Thome to be featured in Outdoor Channel show

Jim Thome has retired from a Hall of Fame professional baseball career, but that hasn’t put an end to his outdoor sports pursuits.

Or taken him from the limelight, for that matter.

Thome, the Peoria native who hit more than 600 home runs during his Major League career, will be one of the stars of a new Outdoor Channel TV series called “THIRTEEN Presented by Under Armour.”

The series features Mark and Terry Drury, brothers who started the Drury Outdoors business, Thome and others in what Outdoor Channel describes as a “season-long, knock-down, drag-our battle royal that is the chase for mature whitetail buck.” The others are Gary Levox, front man for Racal Flatts, and two other Drury family members.

The channel said it’s the most inclusive look into their hunting season ever presented as it chronicles 13 phases of the White Tail season in South Carolina from last fall.

“Each riveting episode tells the tale of Man versus Mother Nature. While the Drurys may have developed a solid strategy headed into the season, Mother Nature had her own plan,” the release said, explaining that several obstacles are thrown in the hunters’ way. “But like any seasoned hunter, the crew regrouped, shifted gears and overcame less-than-ideal conditions for the ultimate harvests.”

“THIRTEEN” is part of Outdoor Channel’s summer lineup. It premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 1.

About the Author

Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).