Mission Impossible?

“Seven Degrees of Robby Thompson”

Cards Fans, I need your help.

One of you may hold the key that breaks this case WIDE open.

The inter-connectedness of baseball makes us a close-knit family. Sure, there are friendly (and not-so-friendly) rivalries. But true baseball fans have a ‘bond’, regardless of what teams they support.

Case in point: This March I talked my husband into an escape to Florida to watch several Cardinals' Spring Training games. I wrote about it over on the Cards Diaspora site. (You can read it here.)

But back to the story..

The fans at Spring Training are nothing short of wonderful, all baseball-starved and hungry for the sights and sounds of our beloved pastime. Everyone is happy; the Florida sunshine is warm, and the ‘Boys of Summer’ are back.

We met some fabulous people in the stands at our four Spring Training games. Many were there to cheer on the Cardinals, but some were fans of the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox and yes, even the Cubs. One couple had a son in the game, playing against the ‘big leaguers’ for the first time. His name was Drew Thompson and he was playing 2^nd base for the Twins.

I snapped some photos of Drew with my camera (one of those DSLR cameras with a big lens that lets us novices pretend like we are actually good photographers). I offered to send any good shots to his proud parents. Emails were exchanged and the game ended. Outside the stadium, they passed by in their car and jokingly reminded us ‘not to forget to email the pictures.’ We waved and promised we would.

And then….. da-da-da-dum…… I lost their email address.

Not wanting to be remembered as someone who 'doesn’t follow through,' I did my internet research to track them down, but was shocked to learn whom we had been casually chatting with in the stands of Roger Dean Stadium that afternoon.

Drew’s father, Robby (or Robbie depending on the source) Thompson, was a major league ballplayer for the San Francisco Giants from 1986 – 1996. *light bulb*… It was beginning to make sense why he’d asked us how long we’d been Cardinals fans and if we’d remembered ‘that great game between the Giants and the Cardinals one year.’ I was kicking myself that we hadn’t put 2 and 2 together at the time.

Robby Thompson has great baseball history – with honors, awards and even a broken cheekbone from a pitch by Trevor Hoffman in September of 1993 to sweeten the story.

I SWEAR I would still be trying to find these parents even if the father wasn’t a former MLB player, but I think it’s pretty cool that he is!! Shouldn’t tracking them down be easier because of it?

Well, it’s been 6 weeks now and my amateur investigative methods have failed. My last resort, calling the SF Giants office, was a bust. The Giants’ computerized phone system connected me with a woman’s voicemail where I left my message explaining my story. She never returned my phone call.

(Dear Giants office: I am not a crazed stalker-type fan - I promise.)

So, fellow Cards Fans, I’m hoping we can solve this together.

Among us we should be able to discover the 'Seven Degrees of Separation of Robby Thompson', right?

Please pass this post along to any and every baseball fan you know. Surely in this interconnected web of baseball fans we can track down Drew Thompson’s parents?

Until next time Cardinals Fans, ... GO CARDS! :)