Henry "Hank" Thompson

[GeoPoto]

The next spring (1950), the Giants shifted Thompson to third base to clear second base for newly acquired Eddie Stanky. Often hitting in the cleanup spot, Hank enjoyed an excellent all-around season, batting .289, smacking 20 homers, and driving in a team-leading 91 runs in 148 games. In the field he participated in 43 twin killings in 138 appearances at third, breaking Pie Traynor’s 25-year-old National League record for double plays by a third baseman. Thompson’s record stood until 1974, when Atlanta’s Darrell Evans participated in 45 double plays in 160 games at third base.

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[Kevin]

I went to see dad on Monday. I brought the story up and he corrected me:

Dad was 15.

Mr Thompson asked for $100 initially and then lowered it to $50!

Great thread…

[GeoPoto]

On a team filled with pleasant surprises – unsung veterans enjoying career years and unheralded rookies making headlines – Hank Thompson was the 1951 Giants’ biggest disappointment. After his strong 1950 performance, the 25-year-old third sacker had been counted on to be a force in the middle of the New York lineup. Instead, he lost his regular job in midseason and ended up watching the club’s sensational stretch run for the pennant from the bench. Although he subsequently won back the Giants’ regular third-base job and starred for the 1954 world champions, he never fulfilled his early promise.

Opening Day of that fateful 1951 season found Thompson manning third base and hitting in the third spot against the Boston Braves. He got off to a horrible start, but by June 4 his average was up to a respectable .278 and his seven home runs were the second highest total on the club. But by July 18, the Giants 88th game of the season, Hank’s average was down to .239 and he’d added only one homer to his total. That day he was spiked by Chicago’s Frank Hiller and knocked out of action. The next afternoon outfielder Bobby Thomson, who’d lost his center-field job to rookie sensation Willie Mays almost two months earlier, was installed at third base.

A few days later, it was announced that Thompson had been optioned to the Giants’ Ottawa International League farm club with pitcher Al Corwin coming up to take his place. But Hank never actually reported to Ottawa, instead spending his time with the Giants working himself back into shape. He was activated and saw his first action since the injury when he appeared unsuccessfully as a pinch-hitter on August 1. Over the next two weeks, he made five more pinch-hitting appearances with only a lone single before he was optioned to the Giants’ Minneapolis Millers farm team in the American Association.

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[GeoPoto]

Hank found his batting eye in Minneapolis, slamming seven homers and hitting .340 with a torrid 1.209 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) in 14 games. Thanks largely to his phenomenal hitting, the Millers won 12 of the games in which he participated to climb back into the American Association pennant race before his recall to New York on August 28.

Back with the Giants, Thompson resumed his place on the bench behind hot-hitting Bobby Thomson. Several sources credit Hank with contributing greatly to the Giants’ sensational stretch drive, but that was not the case. After starting 68 of the Giants’ first 88 games at third base, he didn’t start another game the rest of the season. In fact, his only notable contribution to the “Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff” came on September 16 when he replaced Bobby Thomson at third base after Bobby was ejected in the fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader with the Pirates. Hank banged out two hits and drove in the go-ahead run with a ninth-inning fly ball in a 6-4 Giants victory. His only other action after his recall was seven unsuccessful pinch-hitting appearances.

On the play immediately preceding Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” Giants right fielder Don Mueller broke his ankle sliding safely into third base on a Whitey Lockman double. Therefore, Hank Thompson was pressed into service in right field for the World Series. Though Hank hadn’t played the outfield for the Giants all year, he’d played left field during his two-week stint in Minneapolis because the Millers’ third-base job was manned by future Negro League Hall of Fame third baseman Ray Dandridge.

Hank didn’t exactly distinguish himself in the garden or at the plate in the Fall Classic. He committed two damaging errors in right field and hit only .143 for the Series as the Yankees won in six games.

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[cgjackson222]

Hank Thompson, Willie Mays and Monte Irvin form the first all African American outfield for the 1951 World Series.

[GeoPoto]

Great photograph, Charles. Thank you for showing it.

After he finished the 1951 season with a .235 batting mark and only eight homers in 87 games, there didn’t appear to be a regular role for Thompson with the Giants in 1952. Then left fielder Monte Irvin, the reigning National League RBI king, broke his leg before the start of the season. Thus, the Giants began their defense of the National League pennant with Thompson and newly acquired veteran Bob Elliott platooning in left field. Hank handled his assignment well enough that he was entrusted with the Giants center field job when Willie Mays was inducted into the Army in late May. Eventually Hank moved back to third base for the last third of the season, swapping positions with Bobby Thomson. For the season, Hank started 51 games in center field, 43 at third base, and 17 in left field, while also filling in at second base and right field. He finished with a .260 batting average, 17 homers, and 67 RBIs in 128 contests, while recording a solid .798 OPS. In the offseason, he signed on with Roy Campanella’s All-Stars, touring the South with an all-black team that featured Campanella, Irvin, Larry Doby, Joe Black, Harry Simpson, and George Crowe. Willie Mays even put in a couple of appearances with the All-Stars while on furlough from the service.

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[GeoPoto]

Thompson spent the first month of the 1953 campaign warming the Giants’ bench while highly touted rookie Daryl Spencer was tried at third base. Finally inserted back into the hot corner spot in mid-May, he responded with his finest big league season. He appeared in only 114 games, sitting out most of the first month of the season and missing most of the last month after suffering a concussion when a bad-hop grounder knocked him out. Yet he slammed 24 homers and drove in 74 runs while hitting .302. His .567 slugging average was the seventh highest in the National League that year, and his outstanding .967 OPS was the sixth highest mark.

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