Rich Thompson: A Study in Perseverance

[OFFNY]

O

Just by coincidence, I was checking to see what Rays player rounded 3rd base and was caught off guard by an alert Manny Machado last week. The player's name was Rich Thompson.

So, I clicked on his baseball reference page, and lo and behold, Thompson had not played in the majors since 2004, when he had 1 plate appearance for the Royals:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/thompri02.shtml

I checked Thompson's minor league page, and I noticed that he indeed has been toiling away mostly at the AAA level in the 7 years in between his major league stints.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=thomps001ric

Thompson is now 33 years-old, also. I thought that Lew Ford had a lot of moxie for his persistence in professional baseball. At least Ford had almost 5 full seasons in the majors under his belt when he was making his unlikely trek back to the big leagues.

Hats off to Rich Thompson.

[Can_of_corn]

And thanks to Manny he will live forever in baseball lore.

[DrungoHazewood]

Almost a local guy. Born in Reading, PA, and went to JMU in Harrisonburg (my mom's alma mater). His main asset does seem to be that he's fast - 494 career minor league steals. Has more minor league stolen bases than Roberto Alomar or Bobby Bonds had MLB steals.

[DrungoHazewood]

So I had to check on the longest absences from MLB. It appears that the record is 22 years, by Paul Schreiber. With a little help from WWII's depleted rosters. He pitched a game for the Dodgers on September 2, 1923. Then made his next appearance for the Yankees on September 4, 1945. His minor league career ended in 1931, but was the Yank's batting practice pitcher and a coach for the next 14 years. He was apparently activated late in '45 due to a shortage of players from the war.