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Posted By: Richard Simon

In the winter of 1953 my dad had to go into the hospital for minor surgery. He was in a semi private room and the guy in the next bed was Hank Thompson, 3rd baseman for the NY Giants. We were Giants fans.
The reason for Thompson's hospitalization is a rather interesting one. He was in a fender bender with a taxi cab. He gets out of his car and approaches the cab to see if the driver is ok. The driver sees this husky black guy coming towards him, fears for his safety, takes out the bat he kept in his cab for protection and whacks Hank Thompson over the head with it.
The first game we went to in 1954 my dad marches my brother and I down to the area behind the Giants dugout. He signals to the security guard who comes over. Then my dad says to the guard "tell Hank Thompson that Ben Simon is here to see him." The guard tries to wave us away but my dad insists that he go into the dugout and get Hank Thompson. The guard eventually goes into the dugout and out pops Hank Thompson. Too many years have gone by for me to remember what was said, but I do remember shaking hands with him.
For an eight year old, that was quite a thrill.
On my first ever trip to the HOF I went down to the file room and asked for the Hank Thompson file. One of the wire photos in the file is one of Hank Thompson in bed at home, with his wife changing the dressing on his head. The caption explained the story.
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