Former CSUN, Tiger Slugger Wants to Take Shot as Coach

Another customer walks into the golf shop, the doorbell announces his entrance and Jason Thompson asks a caller to hang on.

Thompson returns to the phone quickly, but the place is hopping on this morning, prompting more interruptions. The caller offers to continue the conversation at a less hectic time, but Thompson tells him not to sweat it.

“Naah, don’t worry about it,” he said. “I don’t do many of these (interviews) anymore.”

A few years away from the limelight can have that effect, but it’s not like Thompson has fallen on hard times or become a secluded monk in Tibet. Far from it. It’s just that his current job as owner and operator of two golf shops outside Detroit requires far less interaction with the press than his former occupation.

When Thompson was a hard-hitting first baseman at Cal State Northridge--arguably the best player in school history--and later in the major leagues, primarily with the Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates, people sought his opinion about the sport. For the past five years, however, the questioners ask whether this putter can really improve their score or if that wood can add distance to their drives.

And Thompson, who has the shops on the market and hopes to land a minor league coaching job, hasn’t minded. After all, the more they ask and show an interest, the better his chances of making a sale and that can’t be all bad, especially outside Detroit where the climate is not the best ally of a golf business.

“Golf around here goes according to the weather,” said Thompson, 38. “Now it’s the good season, so I’m pretty busy until September.”

Thompson sought the golf business when his 11-year major league career ended in 1986. He had no interest in a baseball job, but being involved in golf, one of his hobbies, appealed to him.

“I’ve always been a golfer and I knew the people involved in the franchises, so after I retired, it seemed like a good opportunity,” Thompson said. “I’m still learning the business. With all the technical stuff, it was pretty overwhelming at first. It’s been quite a challenge.”

During his standout seasons at Northridge and the majors, Thompson posed the challenges to opposing pitchers trying to silence his bat.

After graduating from Apple Valley High, Thompson played at Northridge from 1973-75. In his career, he batted .346 with 13 home runs and 87 runs batted in, amassing most of that production in 1975, when he led the team in several offensive categories.

Thompson was voted the team’s most valuable player that season after batting .378 with 10 home runs and 56 RBIs. He also helped Northridge win the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title and finish sixth in the Division II World Series.

“You could see he would go to the next level without much trouble,” said Bob Hiegert, Thompson’s coach and the current Northridge athletic director.

Hiegert recruited the 6-foot-4 Thompson as a left-handed pitcher. As a freshman he was 2-2 with a 5.72 earned-run average.

“We had a number of injuries and we put him at first base,” Hiegert said. “He had tremendous power.”

Thompson said that his time at Northridge, where he majored in business, was well spent.

“They were great years,” he said. “We competed well with some of the best teams in the country. I learned a lot from Hiegert. He had played some minor league ball and knew how to prepare the kids for the next step. That’s a credit to him.”

With his outstanding junior season trumpeting his skills, Thompson was chosen by the Tigers in the fourth round of the amateur draft in June, 1975. After a short stay in the minors, Thompson took over at first base in Detroit in 1976 at the age of 21 and clobbered a team-high 17 home runs and had 54 RBIs despite batting only .218.

“When he signed, he was really starting to understand his potential,” Hiegert said. “I think if he had played for us one more year, he would have led the nation in many offensive categories.”

The following season, his best with the Tigers, Thompson smashed 31 home runs, knocked in a career-high 105 runs, batted .270 and led American League first basemen in putouts with 1,599.

He hit a total of 46 home runs the following two seasons, but after a slow start in 1980, Thompson was traded to the Angels in May and batted .317 with a team-leading 17 home runs in only 102 games, splitting time between first base and designated hitter. He had 21 home runs for the season.

It wasn’t a trade Thompson happily accepted, but he quickly adjusted. As they say, it could have been Cleveland.

“The first trade is tough,” Thompson said. “When that happens to you is when you realize baseball is a business. You wake up from your own fantasy world. . . .

“The team that you break in with is always special to you and I loved playing for the Tigers. I also loved playing with the Angels.”

The honeymoon in California was brief. On April 1, 1981, Thompson was traded to the Pirates for catcher Ed Ott and pitcher Mickey Mahler. In the strike-shortened ’81 season, he batted .242 with 15 home runs and 42 RBIs.

The following season, the best of his career, Thompson was among the National League leaders in home runs with 31 and RBIs with 101. His .284 batting average was his third highest in the majors.

Thompson played three more seasons in Pittsburgh and finished his career with a 30-game stint in Montreal in 1986. Although his production declined considerably his last two seasons, he believes he fulfilled his potential as a power hitter, hitting 208 home runs in his career.

“I’m proud I had the ability to stay fairly healthy and be durable and put up some good numbers,” Thompson said. “That’s what I was out there to do.”

Thompson is thinking of being on the field again, this time as a coach. He has contacted several major league teams and hopes to hear from one that could use his knowledge.

That would mean taking his wife, Bernadette, and sons Matthew, 10, and Daniel, 7, from Motown to What Town Is This?, but Thompson said his family is eager to go.

“That’s what I’ve really wanted to do for a while,” he said. “My wife is supporting me on it and I’ve got two boys who would love it. The kids and I talk about it all the time. What you really do in the minors is teach, and I think I’ve got a lot of experience to do that. . . . I know it’s not an easy life, but that’s something I’m willing to accept.”

Even while running the golf shops, Thompson has kept close ties with the Tigers. He signs autographs with other former players before some games at Tiger Stadium as part of the club’s promotional campaign, conducts clinics for youth groups during the summers and has been part of a fantasy baseball camp run at Detroit’s spring training facility in Lakeland, Fla., the past few years.

At the camps, Thompson blends the people skills nurtured in his golf business with his ability to teach baseball in an environment that reminds him of what he has missed since he left the game.

“Those are fun,” Thompson said about the camps. “It’s a good time. You meet some great people doing that.”