not sure where this belongs, but I'm lifting this from a BTF thread.

this was Dick Thompson, the gentleman who memorably weighed in on some Lefty Grove/Wes Ferrell commentary on Hall of Merit threads. I dropped his age because there is some confusion about it.

R.I.P.


"Richard J. Thompson of Dartmouth died unexpectedly Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008, at St. Luke's Hospital.
He was the husband of Barbara L. (Joseph) Thompson; and son of the late Leon F. and Marjorie (Paulding) Thompson. He was born in Brockton, was raised in Middleboro, residing in Whitman and Bridgewater for 22 years and in Dartmouth for 1 1/2 years.
Mr. Thompson was a registered nurse at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Brockton for 32 years. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War attaining the rank of E-4. He was the recipient of the National Defense Service Medal.
A baseball historian, researcher and published author, he wrote several articles on baseball history and authored "The Ferrell Brothers Of Baseball", which was published in 2005 by McFarland & Co. He was a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.
He was an avid runner and golfer and was a member of Lebaron Hills Country Club and the Country Club of New Bedford. Vacationing with his wife, fishing with his grandson and celebrating July 2nd birthdays, which he shared with his nephew, were some of the many things he enjoyed. Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Barbara L. (Joseph) Thompson of Dartmouth [etc]........"

Richard J. Thompson of Dartmouth died unexpectedly Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008,

Thank you, Howie. This is shocking to me (although I'm out of the loop). Dick seems so young for his age --at the semiannual Southern New England SABR meetings, present tense although I've missed the last three since entering grad school 1-1/2 years ago.

Our paths never crossed at Boston Public Library microforms, but I frequently and occasionally overlapped with two regulars who frequently overlapped with him --four middle-age men with unusual schedules or none.

I don't know if he was young for his age but his age was young...I saw 52.

Sunnyday, in reading the bio, the age looks incorrect. That's why I dropped it.

Wow, that's sad news about Dick Thompson. I was looking forward to seeing the results of his research on Negro League pitcher Cannonball Bill Jackman.

Thinking of Thompson leads me to ask about another prolific minor league researcher, Carlos Bauer, who compiled statistics for the PCL and other minor leagues. His Web site, Minor League Researcher, was once very active, but it's been silent for the last 18 months. Does anyone know if Bauer is ok?

I don't know and I'm practically out of the loop for two years that end this summer (I hope).
Visit sabr.org, select "Research", and write to the Minor Leagues Cmte chair. Rookie Chair Kevin McCann was a minor league baseball website author himself. (If you aren't a member now, Brent, then join. But you don't need to join whether a prominent researcher/author is deceased.) It's on my list to get a copy of the SABR Guide to MiLB Research (title?) that Bauer updated about the time he opened the website.

What exactly is the methodology here again? First we rank the groups, then...

First we rank within the groups....;-)

Right, that's what I meant. And what's the next step?

...and was so unmercifully shredded for it that he never posted on BTF again after that.

That's crap, Kevin. He had been talking about leaving before that incident. As for the incident at hand, he certainly wasn't beat up by our group unfairly.

I admired the man for his work and his tenacity and he left us way too early, but Dick did not accept differences of opinion very well. When he accused Chris Jaffe of plagiarism for having the temerity to use Retrosheet for his analysis, he went way over the line.

For those interested, the brouhaha started at post #134 if you want to figure out who was right or wrong here.

FWIW, I stand by everything that I posted.