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Henry Thompson

© Harold Friend

The World Series opened at Yankee Stadium the next day and the Giants needed an outfielder to replace Mueller, who had batted .277 with 16 home runs. Manager Leo Durocher inserted Henry Thompson in right field and placed him third in the batting order. A rookie who came became fairly well known played center field and Monte Irvin, who had joined the Giants along with Thompson the previous season, was in left field. It was the first time a team had an all-black outfield.

Henry Thompson played for the Giants from 1949 until 1956. His best season was 1953 when he batted .302 with 24 home runs and a .567 slugging average. Following the 1956 season, his contract was sold to the Minneapolis Millers, the Giants top minor league team, which is where Thompson finished his career.

It is interesting to note that when Thompson and Irvin joined the Giants in 1949, the New York Times article stated that "Horace C. Stoneham, Giant president, announced yesterday that he had purchased outfielder Monte Irvin and infielder Henry Thompson from his Jersey City farm club in the International League."

A more recent article found on the Negro League Baseball Players Association website, referring to Thompson's leaving the Giants and joining the Millers states, "In 1957, his contract was sold to Minneapolis of the American Association, where he finished his career."

Until the actions of Curt Flood and others led to free agency, the media referred to teams acquiring players, not their contracts. Humans are not chattel. The phraseology is important. Horace C. Stoneham did not acquire Monte Irvin and Henry Thompson. He acquired their contracts which gave his team the rights to their services.

Henry Thompson suffered a heart seizure and died on September 30, 1969 at the age of 43. He did not lead an exemplary life but in the 1940s and 1950s, an individual's life was the concern of the individual and no one referred to baseball players as "role models." All the Giants had been concerned about was Thompson's baseball skills.

As a teenager, Thompson served six months at Gatesville Reform School in Texas for truancy. In 1948 he shot and killed a man in a bar room brawl. The killing was ruled justifiable homicide. In 1961 Thompson held up Bill's Place, which was a bar located on Amsterdam Avenue in New York, at gunpoint. Thompson got all of $37 and was quickly apprehended. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery but letters of recommendation from Horace C. Stoneham and baseball commissioner Ford C. Frick helped Thompson get probation with the stipulation that he leave New York. He did.