Samuel Luther "Big Sam" Thompson (March 5, 1860 - November 7, 1922) was an American professional baseball player from 1884 to 1898 and with a brief comeback in 1906. At 6 feet, 2 inches, the Indiana native was one of the larger players of his day and was known for his prominent handlebar mustache. He played as a right fielder in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Wolverines (1885-88), Philadelphia Phillies (1889-1898) and Detroit Tigers (1906). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

In 15 major league seasons, Thompson compiled a .331 batting average with 1,988 hits, 343 doubles, 161 triples, 126 home runs, 1,305 RBIs, and 232 stolen bases. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.  Thompson was one of the most prolific run producers in baseball history. His career RBI to games played ratio of .923 (1,305 RBIs in 1,410 games) remains the highest in major league history, higher even than Lou Gehrig (.921), Hank Greenberg (.915), Joe DiMaggio (.885), and Babe Ruth (.884). In 1895, Thompson averaged 1.44 RBIs per game (147 RBIs in 102 games), still a major league record. His 166 RBIs in 1887 (in only 127 games) was 62 more than anyone else in the league that year, and it stood as the major league record until 1921 when Babe Ruth collected 168 (albeit in 152 games). Thompson still holds the major league record for most RBIs in a single month with 61 in August 1894 while playing for the Phillies.  Thompson was also one of the best power hitters of the era before Babe Ruth. At the end of the 19th century, Thompson's 126 career home runs ranked second only to Roger Connor. Defensively, Thompson still ranks among the all-time major league leaders with 61 double plays from the outfield (16th all time) and 283 outfield assists (12th all time). Thompson has also been credited by baseball historians with perfecting "the art of throwing the ball to the plate on one bounce, which catchers found easier to handle than the usual throw on the fly." Bill Watkins, who managed Thompson in Detroit, recalled: "He was a fine fielder and had a cannon arm and will live in my memory as the greatest natural hitter of all time."  In a 1913 story on Thompson, Detroit sports writer Maclean Kennedy noted that Thompson's drives "were the direct cause of more hats being smashed, more backs that were thumped til they were black and blue by some wild-eyed fan sitting in the seat behind, more outbursts of frenzied shrieks and howls of glee, than those of any other player who ever wore a Detroit uniform", barring only the two great stars of the day, Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford.

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