| I.S.C. From The Ballpark |
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Stars of the I.S.C. - - - October, 2004 - - - Ryan Thompson
(A Tribute to the Past, Present, and Emerging Stars of the I.S.C.)
Ryan Thompson - - - Maturing With the Game
Now he's the wily veteran of his teams, happy to dispense whatever wisdom he's picked up in 10 years of senior ball experience.
“It was trial by fire," he says, recalling his 1995 debut at shortstop with the Owen Sound Canadian Tiremen. "When I started, I was raw. I still remember my first senior game, at the Erie tournament, and I think I made three errors in the first two innings. I was horrendous.”
But he was willing to learn, and he did so quickly. In his first ISC Travel League game, Thompson reached base three times (two singles and a fielder's choice) and drove in three runs in a 6-0 win. By the end of his second season with the Tiremen, he had been chosen to the I.S.C. All-World Tournament team at shortstop.
Thompson, 31, recalls how he got started playing ball in his hometown of Wiarton, Ontario, a small town to the northwest of Owen Sound. “It’s something I always did,” he says. “I got started on an informal level just tagging along with my father, everywhere he played. I can remember feeling like it was the end of the world if I was ever not allowed to go to a game.”
Along with playing, Thompson also served as batboy for his father's teams, picking up bits of knowledge here and there. The oldest of four brothers, he frequently persuaded his siblings to play ball with him. “I would impose on everybody to play catch with me,” he says, smiling at the memory.
He continued to play in Wiarton through midget, after which he hooked up with his dad's team. “I would fill in if they were short. It just kind of evolved into being a member of their team. I moved from there to the intermediate team.”
Thompson stayed with the Wiarton Tom Norris Busmen, who played in a top-flight local intermediate league, for five years. It helped his development on one hand, but he wonders if he might have been better off to play junior ball in nearby Owen Sound.
“I always felt an allegiance to play in my hometown," he says, "but Lloyd Simpson and Bill Simpson always had terrific junior ball teams in Owen Sound. If I had it to do over again, I would play for those junior teams and get exposed to that serious tournament ball at a younger age. That’s what I would recommend for anybody now.”
All the while he was in Wiarton, he dreamed of someday playing senior ball with the Tiremen. In the mid-1990s, with the squad going through a rebuilding period, he finally saw his chance.
“They were so revered that I thought I couldn’t play at that level,” he says, “but I happened into a very good time when they had not as many players and they were drawing from a local base."
With practices, league games and tournaments, Thompson and his teammates found themselves playing as many as 10 times a week. "Tom White was coaching and he was a really integral part of my development. Tom would throw batting practice for us on a nightly basis. We would meet at Harrison Field and we would play every night. It was terrific, wonderful.”
The team, which evolved from the Tiremen to the Selects, grew together, learned together and won together. But, after four years, it was time for Thompson to test the waters elsewhere.
In 1999 he hooked up with Fingal, which was hosting that year's Canadian senior championship tournament. The chance to play with legendary pitcher Brad Underwood, who was coming out of retirement, was a big factor in his decision.
The next year, Thompson was off to the New Jersey Windmillers. Money wasn't the primary reason for going south of the border, he says. “Although there’s more travel, it’s a more relaxed weekday schedule. It’s a weekend gig, so to speak. You have no commitments through the week and that was attractive. I had a small child and it just made it easy for me to be at home.”
He also liked playing in a different set of tournaments and seeing new places and teams.
“They’re really a lot of fun to play in," he says. "You can get tired of playing the same teams over and over and over.”
After the Windmillers cut their Canadian players, Thompson played for the Pickering Heat in 2001. He returned to Owen Sound on a part-time basis in 2002, hooking up with the Crunch for intermediate games while remaining with the Heat in senior action.
The 2003 season saw him return full-time to the Selects. He won his first-ever Canadian championship in Owen Sound but, with the Selects folding after the season, he was on the move again. He signed with the FedLock Falcons out of Washington, D.C. for the 2004 campaign. “There’s a good core group of guys with a really good sponsor," he said, referring to team owner/manager/coach Mike Groves. "He’s a terrific ambassador for the game and he does so many little things for the players that you don't see.
“It’s the experience, the travel, the places you see, the things you do. The one tournament we went to in Washington was a ball tournament but it was also a chance to see some amazing American monuments and landmarks and museums on Memorial Day weekend. It was a tremendous experience for me.”
The Falcons, ranked sixth going into the ISC world tournament in Fargo, N.D., were disbanded by Groves immediately after the tournament ended. But Thompson had more ball to play, having also arranged to play with the Jarvis Merchants in the Ontario senior eliminations and in the Canadian championship tournament in Ste. Croix, N.S. He says he joined Jarvis at the instigation of Pat Graham, a teammate last year with the Selects who had also made the move this year to FedLock.
“He asked me if I’d like to come along and I jumped at the chance. No other team had asked me so I thought it was a good opportunity,” he says. “I’m so thankful that they asked me.”
Thompson, who's also playing third base for Jarvis, is excited about playing with the Merchants because they're a youthful squad that won two straight national junior titles before moving up to senior ball. "Playing with guys that are so much younger, you can’t help but feel a little bit younger yourself," he says. “They’re all so down to earth. They’re not cocky, they’re not arrogant, there’s no air of importance about them. They just come out and play hard.”
Thompson, not long ago an eager young rookie, was asked how it feels to now be a mentor and a leader.
“I can tell you, it didn’t feel good when I signed the OASA sheet," he says, laughing. "I signed under a list of birthdates and I had to put in 1972 after I looked at a whole bunch of 1980s and 1981s. "But it’s nice. I certainly think that I can share some experiences and I can share some little things I’ve picked up here and there. I’m glad to do that. It’s just a wonderful opportunity for me. If I can offer anything back to them, that’s wonderful.”
With all Thompson has accomplished in his career, one might wonder what it is that keeps him motivated.
“I don’t remember what I used to do on weekends before I started playing ball," he replies. "It’s just a case of as long as I’m still having fun – and I’m having a great time – and I can keep going and teams are still interested in having me play for them, I think I’ll try to keep it going.”
By: Jonathon Jackson
j.t.jackson@sympatico.ca
30 October 2004
Gordon Wise - - - - ISC Information Officer
sgwise@woh.rr.com
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/