Forrest Thompson

Year Inducted: 2018

Mooresville High School standout left-hander Forrest Thompson spent 14 active seasons in professional baseball from 1937 to 1951. It took Forrest 10 seasons before he got a crack at the Major Leagues. He spent time with 8 different teams during these years, from class D to AA and put together 7 double-digit winning seasons on the way. His break-out year came in 1947 when he threw a 16-9 record and a 3.57 ERA at the Southern Association teams while pitching for the Atlanta Crackers.

Thompson was then drafted by Major League Baseball’s Washington Senators. He made his debut for the Senators on April 26, 1948. He spent the entire 1948 season with the Senators, chalking up a 6-10 record and a 3.84 ERA while appearing in 46 games. In 1948, Thompson ranked fourth in the American League both in games pitched (46) and games finished (24).

He was back with the Senators in 1949, going 1-3 in nine appearances. Thompson threw his last pitch in the big leagues on June 5. This gave him a 7-13 record and a 3.90 ERA in 55 games and was a slugger as well with .325 batting average (13 for 40) with four RBI and a .450 slugging percentage during his run in Major League Baseball.

Thompson spent the remainder of the 1949 season with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League and added another double-digit win year to his stats with an 11-8 record and a 3.16 ERA. He would spend two more seasons in the game, below his standards, and called it a career after the 1951 season at the age of 33. This ended his 13 seasons in the minors with a 133-94 record while appearing in 351 games and pitching 1,818 innings.