Jim Thome's Hall of Fame Speech and Why We Need to Be Challenged

Congratulations to home run hitter Jim Thome on his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. All of the inductees gave interesting and heartfelt speeches. In his speech, Thome thanked his teammates, his managers, and the fans of the six cities in which he played major league ball. He noted how remarkable it was that a 13th round draft pick would even get to the big leagues, let alone to the Hall of Fame.

But all epideictic speeches (that is, all ceremonial speeches) are about values, and one value that Thome mentioned really hit home to me. He thanked his opponents for helping him rise to one challenge after another:

"To everyone I played against, a few of whom are seated behind me, God bless you for making it hard to win games. You inspired hours of workouts, endless conversations of strategy, and challenged me to dig deep to pursue the truth that we all seek to discover but never quite master. We competed for the same thing and pushed one another to bring out the best in ourselves."

"To dig deep to pursue the truth that we all seek to discover but never quite master." Isn't that what life, at its best, is really about? We often do our best when the challenges become the greatest. For every strikeout that Thome made (and he struck out plenty!) gave him a chance to learn more about the sport.

So, he had a great career, and left his fans with an inspiring thought. He gave the audience - the live audience, the television audience, and the YouTube audience - a chance to learn something.