Sam Thompson

Samuel Luther Thompson (Big Sam)

Position: Rightfielder
Bats: Left, Throws: Left
Height: 6' 2", Weight: 207 lb.

Born: March 5, 1860 in Danville, IN (All Transactions)
Debut: July 2, 1885
Teams (by GP): Phillies/Wolverines/Quakers/Tigers 1885-1906

Final Game: September 10, 1906
Died: November 7, 1922 in Detroit, MI
Buried: Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, MI
Inducted into the Hall of Fame by Veteran's Committee as Player in 1974.
View Sam Thompson Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject
About biographical information

View team uniforms at Dressed to the Nines a Baseball Hall of Fame on-line exhibit / Report an error

Hall of Fame

Standard Fielding

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	G	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRFG	G
1885	DTN	NL	25	OF	63	122	84	24	14	0	.885	1.71	.881	1.85	0-0-63
1886	DTN	NL	26	OF	122	236	194	29	13	11	.945	1.83	.890	1.75	0-0-122
1887	DTN	NL	27	OF	127	265	217	24	24	7	.909	1.90	.883	1.97	0-0-127
1888	DTN	NL	28	OF	56	102	86	4	12	0	.882	1.61	.906	1.91	0-0-56
1889	PHI	NL	29	OF	128	213	173	19	21	7	.901	1.50	.910	2.00	0-0-128
1890	PHI	NL	30	OF	132	212	170	29	13	5	.939	1.51	.914	1.91	0-0-132
1891	PHI	NL	31	OF	133	284	234	32	18	6	.937	2.00	.912	1.92	0-2-131
1892	PHI	NL	32	OF	153	268	223	28	17	7	.937	1.64	.912	1.89	3-0-150
1893	PHI	NL	33	OF	131	202	171	17	14	3	.931	1.44	.915	2.18	0-0-131
1893	PHI	NL	33	1B	1	8	7	0	1	0	.875	7.00	.978	10.60
1894	PHI	NL	34	OF	102	178	161	12	5	2	.972	1.70	.915	2.28	0-0-102
1895	PHI	NL	35	OF	118	230	186	31	13	2	.943	1.84	.917	2.18	0-0-118
1896	PHI	NL	36	OF	119	266	231	28	7	11	.974	2.18	.933	2.16	0-0-119
1897	PHI	NL	37	OF	3	6	4	1	1	0	.833	1.67	.937	2.10	0-0-3
1898	PHI	NL	38	OF	14	24	19	5	0	0	1.000	1.71	.937	2.08	0-0-14
1906	DET	AL	46	OF	8	14	14	0	0	0	1.000	1.75	.963	1.90	0-0-8
	15 Seasons			OF	1409	2622	2167	283	172	61	.934	1.74	.909	2.00	3-2-1404
	1 Season			1B	1	8	7	0	1	0	.875	7.00	.978	10.60
	15 Seasons			TOT	1410	2630	2174	283	173	61	.934	1.74	.909	2.01	3-2-1404

Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.

View Complete Notes on Fielding Data

Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.

Pre-1948 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
From 1948 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1948 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1918 on.
Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1948 to 1973 and complete from then on.
Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1918) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1948 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Appearances

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	G	Batting	1B	LF	CF	RF	OF
1885	DTN	NL	25	63	63	0	0	0	63	63
1886	DTN	NL	26	122	122	0	0	0	122	122
1887	DTN	NL	27	127	127	0	0	0	127	127
1888	DTN	NL	28	56	56	0	0	0	56	56
1889	PHI	NL	29	128	128	0	0	0	128	128
1890	PHI	NL	30	132	132	0	0	0	132	132
1891	PHI	NL	31	133	133	0	0	2	131	133
1892	PHI	NL	32	153	153	0	3	0	150	153
1893	PHI	NL	33	131	131	1	0	0	131	131
1894	PHI	NL	34	102	102	0	0	0	102	102
1895	PHI	NL	35	119	119	0	0	0	118	118
1896	PHI	NL	36	119	119	0	0	0	119	119
1897	PHI	NL	37	3	3	0	0	0	3	3
1898	PHI	NL	38	14	14	0	0	0	14	14
1906	DET	AL	46	8	8	0	0	0	8	8
	15 Seasons			1410	1410	1	3	2	1404	1409

Appearances table is calculated solely from full RetroSheet play-by-play data available from 1973 on. A combination of RetroSheet (starting with the 1918 season) and non-RetroSheet data is used for other seasons.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame 1974 Veterans (inducted) Selected to HOF in 1974 by Veteran's Committee	Def. Games as OF s c a p y 1886 NL 122 (4th) 1887 NL 127 (1st) 1890 NL 132 (5th) 1891 NL 133 (5th) 1892 NL 153 (1st) 1893 NL 131 (4th)	Putouts as OF s c a p y 1886 NL 194 (4th)	Assists as OF s c a p y 1885 NL 24 (5th) 1886 NL 29 (3rd) 1887 NL 24 (5th) 1890 NL 29 (3rd) 1891 NL 32 (1st) 1892 NL 28 (4th) 1895 NL 31 (2nd) 1896 NL 28 (1st) Career 283 (12th)
Errors Committed as OF s c a p y Career 172 (50th)	Fielding % as OF s c a p y 1886 NL .945 (4th) 1887 NL .909 (5th) 1891 NL .937 (5th) 1894 NL .972 (1st) 1896 NL .974 (1st)	Oldest s c a p y 1896 NL born 1860-03-05 (9th) 1897 NL born 1860-03-05 (8th) 1898 NL born 1860-03-05 (2nd) 1906 AL born 1860-03-05 (1st)

Other Resources & Links

Error? Compare Search SABR's Baseball Index Other Links@google.com Baseball Library Baseball-Almanac.com DeadBallEra Obituary Hall of Fame Retrosheet The Baseball Cube The Baseball Page WhatIfSports: Sam Thompson

Viewed 27,041 times through May 31, 2012.
Name and misspellings: Big Samuel Luther Sam sammy samuel Thompson thomson

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