Mark Radford Thompson (born April 7, 1971) is an American former right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Thompson graduated from Logan County High School in Russellville, Kentucky and he then attended the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

. In 1991, he played collegiate summer baseball with the

Brewster Whitecaps The Brewster Whitecaps are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Brewster, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Whitecaps play their home games at Stony Bro ...

of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Standing at tall and 205 pounds (one source has him at 213), Thompson was selected by the Colorado Rockies 65th overall in the second round of the 1992 draft. In his first two minor league seasons, he was an effective pitcher, posting a record of 14–6. He spent less than three seasons in the minors before making his big league debut on July 26, against the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

. He earned the win in that game, but his overall

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

in his rookie season (which consisted of two games) was 9.00. He spent most of the rest of his career bouncing between the majors and minors. He spent only one season entirely in the majors-, when he posted a 9–11 record with a 5.30 ERA. He was ninth in the league in

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s that year (with one), but he was also ninth in runs allowed (100) and fourth in hit batsmen (13). He finished his major league career with an 18–24 record, with a 5.74 ERA. He

struck out In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is denote ...

198 and walked 161 in 337 innings pitched. He had a .154

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

in 104 career at bats, with the highlight of his batting career being the

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

he hit off of

Kent Bottenfield Kent Dennis Bottenfield (born November 14, 1968) is an American former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Ana ...

in a game. He appeared in one postseason game in his career, pitching a perfect inning for the save in the

1995 National League Division Series The 1995 National League Division Series (NLDS), the opening round of the 1995 National League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 3, and ended on Saturday, October 7, with the champions of the three NL divisions—along with a "wild card" team� ...

. He played his final major league game on July 27, . He stuck around in the minors until 2003, when he finished his career with the independent Long Island Ducks. In 2006, he was the pitching coach for the Casper Rockies. Thompson in the 2010s has worked in a variety of professional positions in his native Kentucky, serving among other things as a representative for the school memorabilia company

Jostens Jostens is an American manufacturer of memorabilia. The company is primarily known for its production of yearbooks and class rings for various high schools and colleges as well as championship rings for sports. Jostens also produced photobook pro ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Mark 1971 births Living people Kentucky Wildcats baseball players Brewster Whitecaps players Major League Baseball pitchers Colorado Rockies players St. Louis Cardinals players Baseball players from Kentucky Long Island Ducks players People from Russellville, Kentucky Arkansas Travelers players Asheville Tourists players Arizona League Rockies players Bend Rockies players Carolina Mudcats players Central Valley Rockies players Chattanooga Lookouts players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Indianapolis Indians players Louisville Bats players Memphis Redbirds players Salem Avalanche players Tri-City Dust Devils players