Henry "Hank" Thompson

[GeoPoto]

Well-respected strong man Monte Irvin, a longtime teammate, apparently exerted a positive influence on Hank. “Every once in a while Thompson would get out of line and Monte would get on his case,” recalled former teammate and coach Bill Rigney.

In his autobiography Nice Guys Finish First, Irvin said, “Hank was known as a carouser.” He recalled when Leo Durocher came over to his locker and said, “Monte, I’m going to put you in charge of Hank while we’re in St. Louis. Watch him and make sure he doesn’t go astray. Make sure he gets to the hotel on time. Make sure he catches the bus. You’re in charge of him.”

It’s probably no coincidence that Thompson’s performance began deteriorating in 1955, the year the Giants cut Irvin in midseason.

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[GeoPoto]

Not surprisingly, Hank’s troubles worsened after he left baseball. He couldn’t hold a job, and though he’d made good money with the Giants, he’d blown it as fast as he earned it. During his first year out of baseball, he was arrested for stealing a car, and soon after that he was charged with unlawful entry and third-degree assault of a woman he claimed was his girlfriend when she refused to lend him money. The car-theft matter was subsequently dropped, but he spent a week in jail and paid a fine for the assault charge. He and Maria divorced in 1959, and he was still living in Brooklyn in 1961 when he held up a local bar where he was well known, having previously hocked his 1954 World Series ring there. He was convicted of stealing $37, but was released on probation with orders to leave New York after Giants owner Horace Stoneham and Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick interceded on his behalf. That fall Stoneham gave Hank a job at the Giants’ spring training facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, but the former player soon hooked up with an old girlfriend and moved to Los Angeles.

By 1963, Hank had drifted to Houston, where he stole $270 from a liquor store at gunpoint. He was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to ten years in the Texas corrections system.

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[GeoPoto]

Thompson reportedly got his life together in prison. He joined Alcoholics Anonymous, found religion, became a trustee, coached the prison baseball team, and began counseling first-time offenders. His fall from World Series hero to 31-year-old has-been in two short years is graphically documented in “How I Wrecked My Life – How I Hope to Save It,” which was published in Sport Magazine in 1965 while he was still in jail.

Apparently Hank said all the right things, because he was paroled in 1966 after serving four years. He moved to Fresno, California, where his mother lived, got a job as a playground director, and began working with troubled teens. Plans for a movie about his life, starring Sidney Poitier, were reported in early 1969. During the summer Thompson appeared at a Giants old-timer’s game and told friends he’d quit his job in Fresno and would be working for the team. But he died suddenly of a heart attack at his mother’s home in Fresno on September 30, 1969.

Like his baseball career, Thompson’s life ended prematurely. He had always lived fast – arrested at 11, drinking at 15, playing professional baseball at 17, becoming a war hero and an alcoholic at 19, making his major-league debut at 21, and setting World Series records at 28. But he was already past his prime at the age of 29, out of the major leagues at 30, and through with baseball at 31. When he died, he was only 43 years old.

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[GeoPoto]

Hank Thompson was a truly unusual talent. Despite a pedestrian .267 lifetime batting average, he combined power with a sharp eye at the plate to finish with an excellent .825 career OPS. For comparison purposes, Hall of Fame third-base contemporary George Kell retired with a .781 career mark. In fact, according to Baseball-reference.com, “Thompson has a higher Adjusted OPS than ten of the third basemen in the Hall of Fame, although his career was much shorter than most of them.”

Listed at a smallish 5-feet-9 and 174 pounds (he personally claimed to be only 5-8½ and 168), Thompson managed to generate tremendous power with the bat. He was reportedly awarded $2,000 for hitting a homer into the distant center-field bleachers during a Cuban Winter League game. The back of his 1957 Topps baseball card states, “He has been known to put the ball out of the park high over the Polo Grounds 450 feet sign many times.” A bit of hyperbole, maybe, but he obviously had a reputation for hitting the ball a long way.

Though not a prolific base stealer in the major leagues, Thompson was fast on the bases. In fact, his power-speed rating ranked seventh and eighth in the league in 1950 and 1953 respectively.

Hank demonstrated this rare blend of speed and power on August 16, 1950, when he hit two inside-the-park homers in one game against the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. He was the first big leaguer to accomplish that feat since 1939, and it wasn’t matched again until Dick Allen did it in 1972.

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[brian1961]

George, I want to sincerely thank you for your biographical posts on the life of Hank Thompson. I knew he'd led a very troubled life, but I had little knowledge why. Your work here is very commendable, and fascinating. As an author (self-published hobby book) I know these posts require a lot of digging, not to mention the work to carefully load up the images. All to say I very much appreciate your work; it was well-written.

I'm sure glad Hank had Manager Durocher and teammate Monte Irvin at crucial points in his career; I know they were instrumental in encouraging him, whilst keeping him on the straight and narrow.

Thanks for the mention of Hank's 2 inside-the-park home runs in one game. WOW!. I did not know that. His feat was extra sweet since he hit those against their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Moreover, he hit them at home, which, if he hit the ball in the right place, with his speed, he could pull off the inside four-bagger, and he did!!! I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and still remember when Dick Allen hit his 2 for the White Sox.

Wishing you all the best, sir. --- Brian Powell

[GeoPoto]

(Brian (and Dwight): Thank you for the feedback. You are very kind. However, just to be clear, I am not the author of the biography that accompanied this thread -- that distinction belongs to Rick Swaine. I lifted his text from SABR. The cards and photos are mine. This post completes my portion of this thread. Thanks for listening.)

In nine big league seasons, Thompson came to bat 3,529 times in 933 games, blasting 129 homers, driving in 482 runs, and walking 493 times. For the equivalent of a little less than six seasons of regular duty (600 plate appearances), this translates to an impressive average of around 22 homers, 82 RBIs, and 84 bases on balls per year. A left-handed hitter who was often platooned, he ranked among the National Leaders in such diverse categories as on-base-percentage, slugging, OPS, triples, home runs, homers per times at bat, bases on balls, stolen bases, sacrifice flies, and times hit-by-pitch – a category in which the early black major leaguers dominated.

On defense Thompson was extremely versatile, playing regularly at third base, shortstop, second base, and all three outfield positions at various times. He was somewhat error-prone at third base, his primary position, so he didn’t enjoy a particularly good defensive reputation. But his range factor at the hot corner was good and his defensive win shares seem to indicate he was a better than average third sacker.

Hank Thompson never truly capitalized on his ability. After his baseball career ended, he admitted he had a serious alcohol problem and had been an alcoholic while he was playing, though he claimed that he never drank during or before a game. “I’d say 99 percent of my trouble came right out of a bottle,” he estimated shortly before his death.

“I became a baseball has-been at 32,” he said. “I couldn’t move around third base. Balls were going by me that I should have had. I was disgracing baseball and I still kept boozing it up. He played his last major-league game on September 30, 1956, the same day fellow pioneer Jackie Robinson made his last big-league appearance.

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[jingram058]

I think this is an Ernest Withers photo a youthful Willie Mays and Hank Thompson in Memphis with Lou Chiozza, a Memphian who had played for the Phillies and Giants in the 1930s. Lou Chiozza somehow worked behind the scenes ensuring that Willie Mays and Hank Thompson went to the Giants. I think this photo was made at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated years later.