Jim Thome Home-run #600...and might not make HoF?

Lets get the stats out of the way, before the opinion is made.

Jim Thome -August 27, 1970 in Peoria, IL
Teams - Indians/WhiteSox/Phillies/Twins/Dodgers 1991-2011
Games - 2456
At-Bats 8167
Hits 2263  14th all-time
RBI 1662 27th all-time
Home-runs 600 8th all-time
Extra-base hits 1066 27th all-time
All-Star 1997 1998 1999 2004 2006
Awards 2002 Reberto Clemente Award -
The Roberto Clemente Award is given annually to a player who demonstrates the values Clemente displayed in his commitment to community and understanding the value of helping others. ( From MLB)
2004 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award -
It is given to players who best exemplify his character and integrity both on and off the field. Since the award was created in 1955, the name of each winner has been placed on the Lou Gehrig Award plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. ( from  Wiki)


At the end of the 2002 season Thome became a free agent. The Phillies at the time were looking to the future and trying to finally bring in some big named free agent, especially since they had a new ballpark about to open in the 2004 season. The Phillies were very good at NOT signing the big names for years. You need to remember this was before the new ballpark, before the winning seasons, before Howard Halladay Lee Oswalt Hamels , back when philly played Football and Baseball in the same stadium and the phillies were lucky to draw 20,000 fans a night.
So along comes Thome and the Phillies do everything they can to wow him into coming to our town and play for our team. When he comes into town back at the end of 2002 the Phillies put together this wonderful presentation, drive em around in a stretch limo, show him the city, but as they were leaving the Presentation at the new offices next to where the new ballpark is being built, the big construction workers union has shown up in numbers. They are all wearing the same shirt that says something like (Welcome to Philly Thome) Now this was not planned by the Phillies. This was done by the union itself. They decided they had so much pride in building this new stadium, and high hopes for the future that they wanted to voice their opinion directly to Thome himself.
So as Thome is pulling away from the offices in this giant stretch white limo, he see's the workers. He demands the driver to pull over, and spends the next hour or so meeting, signing autographs, and just shaking the Union workers hands. Again, this was unplanned and this showed the kind of guy Jim Thome is! He was not above the working man, he appreciated people who work hard and took pride in the work they did. I do not know Jim Thome personally, but stories like this speak volumes to the kind of human being a person is. So I was discouraged this morning upon waking up and reading a few reports that said Thome may not get the votes to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, simply because he has played in the Steroid Era of MLB.
His numbers speak for themselves, I hope that stories like this one would be taken into account when the writers vote for Hall of Famer's in the future. You cant lump everyone who hit a Home Run in the 90's all into the Steroid era. You need to take into account how a man treats others, and if he says he did not do Steroids, a man like this one I would tend to believe.