Rob Thomson recalls hitting for the cycle and lessons learned in the minor leagues

Framed on the wall of the home manager’s office at Citizens Bank Park is one of Rob Thomson’s most cherished moments of his career.

Just a couple weeks into his time as interim manager, the entire 2022 Phillies team wore suits for a Father’s Day flight from Washington to Dallas. The surprise was an ode to Thomson, who proudly dons a suit for every road trip. The team stopped on the tarmac for a photo with Thomson front and center in a fedora with a warm smile.

He’s a little less sentimental when it comes to his own professional playing career, which is partly why he has no mementos from his most productive day at the plate.

On July 9, 1986, 38 years ago from Tuesday, a 22-year-old Thomson hit for the cycle while playing for the Gastonia Tigers, the A-ball affiliate for the Detroit Tigers at the time. There is almost no physical evidence of it ever happening. No balls, no lineup cards, no bats, no jerseys and no photos. The only indication of it ever happening online came from the back of a 1988 Lakeland Tigers baseball card summarizing his career with a note on the cycle. “Bob Thomson” was the name on the front.

Thomson confirmed 38 years later that he did indeed hit for the cycle in a conversation with Phillies Nation. He said he doubled, singled, homered, then tripled to right center. The triple that clinched the cycle was the only triple of his professional playing career.

“It might have been my only triple in my life,” Thomson joked.

There are convenient Phillies ties in this game. It was against the Spartanburg Phillies and the opposing manager at the time was Roly de Armas, who was an interim bullpen catcher for the Phillies in 2008 and still works in the organization as an instructor down at the complex in Clearwater. The starting shortstop for Thomson’s Gastonia Tigers that day was Kevin Bradshaw, who is now the Phillies minor league field coordinator, a role Thomson once occupied in the Yankees organization.

Bradshaw happened to be in Philadelphia on Tuesday for his monthly visit to the big league club with other prominent members of the player development staff.

“I remember the home run, but I don’t remember the triple,” Bradshaw said. “He didn’t hit too many triples in his day.”

The ’86 Gastonia Tigers finished with a 59-80 record, but the year was better, Bradshaw said, because the team chemistry was good and Thomson “was a big part of it.”

“Just full of energy,” Bradshaw said about Thomson. “Hard-nosed, being a catcher and you just knew that he ran the whole field. As a shortstop, I tried to run the whole field, but when you have him back there able to control everything, it was just a pleasure.”

Thomson’s playing career was short. A .225 career hitter in four seasons, Thomson did not make it past A-ball and began coaching in the Tigers organization in 1988. Bradshaw recalled a relay play at the plate a year later in 1987 with Class-A Lakewood that likely played a role in Thomson’s early retirement due to a shoulder injury. Bradshaw received a cutoff from the outfield. His relay throw took Thomson into the runner’s path, leading to a collision with future 10-year big leaguer Brian McRae. Bradshaw still blames himself for the bad throw.

“I thought it was going to kill him,” Bradshaw said. “But he jumped right back up. He was down a little bit, but that’s the kind of player he was.”

Bradshaw remembers Thomson as an excellent blocker and a skilled manager of the pitching staff on a team with four future big league arms, including 1985 first-round pick Randy Nosek. The manager, former big leaguer and World War II navy veteran Johnny Lipon, was the team’s only coach, so players like Thomson and Bradshaw were there to fill the void. Players and groundskeepers would assist with throwing batting practice and hitting fungos. Thomson would direct the infield to shift in a certain direction based on pitch sequencing and reading swings.

It was a different world and Thomson, sitting behind his desk in his office and enjoying big league air conditioning on a sweltering afternoon, uses his experience as a minor leaguer in the late 80s as a reminder to appreciate what he has earned now.

“I look back fondly on the minor league times because it really taught me a lot,” Thomson said. “It taught me about the game, but it taught me about life and how to stay humble. When you have the things that I have now, I will never forget that I didn’t have those things before.”

Even though Thomson doesn’t have anything related to the cycle that he could stick in a time capsule, he does carry a memory in his heart.

His late father Jack Thomson, the reason why he wears a suit on every trip, traveled to Spartanburg, South Carolina to see his son play. He missed the cycle by a day, but arrived at Duncan Park the next day near game time. Thomson, standing on the field, told his father in the stands that he had hit for the cycle. He followed up with a four-hit game.

“I was proud to tell him,” Thomson said.

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