Former KU baseball catcher & Phillies manager leads NL in 2023 MLB All-Star Game

Former University of Kansas baseball catcher/third baseman Rob Thomson, whose Philadelphia Phillies reached the 2022 World Series, will manage the National League in Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game.

The game is slated for 7 p.m. Central at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and will be televised by FOX.

Thomson is believed to be the second KU graduate to be directly involved in the All-Star game. He joins former Jayhawk outfielder Bob Allison, who was an All-Star in 1959, 1963 and 1964.

Thomson, a 59-year-old native of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, was a catcher at KU from 1983-85. He hit .443 in 1984, the best single-season batting average in KU history. He also led the team with a .389 average in 1985. His career batting average of .369 put up from 1983-85 is tied for fifth all-time at KU.

Thomson was named the interim manager for the Phillies on June 3, 2022, following the firing of Joe Girardi.

Thomson had the interim title removed on October 10, 2022, and was given a two-year contract extension. He took over the team with a 22-29 record and led the Phillies to an 87-75 regular-season record and a trip to the postseason.

In addition to his top-level college batting average, Thomson ended his KU career with the sixth-best slugging percentage at .570 and ninth-highest on-base percentage at .448. Following the 1984 and 1985 seasons, Thomson was awarded the Gib Francis MVP Award as voted on by his teammates.

Thompson — he was a 32nd round pick of the Detroit Tigers in the 1985 MLB Draft (never advancing to the big leagues as a player) — has been in professional baseball ever since.

Thomson spent 27 years in the Yankees organization in the front office and as a coach. He was the bench coach for the 2009 World Series Champion New York Yankees. Thomson helped coach Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez during his time in New York and was in the organization for five World Series Championships.

Last January, Thomson was introduced to the fans at the KU-TCU men’s basketball game.

He said of KU’s baseball program: “Obviously, the facilities are here and the money’s here. I just think that Kansas baseball is going to climb and rise to places that we haven’t been before. I am so proud to be a Jayhawk, I really am.”

Asked by a kuathletics.com reporter why he decided to attend KU, Thomson said: “I’m a Canadian citizen. I was playing in Canada. The league I was playing in was allowed to get United States imports. There were two guys on my team from KU, Dennis Coplen and Bill Yelton. I didn’t have a school to play for yet, so they called Marty Pattin, who was the coach at KU at the time, and he offered me a scholarship.

“I came to KU and it was obviously the right move for me.”

Thomson to kuathletics.com noted: “I try to get back to Lawrence at least once a year for either a football game or a basketball game. I follow all of the programs pretty religiously via the internet and on TV. I catch probably 20-25 games a year on TV. I follow them pretty close, I am a big fan. I meet KU people all over the country. They read our media guide and find out that I went to school at Kansas and talk to me about being a Jayhawk. It is pretty neat. It is obviously a big school with a big alumni base, so I see Jayhawks all over the place.”