CLEVELAND — All the memories, some fresh and some forgotten, have been chasing Jim Thome around this season — maybe his final season.

“You can’t play forever,” he said.

The Cleveland Indians, the team that will always mean more to him than any other, honored the gentlemanly slugger before opening a three-game series with Minnesota.

Then he went out and earned another curtain call, hitting his 604th career homer, a towering two-run shot to straightaway center, in the direction where he will soon be immortalized.

During a touching pregame tribute, the Indians unveiled plans to erect a bronze statue of Thome.