Derrel Osbon Thomas (born January 14, 1951) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

as a second baseman and

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

from to . Thomas was a member of the 1981 World Series winning

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

team. He played every defensive

position Position often refers to: * Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity * Position, a job or occupation Position may also refer to: Games and recreation * Position (poker), location relative to the dealer * ...

except

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

at least once in his career. After his Major League career, Thomas became a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

manager.

Early life

Thomas attended

Susan Miller Dorsey High School Susan Miller Dorsey High School is a high school located in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, California. It is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school serves Baldwin Hills, Baldwin Village, Jefferson Park, West Adams a ...

in Los Angeles. The school was the alma mater of a number of major-league players, including

Sparky Anderson George Lee "Sparky" Anderson (February 22, 1934 – November 4, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player, coach, and manager. He managed the National League's Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships, then added a third t ...

Chili Davis Charles Theodore "Chili" Davis (born January 17, 1960) is a Jamaican-American former professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder and designated hitter from to for the San Francisco Giants (1981–1987), California Angels (1988–199 ...

and

Don Buford Donald Alvin Buford (born February 2, 1937) is an American former professional baseball player scout, coach and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from through , most notably as the leadoff hitter for the Baltimore Oriol ...

. The

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

made Thomas the first overall pick in the January 1969 MLB draft. He played 69 games between two teams in the Astros system that year, batting a career-high .302. By 1971, Thomas had made his major-league debut, playing six games for the Astros.

Career

In a major-league career that lasted through 1985, Thomas played for eight teams, mostly on the West Coast. In one of his best seasons, he hit .276 for the 1975 San Francisco Giants, collecting 48

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

and 28 stolen bases, both career highs. He was traded along with

Bill Greif William Briley Greif (born April 25, 1950) is a retired professional baseball pitcher. He played all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1971 to 1976, for the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and St. Louis Cardinals. Astros G ...

and

Mark Schaeffer Mark Philip Schaeffer (June 5, 1948 – June 1, 2022) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher for the San Diego Padres in . He batted and threw left-handed. Schaeffer was born in ...

from the Astros to the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

for Dave Roberts on December 3, 1971.Durso, Joseph. "Astros Acquire Roberts And Twins Get Granger," ''The New York Times'', Saturday, December 4, 1971.
Retrieved March 23, 2020 Thomas said that he was often immature and unable to deal with the stressors of the game.

Dusty Baker Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American baseball manager and former player who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in the MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the L ...

became fond of Thomas while they played for the Dodgers, but many people in baseball found Thomas to be an agitator. "Let's put it this way: Derrel Thomas does things that make it easy to hate him," Dodgers teammate

Reggie Smith Carl Reginald Smith (born April 2, 1945) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder and afterwards served as a coach and front office executive. He also played in the Nippon Profe ...

said. Padres manager Roger Craig said Thomas "plays hard and he's a showman-type player... If he has to play the villain role to get attention, he'll do it." After the 1985 season, Thomas' name was brought up in the

Pittsburgh drug trials The Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985 were the catalyst for a Major League Baseball-related cocaine scandal. Several current and former members of the Pittsburgh Pirates – Dale Berra, Lee Lacy, Lee Mazzilli, John Milner, Dave Parker, Rod Scur ...

. Though he was not suspended, he was unable to find another major-league team to sign with. He signed with an independent team, the San Jose Bees, but he did not fit in well with his teammates and he was cut before the 1986 season started. Following his playing career, Thomas briefly coached at

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campu ...

and was the first manager of the

Boise Hawks The Boise Hawks are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. Home games are played at Memorial Stadium in Garden City, Idaho, a small city surroun ...

in 1987, then an independent team in the

Class A-Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (cre ...

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Pacific Northwest, Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Maj ...

. In June of that year, the Hawks faced the

Bend Bucks The Bend Bucks were a minor league baseball team located in Bend, Oregon. The Bucks were members of the Class A Short Season Northwest League from 1987 to 1991. History Following the 1986 season the Philadelphia Phillies ended their affiliation ...

, managed by Mel Roberts, marking the first time outside of Negro league baseball that two black managers faced each other in a professional regular-season game. Thomas was fired during his first season in Boise. By 1988, he was managing a bar and coaching baseball at

Leuzinger High School Leuzinger High School is a public high school (9th through 12th grades) in Lawndale, California, United States. It opened on January 27, 1931, with an enrollment of 268. It was named after Adolph Leuzinger in recognition of his 25 years of servic ...

Lawndale, California Lawndale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 32,769 at the 2010 census, up from 31,712 according to the 2000 census.United States Census Bureau. �” The city is in the South Bay (Los Angeles County ...

. Before a 1989 game, several players were late for the team bus, and though the players drove to their game, he would not allow them to play. Several players quit the team in protest and Thomas resigned. In December 1991, Thomas was hired as a baseball coach at Dorsey High School. In March, a Dorsey baseball player fatally shot himself on the team bus while playing Russian roulette. Thomas was arrested the next month for attempting to purchase of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

. He was placed on probation; his probation was extended after a 1997 drug possession arrest. As of 2009, he was a member of the

organization serving as a representative of the Dodgers Legend Bureau.

References

External links

Venezuelan Winter LeagueLos Angeles Times
– Articles on Derrel Thomas {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Derrel 1951 births Living people African-American baseball players African-American baseball managers American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Baseball players from California California Angels players Cocoa Astros players Columbus Astros players Ganaderos de Tabasco players Gold Coast Suns (baseball) players Hawaii Islanders players Houston Astros players Los Angeles Dodgers Legend Bureau Los Angeles Dodgers players Major League Baseball center fielders Major League Baseball second basemen Major League Baseball shortstops Miami Marlins (FSL) players Minor league baseball managers Montreal Expos players Oklahoma City 89ers players Philadelphia Phillies players San Bernardino Pride players San Diego Padres players San Francisco Giants players Tiburones de La Guaira players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Susan Miller Dorsey High School alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople