Mark Radford Thompson (born April 7, 1971) is an American former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Thompson graduated from

Logan County High School Logan County High School is a four-year public high school in Russellville, Kentucky with an enrollment of 1,034 students in grades 9 through 12. The current principal is Caycee Spears. Sports The school is a member of Kentucky High School Athle ...

in Russellville, Kentucky and he then attended the University of Kentucky. In 1991, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the Brewster Whitecaps of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

. Standing at tall and 205 pounds (one source has him at 213), Thompson was selected by the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

65th overall in the second round of the

1992 draft Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

. 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. He earned the win in that game, but his overall earned run average 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 shutouts 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 198 and walked 161 in 337

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. He had a .154 batting average in 104 career

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s, with the highlight of his batting career being the home run 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, A ...

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 The Long Island Ducks are an American professional minor-league baseball team based on Long Island in Central Islip, New York. The Ducks compete in the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), an independent "partne ...

. In 2006, he was the pitching coach for the

Casper Rockies Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * Dav ...

. 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

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{{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