Hall of Famer Jim Thome was a 13th-round Draft pick; his son could go in the 1st this year

They threw an oversized men’s jersey on 11-year-old Landon Thome and pointed him toward home plate.

It was the 2019 All-Star Celebrity Softball Game in Cleveland’s Progressive Field, the ballpark where Landon’s father, Jim, hit 190 of his 612 career home runs. But he wanted his young son to take this mid-game at-bat in his place.

“The most nervous at-bat of my life,” an 18-year-old Landon says now.

The boy didn’t show any nerves as he ripped an RBI single in what will go down as his first at-bat in an MLB event.

And perhaps not his last.

In that moment and many others, Landon has had the built-in edge of a Hall of Fame father pulling for him. But he’s become his own type of player -- and a legitimate pro prospect at that. MLB Pipeline ranked the Nazareth Academy (Ill.) product as the No. 37 prospect going into the 2026 Draft.

The elder Thome knew this was possible a few years back.

“You watch the movements,” said Jim, “and go, ‘You know what? When the strength collides with the skillset, this could be fun to watch.’”

To watch Landon Thome is a much different experience than watching Jim Thome. He’s a left-handed hitter like his dad, but the comparisons kind of end there. Listed at 6-foot, 170 pounds, Landon, a Florida State commit, doesn’t give off those “country strong” Bunyan vibes that would suggest he’ll be chasing his dad’s homer total.

“I would say, looking back at my dad in high school [when Jim was also a shortstop], he kind of had a similar build to me, kind of a longer, lankier guy,” Landon said. “I'm more of a different hitter than my dad, just kind of more of a pure hitter, while my dad is more kind of that power guy. So I try to kind of model my game after myself. I like to play my own game instead of trying to model my game after other people.”

While he does possess power, Landon is focused more on bat-to-ball skills that made him one of the best high-school hitters in this class, as well as his middle-infield defense and his ability to make things happen on the basepaths.

“I truly believe, as much as he loves the offensive side, when he reaches first base, to watch him run the bases is special,” Jim said. “He wants to score, wants to change the game on the bases with a very aggressive impact.”

Jim stole 19 bases in his career, so he can’t relate much to that side of his son’s game. But he has instilled in their son the same work ethic and same respect for the game and the people around it that made him such a beloved class act on his path to Cooperstown.

Raised by Jim and his wife, Andrea, Landon is an exceedingly polite young man with the kind of high baseball IQ that comes with growing up inside the game.

“Cooperstown is one of my favorite, favorite trips to take every year,” he said. “I make sure that I can be there every year. Getting to be able to be around those legends, like Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken Jr. and talk with them is super awesome.”

Between what he’s done with that access and insight and his skills and production, Landon is a lot higher on Draft boards than Jim was back in the day.

Jim was a diamond in the rough from Illinois Central Junior College. A Cleveland scout saw him hit some rockets in a game and asked him afterward, “If we draft you, will you sign?” Thome got the phone call from the team in the 13^th round.

“It was the biggest dream come true,” Jim said. “A Major League team thought highly enough to draft me, no matter what round it was. They felt like they wanted me to be a part of their family. And that's special.”

But was the process anything like Landon’s?

“So different,” Thome said with a big laugh.

Different, indeed. Landon Thome isn’t sneaking on anybody with that surname of his. And if you went to a Nazareth Academy game, you got two Thomes for the price of one, with Jim serving as a hitting coach during Landon’s time with the team.

“You can be a father-coach,” Jim said, “but you also have to learn, at the end of the day, I want to be Dad first.”

The dad is proud to see how far his son’s baseball career has come already. That All-Star Celebrity Softball Game was actually indicative of how this whole thing has gone. Landon got an opportunity thanks to his dad. And he has seized it.

“He's earned all of this,” Jim said. “As parents, you root for your kids. You pull for them. But at the end of the day, I feel like he's earned everything for him, that being here is about him, and I love it.”