Former Phillie Milt Thompson listens to a student speak during his visit to Pleasant Valley School on April 2.
The students of Anna Marie Toppi’s fifth-grade ELA class at Pleasant Valley School were treated to a visit from former Philadelphia Phillie Milt Thompson on April 2.
Thompson spoke about his career, offered baseball tips and instilled some life lessons. He spent nearly 20 years in the MLB – including five seasons with the Phillies and its National League Championship-winning team in 1993 – and was the hitting coach for the team when it won the World Series in 2008.
Thompson is now an ambassador for the team who was invited to speak at Pleasant Valley to coincide with the current unit of study in Toppi’s class: breaking barriers. It covers how sports helped break racial barriers in the 1940s and ’50s and covered topics such as segregation and Thompson’s own baseball inspiration.
“I idolized Jackie Robinson when I was a little kid, your age,” he explained to the students of the man who broke the color line in baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. “I dreamed of one day becoming a major-league ball player.”
“We’ve been reading a book called ‘We are the Ship,'” Toppi noted. “They’ve been learning about the Negro League, about segregation, in a volatile time in the U.S. We reached out to the Phillies and wanted to get someone to speak on that topic, as well as just life lessons for our athletes.”
The students also asked Thompson questions about his own experiences with racism, his career and his favorite opponents. He recalled wanting to play second base, but was told by a coach that double plays wouldn’t come easy to a left-hander.
Instead of giving up, Thompson worked with his dad to learn how to throw right. He also played the outfield.
“If someone tells you, ‘You can’t do something,’ either you believe them or do something about it,” he told the students. “I was determined that I wanted to play second base. I had to learn how to throw right-handed and I played second base. To this day, I can still throw both ways. It saves me during batting practice. If this arm gets tired, I just start throwing with this one.
“Just remember guys, always stay positive and stay confident,” Thompson added. “That’s what drove me throughout my career. I didn’t follow that pity party thing.”
After his presentation, Thompson signed cards and baseballs for the kids, who got hot dogs for lunch.
“I’m hoping that they understand it’s a journey,” Toppi said, “and that it’s the small things, the support of their parents and that when times get tough, there’s another day tomorrow. Just persevere.”
