S. C. Thompson

Thompson was a musician by trade, beginning his career as a drummer before becoming a top concert cornetist.

Thompson moved to Long Beach in 1950, where he played in the Municipal Band and served as president of the local musician's union.

Baseball was Thompson's passionate hobby, and he had spent more than twenty years collecting information on the history of the game and its players.

That would eventually lead to a collaboration on the first baseball encyclopedia, using Thompson's archives as a starting point.

The book, published in 1951 by A. S. Barnes & Company was universally hailed as a quantum leap in the field of sports reference.