Former LSU pitcher Doug Thompson returns to Biloxi

Former Biloxi High and LSU pitcher Doug Thompson said Friday that growing up in Biloxi was the key to his baseball career.

Thompson spoke at the Ohr-O’Keefe’s Our Love Affair with Baseball luncheon.

He said he went to grocery stores after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and saw people who lost everything.

“You see despair in their faces, but their backs are not bent over. It is a blessing coming from Biloxi,” Thompson said. “The people in Biloxi taught me to be resilient and tough. Those are two attributes desperately needed to succeed in baseball and life. Baseball is a beautiful game, it truly is.”

Thompson pitched for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before going to LSU and his baseball career ended in Triple A with Colorado Springs.

The lessons learned in Biloxi served Thompson well as a JUCO All-Star in a five-game series in Japan against the Japanese Olympic team in 1996. Thompson, who went 26-4 for MGCCC, started the first game.

“I gave up four home runs in the first inning,” Thompson said. “I never knew what it meant to be intimidated. The place where I grew up in (Biloxi) taught me to dig my heels in. We won the game and went back to the United States with a win.”

Pitching in youth baseball and high school baseball stand out for Thompson.

“Those are the times I cherish the most over my baseball career,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s biggest regrets come from high school baseball. The Indians were close to winning a Class 5A state championship, but couldn’t win the final game.

“We got close,” he said. “I tasted it. But we never did it and it still hurts. We had some great teams and we all wanted the state championship so badly.”

At LSU, Thompson was the winning pitcher in the Tigers’ 13-6 victory against Alabama in the 1997 College World Series championship game. He struck out seven after coming into the game in the fifth inning.

Thompson lives in Baton Rouge, working as a color analyst calling LSU baseball games.

He helps run the Jill Thompson Foundation, which raises money to fight Parkinson’s disease. The disease afflicted his mother, Jill, in the latter part of her life. The foundation plans a golf tournament Aug. 19 at Fallen Oak.

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Former LSU pitcher Doug Thompson returns to Biloxi."