Pranking a Peoria icon: When a radio DJ's phone call woke up a young Jim Thome
Jim Thome's rise from the fields of Peoria to the hallowed Baseball Hall of Fame is well documented.
Yet just as the iconic slugger's pro career was starting in the late 1980s, Thome fell unsuspecting victim to a popular prank from Peoria disc jockey Gary Olson — who died on Feb. 7 at age 65, after a brief bout with meningitis.
The prank? Something that Olson famously called a "birthday burn."
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Olson and his partner, Donna Davis, would place a call to an unsuspecting person. Fueled with information from a family member, Olson would put the person on the air and ask a bunch of silly and inane things before the big "reveal."
At the time, it was cutting-edge stuff. He wouldn't identify himself as a radio personality and the idea was to put the "mark" in an uncomfortable yet family-friendly situation. The gags were so popular they sparked a charity "best of" album for St. Jude.
On Aug. 27, 1989, one of the most famous of the burns occurred when Olson called Orlando, Florida, to speak to 19-year-old Thome, who was playing baseball in the rookie Gulf Coast League. Olson pretended to be a groundskeeper and from the audio supplied by Olson's friend and colleague Scott Wheeler, it appears the radio host woke up the future Baseball Hall of Famer.
What followed over the next six minutes was Olson asking Thome to pick up a list of items that was beyond ridiculous, including a can of smoked sardines, Ritz crackers, a gallon of milk and baked beans.
Thome is clearly writing down the items, responding "yeah" and "OK" to each item.
"Hey, get some of those day-old doughnuts — you know, the ones that are kind of stale," Olson said.
"Yeah …," said a tired Thome.
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The DJ then asked Thome to read the list back and he forgot one thing, a box of Cap'n Crunch.
The reveal came with the ask of a "boom box" and people singing "happy birthday." Thome then starts talking to Olson about how his baseball career was going, and the rest is history.
"Jim was as sweet as could be. I'm not sure if he ever woke up," Wheeler said, remembering that call. "You really could hear the innocence in his voice of a 19-year-old kid."
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: When a young Jim Thome was pranked by a Peoria radio DJ
