These Men Changed Baseball: Hank Thompson

Now our series changes tack. Hank Thompson was the third African-American to make the major leagues in 1947, integrating the St. Louis Browns, and two years later he would join Monte Irvin in integrating the New York Giants. Despite his immense importance in baseball history for those two acts, it is good that Thompson followed Robinson and Doby.

Thompson was born in Oklahoma City in 1925, and his family moved to Texas while he was still young. In Texas, Thompson had a variety of legal problems, including arrests for theft and truancy while a minor. In 1943 he was picked up by the Kansas City Monarchs, but he had also developed the drinking problem that would plague the rest of his life. After his rookie season, Thompson joined the army in 1944, joining a combat engineer company as a machine gunner and fighting at the Battle of the Bulge. He was discharged in 1946 and rejoined the Kansas City Monarchs. After losing the Negro League World Series to the Newark Eagles and Larry Doby, Thompson’s contract was sold to the St. Louis Browns. He debuted on July 17, 1947. They lost to the A’s 16-2. His former Monarchs teammate and future Hall of Famer Willard Brown would debut 2 days later. Thompson had a poor rookie year at age 21. He hit .256 with an OPS+ of 76 as a second basemen. He was released, along with Brown, in August, and both went back to the Monarchs for that season and the next.

In 1949, Thompson returned to the major leagues for good. The Giants shifted Thompson to third base, where he would basically stick for the rest of his career. He stuck up an OPS+ of 119 in 75 games.   He would play well through 1954, with decent years in 1955 and 1956.  Then his career came to an abrupt in.  His statistics are provided below, courtesy of Baseball Reference.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	Pos	Awards
1947	21	SLB	AL	27	89	78	10	20	1	1	0	5	2	1	10	7	.256	.341	.295	.636	76	23	2	0	1			4
1949	23	NYG	NL	75	320	275	51	77	10	4	9	34	5		42	30	.280	.377	.444	.821	119	122	1	1	2			4/5
1950	24	NYG	NL	148	604	512	82	148	17	6	20	91	8		83	60	.289	.391	.463	.854	123	237	10	3	6			*5O	MVP-33
1951	25	NYG	NL	87	308	264	37	62	8	4	8	33	1	2	43	23	.235	.342	.386	.728	95	102	7	0	1			5
1952	26	NYG	NL	128	484	423	67	110	13	9	17	67	4	4	50	38	.260	.344	.454	.798	119	192	7	4	7			O5/4
1953	27	NYG	NL	114	454	388	80	117	15	8	24	74	6	5	60	39	.302	.400	.567	.967	146	220	5	4	2			5/O4	MVP-24
1954	28	NYG	NL	136	557	448	76	118	18	1	26	86	3	0	90	58	.263	.389	.482	.871	125	216	7	5	9	5		*5/47
1955	29	NYG	NL	135	533	432	65	106	13	1	17	63	2	2	84	56	.245	.367	.398	.766	103	172	5	4	5	8	4	*5/46
1956	30	NYG	NL	83	219	183	24	43	9	0	8	29	2	1	31	26	.235	.346	.415	.761	105	76	2	1	2	2	2	5/796
9 Seasons				933	3568	3003	492	801	104	34	129	482	33	15	493	337	.267	.372	.453	.825	118	1360	46	22	35	15	6
162 Game Avg.				162	620	521	85	139	18	6	22	84	6		86	59	.267	.372	.453	.825	118	236	8	4	6
NYG (8 yrs)				906	3479	2925	482	781	103	33	129	477	31	14	483	330	.267	.373	.457	.830	119	1337	44	22	34	15	6
SLB (1 yr)				27	89	78	10	20	1	1	0	5	2	1	10	7	.256	.341	.295	.636	76	23	2	0	1
NL (8 yrs)				906	3479	2925	482	781	103	33	129	477	31	14	483	330	.267	.373	.457	.830	119	1337	44	22	34	15	6
AL (1 yr)				27	89	78	10	20	1	1	0	5	2	1	10	7	.256	.341	.295	.636	76	23	2	0	1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/5/2009.

Why was Thompson’s career so short? He was an alcoholic. Thompson’s drinking problems stemmed back to at least 1943. Along with those problems, he had regular legal troubles. He was charged with murder in 1948, though acquitted as justifiable homicide. He was arrested for auto theft in 1958, armed robbery in 1961, and convicted of armed robbery in 1963. He died of a heart attack in 1969 at only age 43.

Thompson was not Robinson or Doby in any measure. He was not there equal as a ballplayer nor their equal as a human being. Nevertheless, Thompson made numerous contributions to major league baseball. He was the first African-American to play in both leagues, part of the first time in which African-American on opposing teams faced each other in a game (against Larry Doby), the first to face an African-American pitcher (Don Newcombe), part of the first all African-American outfield in the 1951 World Series. He was an integral part of the Giants World Series win in 1954, hitting .364 with an OPS of 1.066 in 18 plate appearances.  Thompson had some great success, and some astounding lows.  He is a reminder that the people who change the world are not necessarily fantastic people.  Nevertheless, he was integral to the development of the game we have today.

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Tags: Hank Thompson, Monte Irvin, Negro Leagues

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