#419 Mark Thompson

About the Front: I'm sure the expression that Mark Thompson was going for was "deep concentration", but all I can see is "utterly terrified".

About the Back: As you can see, Thompson wasn't the first-ever Rockies draft pick. In the first round (27th overall), they took another college righthander named John Burke. Burke pitched 28 games for Colorado in 1996-1997, going 4-6 with a 6.75 ERA. Yikes.

Triple Play:

1. Mark earned the save in Colorado's only win of the 1995 NLDS, pitching a perfect tenth inning in Game Three in Atlanta. He was the seventh pitcher used by the Rockies that day.

2. The bulk of his big league experience came in 1996, when he pitched in 34 games (28 starts) for the Rockies and went 9-11 with a 5.30 ERA...and a 98 ERA+, because pitching in Denver in '96 was a monstrous task. His home ERA was 6.41, compared to 4.32 on the road.

3. He coached for the Rookie-level Casper Rockies in 2006.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I'm pretty sure that I mixed him up with John Thomson, another righty who pitched for the Rockies (1997-1999, 2001-2002), on more than one occasion.

Bill James Said: "Thompson, the Rockies' second-round draft pick in 1992, has progressed rapidly, and will probably be thrown to the wolves (pardon, called up) by mid-season, if he continues to pitch well." Whaddaya know? He debuted on July 26, 1994.

On This Date in 1993: May 5. Three eight-year-old boys are reported missing in West Memphis, AR. Their bodies would be found the next day, and three teenaged boys (dubbed the "West Memphis Three") were convicted of their murders the following year. The West Memphis Three were released from prison in 2011 following the introduction of new DNA evidence.