments and long home runs.

Here are Thome's five best moments in a White Sox uniform.

5. Thome's two-homer, seven-RBI night

Thome was on a nice streak in July 2009, and in back-to-back games against the Minnesota Twins — a team he'd later play for — he combined for seven RBIs. Well, in the next game, a series-opener against the Baltimore Orioles, he matched that total with seven RBIs in one game on a pair of home runs. The first was a three-run shot that broke a 3-all tie in the fifth inning, and he made it a monster night with a sixth-inning grand slam that sent a 6-5 game to a 10-5 game that ended in a 12-8 White Sox win.

4. Thome joins the 2,000-hit club

Thome finished his big league career with 2,328 career hits, but the one that put over the double-millennium mark came in a White Sox uni in 2008. Thome had two hits in that July 20 game against the Kansas City Royals (an eventual 8-7 White Sox loss), but the leadoff double in the seventh inning was the history-maker, the one that put him in the club that still has just 286 members.

3. Thome starts his White Sox tenure with a bang

Thome was a big addition to the defending World Series champs following the 2005 season, sliding right into an already power-packed lineup. He showed exactly why the White Sox brought him aboard, homering in his first game on the South Side, the same night the team raised its championship banner. That homer expanded a 4-3 White Sox lead to a 6-3 White Sox lead in what finished up as a 10-4 White Sox win to kick off the 2006 campaign.

2. Thome plays Blackout Game hero

The White Sox and Twins were knotted in a first-place tie after 162 games in 2008, forcing one of the most celebrated moments in recent South Side baseball history: the Blackout Game. With the stands full of black-clad fans, the White Sox and Twins got wrapped up in a pitcher's duel until Thome scored the game's lone run with a solo shot off Nick Blackburn in the seventh inning. That tie-breaking roundtripper sent the White Sox to a 1-0 win, an American League Central championship and the 2008 postseason. It sent Thome into White Sox lore forever.

1. Thome smacks No. 500

With the 2007 season coming to a close, Thome joined one of baseball's most legendary orders: the 500-homer club. And the slugger did it in epic fashion, following up Danny Richar's game-tying homer in the eighth with a tie-breaking two-run blast in the bottom of the ninth, giving the White Sox a walk-off win over the Los Angeles Angels. Hawk Harrelson's call of the milestone dinger has become just as memorable as the moment itself.

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