Lee Thompson

John Dudley Thompson
(Lefty)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.
• School Occidental College
• Debut September 4, 1921
• Final Game September 23, 1921
• Born February 26, 1898 in Smithfield, UT USA
• Died February 17, 1963 in Santa Barbara, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Lee Thompson was a pitcher 13 years (1918-1930), one in college (1921); 13 in the minors; and a cup of coffee in 1921. Thompson was born on Saturday, February 26, 1898, in Smithfield, UT. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1918 at age 20 with Ft. Worth in the Texas League. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and then played for Joplin in the Western League (1919); Fort Worth (1919-1921) and Columbus in the American Association (1921). He then attended Occidental College ( 1921) and, was 23 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 4, 1921, with the Chicago White Sox. He was (0-3) with no complete games in four games started, with four strikeouts and six walks in 20⅔ innings pitched with an ERA of 8.27 and a WHIP of 1.839 in four games. He played his final MLB game on September 23, 1921 at age 23.

He returned to the minors with Charleston - Greenville in the South Atlantic League (1922); Waterbury - Albany in the Eastern League (1923); Macon in the South Atlantic League (1924-1925); the Syracuse Stars in the International League (1925); the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association (1925-1926); Terre Haute in the Three-I League(1926); Winston-Salem in the Piedmont League (1926); Richmond in the Virginia League (1928); Shreveport in the Texas League (1929); Keokuk in the Mississippi Valley League (1930); and Quincy in the Three-I League (1930); ending his baseball career at age 32.

Thompson served in the U.S. Navy Seabees during World War II (BN). He also served on the Santa Barbara, CA Police and Fire Commission. He worked in Real Estate and, later, was a foreman at the Construction Center at Port Hueneme, CA. He died at age 64 on February 17, 1963 at Santa Barbara from a heart attack the same day as an older brother and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Solvang, CA.

Sources

Principal sources for Lee Thompson include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright; The American Association: Year-By-Year Statistics for the Baseball Minor League, 1902-1952 by Marshall D. Wright; The International League: A Baseball History, 1884-1991 by Bill O'Neal; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Lee Thompson at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)
• Find-A-Grave Memorial for Lee Thompson