Only HOF-er born on March 5: Sam Thompson

[michael3322]

Samuel Luther "Sam" Thompson, Right Field, Detroit Wolverines, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes

His OPS+ of 147 is 51st best all-time, above a few other notable HOF-ers.

Cap Anson+ (27) 142
Eddie Collins+ (25) 142
Billy Hamilton+ (14) 141
Jesse Burkett+ (16) 140

For more on his stats, see: https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...hompsa01.shtml

His SABR profile by Dan Thompson begins...
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Sam-Thompson/

"Samuel Luther “Big Sam” Thompson was born on March 5, 1860, to Jesse and Rebecca (McPheeters) Thompson in Danville, Indiana. Sam was the fifth son born to his parents. His parents were to have eleven children, two of whom died shortly after birth, with six sons and three daughters surviving infancy.

Rebecca’s grandfather, John McPheeters, had served in the Revolutionary War and had ridden with the Virginia militia’s Over the Mountain men under the service of Colonel William Washington, George Washington’s nephew. John later settled in the Indiana Territory just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Rebecca’s husband joined Indiana’s 63rd Indiana Volunteers for the duration of the war. During the war, Jesse’s regiment was used basically to guard Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton in Indianapolis and throughout the South. According to family legend, Jesse learned the game of baseball from other Civil War soldiers. Jesse was finally medically discharged from the Union army in Guildford County, North Carolina, which also happened to be his birthplace. When Jesse returned to Danville after his discharge, he and the other Union soldiers of Danville brought with them the new game of baseball. With six sons, Jesse almost had a team under his roof. Danville had four amateur baseball teams, and the Thompson boys played for the Danville Browns. These games would draw nearly 1,000 people even though the towns weren’t nearly that large. The Thompson boys became quite well-known throughout central Indiana because of their baseball skills. One paper reported that the Thompson boys were as good with their bats as they were with their fists..."