Thompson '96 rocks the minor leagues

Some people would like to think that a Yale diploma can open any door. But after a career without precedent in either Yale or Ivy League baseball history, Dan Thompson, ES '96, chose to follow a path that most Yalies can only dream of: professional baseball. After eclipsing nearly every offensive mark in the Yale record book, the slugging rightfielder was selected in the 22nd round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Thompson in his Yale days

In his four years in New Haven, Thompson established himself as the most prolific batter in the 130-year history of Yale baseball, leading the Bulldogs to three division and two league titles. As team captain during his senior season, Thompson hit .410 with seven home runs and 54 RBI. He holds the Yale career marks for batting average (.393), hits (213), doubles (50), and RBI (158). For good measure, he was also the ace of the Eli starting rotation in 1996. He went 5-3 with a 3.58 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings, a performance that earned him Ivy League Pitcher of the Year honors.

Beyond all the accolades, the 1996 ABCA and Mizuno third-team All-American was more important to his teammates as a consistent, reliable bat that the team could always count on. As a freshman, he grabbed hold of the number-three slot in the batting order, and, throughout his career, he was a clutch performer. "He was the greatest hitter in Yale history," 1997 current team captain Keith Caggiano, DC '97, said. "What was amazing about him was his consistency. Year in and year out, he would always be around .400, and he just kept getting better."

Thompson's superb college career caught the eyes of many major-league scouts, and the Brewers drafted him in early June. After a week of training in Arizona for all of the team's draftees, Thompson was assigned to the Helena Brewers in the Pioneer League, a level classified as rookie advanced. The Montana city is not exactly a thriving metropolis, as evidenced by the town's night life. "There's only one bar in town, and it's country," Thompson, a native of Lexington, Ky., said. "The only thing they play is the Macarena and that's it; they just play it over and over."

The Brewer players, however, didn't get much of a chance to experience the thrills of a night out on the town in Helena. Though it has been glamorized by Hollywood in such movies as Bull Durham, minor-league baseball is quite a grind. Players arrive at the ballpark around two in the afternoon, play daily games, and usually leave the park late at night. If the team is on the road, these games are followed by multi-hour bus rides that last well into the wee hours of the morning. Twice the Brewers were stranded when the team bus broke down, something that Greg Maddux and Cal Ripken never have to worry about.

His card

Even so, the minor leagues also have a more relaxed atmosphere as fans and players develop a camaraderie since the same folks show up at the ballpark night after night. Although Susan Sarandon wasn't chasing any of the players, one dedicated Helena Brewer fan was Myron Nudelman, a man Thompson described as "a guy with big teeth who dressed like Jerry Lewis."

Despite long hours, once players settle into a ballpark routine of batting practice and shagging flies, life in a minor league clubhouse is often characterized by a great deal of dead time. While passing the time can often turn into an ordeal, it also gives rise to entertaining situations. On one of his first days with the team, Thompson brought a book into the clubhouse.

Although some of his teammates gave the Yalie a hard time about his intellectual pursuits, the next day a couple of his teammates had also brought books into the clubhouse. "Of course," Thompson explained, "the only thing some of these guys would read were girlie magazines." Thompson was the only member of the Helena squad who had graduated from college, and about a quarter of his teammates were fresh out of high school.

A different intellectual environment was not the only adjustment Thompson had to make. Although he had played for teams in competitive summer leagues, minor league pitching was definitely a step above the Ivy League level. "The pitchers in the minors consistently threw harder, and they threw a lot more breaking stuff," Thompson said.

He credited his summer-league experience as well as the Yale team's annual spring-break road trip to North Carolina to play some of the top teams in the country for helping to make this adjustment to professional baseball easier.

Even so, the transition from Bulldog to Brewer blue hasn't been smooth for the outfielder. He got off to an extremely slow start, and at the midway point of the season was batting an un-Thompson-like .190 with a single home run.

At that point, he was part of a three-man platoon in left field and playing about every third day. Although the idea of a character-building slump is a sports cliché that has been beaten to death, at least one of his Yale teammates feels that these early struggles may have helped Thompson in the long run. "I think he found a new focus and a new dedication after he struggled a little bit," Caggiano said. "While he was at Yale, he never really faced any adversity."

Among the people who helped Thompson through this down time was Yale baseball coach John Stuper, who, himself, enjoyed some success as a pitcher both at the minor and major league level. "I talked to Stup a couple of times," Thompson said. "He was more optimistic. He told me not to get down and not to worry, and he encouraged me and inspired me to work harder."

Helena Brewers

In the second half, Thompson began giving Pioneer League pitching the same rough treatment he had doled out to the Ivy League for four years. "Everything fell into place in August," the modest Thompson said in a drastic understatement. For the first two weeks of the month, Thompson hit at a torrid .500 pace, and he continued to stay hot throughout the month. He also strung together an 18-game hitting streak, a single game shy of the Pioneer League record. By the end of the season, Thompson had lifted his batting average to a more than respectable .338 with six home runs.

To cap a successful minor league debut season, Thompson's Helena Brewers captured the league championship, outlasting a team from Ogden, Utah in a three-game series. "You really couldn't have written a better script," Caggiano said.

With one minor league season under his belt, Thompson returned to his native Kentucky for the winter. His only obligation is to lift and work out before spring training in February, but Thompson knows that there is plenty of work to be done. Additional strength and quickness are essential if the former Bulldog star is to be successful at the next level. Thompson will likely take a step toward the major leagues next season, moving up either to the Brewers affiliate in Beloit, Wisconsin or Stockton, California based upon the strength of his performance in spring training. After that, his plans are not carved in stone. "I'll play one more summer for sure, and probably two more. I just want to keep improving. But if I stay in the same place for two years, I will probably give it up," Thompson said. In the long run, Thompson feels that he couldn't have made a better choice than attending Yale and earning his degree. But if his second-half performance is any indication, it looks like that diploma might be gathering dust for some time.