Skip to main content

Sunday School: History Lesson 10

John S. "Jocko" Thompson was a left handed pitcher for the Phillies from 1948-1951. Jocko had been in the Red Sox organization prior to World War 2 breaking out, but served military duty as a paratrooper and company commander prior to making his major league debut.

Jocko was set to enter the 1942 season with the class A Scranton Red Sox but, when World War 2 broke out, he was called to duty and sent to basic training. After completing training in Louisiana, he became a paratrooper with the famed 504th Paratroop Regiment of the elite 82nd Airborne Division.

Thompson and the 82nd Airborne made jumps in nearly every major war zone. One of Jocko's early jumps was into Sicily in 1943. This invasion led to the Allies' capture of dictator Benito Mussolini. The list of Jocko's notable war experiences is long. When the war ended, so did Thompson's military career.

Upon his return to the United States and baseball, Thompson was the most decorated professional ball player. He served in North Africa and Europe and, while there, was awarded two purple hearts, a Silver and a Bronze Star, seven battle stars and numerous other ribbons, citations and awards along with a battlefield commission during his heroic career at war. In spring 1946, the 29-year-old reported to Scranton.

Herb Pennock, a former director of the Red Sox minor league system, was now the general manager of our Phillies. Pennock recruited members of his Boston staff to fill spots in the Phillies organization. One of his key hires was Scranton's business manager Joe Reardon, as the Phillies minor league director. Pennock and Reardon were familiar with Thompson and his history of heavy combat and the men made up their minds to acquire Thompson. They knew Jocko was a fighter and had heart. Prior to the 1947 season, Thompson's contract was purchased from the Red Sox.

Jocko would spend parts of the coming seasons with both the triple A Toronto Maple Leafs and the Phillies. Thompson, over his 4 ML seasons, appeared in 41 games, with a 6-8 record, 1 save, and a 4.24 ERA. Some say that the war took far too much out of him to have a sparkling pitching career, but his military service was far more important that what he did on the baseball diamond.

Comments

GM-Carson said…
I remembered to give you a shout-out today.

Popular posts from this blog

Rappers in Phillies Caps

Weekend greetings to you phine pholks out there. Today's post features pictures of rappers wearing Phillies caps. Why rappers in Phillies caps, you ask? Because... Any other questions? We will start things off properly by going with a highly recognizable hip hop star. 50 Cent stays constantly relavant by consistantly creating radio friendly material to help sell (G) units, while he "keeps it real" by still rapping about the thug life he lived before becoming the 2nd highest earning black entertainer in America. 50 is seen here in a recent interview rocking a throw-back Phillies cap. Next up we'll use a throw-back screen cap from what may be the very first major appearance by a rapper wearing Phillies gear. Chuck D, of legendary rap group Public Enemy, wore a Phillies cap in the music video for rap anthem Fight The Power in 1989. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing . Next up we'll go with some home grown tal...

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Lidge Shaky, T-Mac Honored in Trenton

TRENTON, NJ- Brad Lidge made his second rehab appearance for the Double A Reading Phillies on Thursday night and it didn't go as well as the veteran reliever or the team had hoped. Lidge struggled with his command and turned in a rather poor outing for the club that entered the night in a playoff race, 1 game behind division rival Trenton for the Wild Card spot in the Eastern Division. On the disabled list since spring training with a strained right rotator cuff, Lidge experienced an elbow strain when he was working back from that issue in late May. In his outing against the Yankees affiliate in Trenton, Lidge displayed difficulty with his control as he threw three wild pitches, hit two batters, walked another and gave up a single, all while letting up two earned runs on 28 pitches in 2/3 of an inning. After the disappointing performance, Lidge was composed and focused on some positive aspects, having reached 89 and 90 MPH on scouts' radar guns, according to some reports. ...