Henry "Hank" Thompson

[GeoPoto]

(Some of you may recall an earlier thread regarding Sam Jethroe; well, here we go again.) I have a modest collection of cards and photos involving Hank Thompson, another of the significant players in the evolution of integrated major league baseball. For the next 21 days I plan to make a daily post including one of these items with a portion of Hank's excellent SABR biography written by Rick Swaine. I hope that you will find Swaine's treatment of Thompson's historic, if not always happy, story interesting and would love to see any pieces involving Hank that may be part of your collection.

We kick off with Swaine's introduction to the biography and a 1950s PM10 Pin-back/Button honoring Hank:

Hank Thompson, a New York Giants mainstay from 1949 to 1956, is the answer to a host of trivia questions about black players. He was the first acknowledged black player to play for the Giants. He was also the first acknowledged black player to take the field for the St. Louis Browns, having received a brief trial with the American League club in 1947. Thus he is the only black player to break the racial barrier for two different major-league franchises.

In his July 17, 1947, debut with the Browns, 12 days after Larry Doby’s debut with the Cleveland Indians, Thompson became the second black American Leaguer as well as the third black 20th-century major leaguer, after Doby and Jackie Robinson. Only 21 years old at the time, Thompson gained the lasting distinction of being the youngest black player to integrate a big-league team. Two days later, he and Willard Brown became the first black players to play together in the big leagues since Moses “Fleet” Walker and his brother Welday teamed up for Toledo in the 19th century. A few days after that, Thompson became the first black player to appear in an official major-league game at Yankee Stadium, and later that season he and Doby became the first black players to compete against each other in a big-league game. Interestingly, Thompson, not Jackie Robinson, who was stationed at first base his rookie year, was the first black major-league second baseman.

When Thompson led off for the Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers in his National League debut on July 8, 1949, he became only the fifth black National Leaguer behind Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Dan Bankhead of the Dodgers. Facing Newcombe in his first plate appearance, he became the first black hitter to hit against a black pitcher in the big leagues. During the 1951 season, he would again make history when he and future Hall of Famers Monte Irvin and Willie Mays became the first three black major leaguers to load the bases, and in the World Series that fall, the same trio formed the first all-black big-league outfield.

And Hank Thompson literally was “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.”

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[Exhibitman]

He has one of the nicest 1952 Topps cards, IMO:

[GeoPoto]

Adam: Thank you for posting a beautiful example of Hank's 1952 Topps card.

Henry Curtis “Hank” Thompson was born in Oklahoma on December 8, 1925. Most sources list his birthplace as Oklahoma City, but in a 1965 interview, Hank claimed he was born 125 miles away in Muskogee. His father, Ollie Thompson, was a railroad worker who liked his liquor. His mother, Iona, was a cook and domestic worker. The family moved to Dallas, Texas, when Hank was an infant. His parents separated when he was still a youngster and divorced shortly thereafter. Young Hank lived with his mother, and it was the job of an older sister, Florence, to watch him while mom was at work – a job that proved too much for the young girl.

Growing up, Hank eschewed school for the streets of Dallas. At age 11, he had his first official brush with the law when he was picked up on suspicion of swiping some jewelry from a car, a crime he claimed he didn’t commit. Either the cops believed his protestations of innocence or couldn’t prove his guilt, so they busted him for truancy instead and shipped him to Gatesville Reform School, about 115 miles from Dallas.

Gatesville had a baseball program in which Hank got his first chance to play on an organized team. It motivated the youngster to keep his nose clean, but when he got out, he was sent to live with his father for a year. Thompson claimed that his father wouldn’t let him play ball and often beat him, so he was glad to go back to live with his mother.

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[cgjackson222]

Looking forward to this!

What an historical figure Hank Thompson was--the only man that was the first to integrate two MLB teams!

Thanks for doing this GeoPoto.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting, George. Always liked Hank's 1952 Bowman card. One reason was that when I restarted collecting back in the '80's, I could recall as a kid finding it in a waxpack in my Uncle's corner grocery store very late in the year - figures since it was a high number, I guess. No Mays in that pack, though, dang it, just five commons.

[GeoPoto]

Charles: Thank you for the kind words.
Steve: Nice 1952 Bowman! Thanks for participating.

Still not interested in scholarly pursuits, Hank spent his free time hanging around Burnett Field, where the Texas League Dallas Steers played, rather than continuing his education. The Steers allowed him to shag flies and throw some batting practice, and soon a local semipro Negro team recruited the then 15-year-old. By the end of the following season, he’d attracted the attention of Kansas City Monarchs star Bonnie Serrell, who recommended him to the Monarchs, one of the premier franchises in the Negro American League. The next spring Monarchs secretary Dizzy Dismukes sent Thompson $25 train fare to the club’s training camp in New Orleans, and his professional career was under way. Playing on a veteran team that included future Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Willard Brown, and Hilton Smith, as well as veteran stars Buck O’Neil and Newt Allen, the 17-year-old kid the veterans called “Youngblood” played right field and hit .314.

Thompson spent most of the next two years in the employ of Uncle Sam, serving as a machine gunner with the 1695th Combat Engineers. He was inducted into the Army in March 1944 and was mustered out with a couple of battle stars and the rank of sergeant on June 20, 1946. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, later recalling, “If there was a moment in my life I did something for society, that was it.”

After his discharge Hank settled in as the Monarchs’ second baseman. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues credits him with a .287 batting average while batting leadoff for the 1946 Negro American League pennant winners and hitting .296 in their loss to the Newark Eagles in that year’s “Colored World Series.”

The photograph, which shows Thompson in uniform with the Havana club, was taken before he broke into the major leagues as one of the first black players to do so. He is pictured with Mike Gonzalez and Herberto Blanco:

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[GeoPoto]

Immediately after the regular 1946 season, Thompson joined up with Satchel Paige to barnstorm against a team of major leaguers put together by Cleveland great Bob Feller. In Feller’s opinion, Thompson, the youngest player on the Negro League squad, was also the best.

After the successful and lucrative tour, Thompson journeyed to Cuba to play third base for the Havana Reds in the Cuban Winter League. There he met his future wife, Maria Quesada. Hank played three winter seasons with Havana, hitting over .300 each year, leading the league in RBIs in 1947-48 and runs scored, hits, and triples in 1948-49. On the island he was known by the nickname “Ametralladora,” a Spanish word that translates to “machine gun” in English.

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