Thompson traces his baseball roots to Charles County

Tuesday evening after he had limited the visiting Hagerstown Boxcars to just one run in seven innings and collected the 100th win of his Atlantic League career in his 250th game as a member of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, La Plata High School graduate Daryl Thompson recalled his more youthful days playing with Hughesville Little League.

Thompson, who also competed in his 250th game as a member of the Blue Crabs on Tuesday when Southern Maryland defeated Hagerstown 7-1 for his milestone victory, deflected the personal significance of his 100th win to talk about his early days of growing up playing baseball in Charles County. With his 100th win behind him and three previous awards as being named the league’s to pitcher (2019, 2021, 2022), Thompson reflected on his past and present teammates.

“It was nice to get my 100th win, but really it shows me that I’ve had the chance to play for a lot of really good coaches and play with a lot of good teammates,” Thompson said Tuesday evening after a brief celebration in the clubhouse. “I appreciate the milestones and the accolades, but it’s all about having the chance to win that [championship] ring. I mean, that’s always been the ultimate goal for me.”

In actuality, Thompson’s 100-69 record in 250 games with the Blue Games — 243 of which he has started on the mound — only tells a fraction his professional pitching story. Granted, most know that he was 0-3 in a brief major league career with the Cincinnati Reds, but he was also 38-44 in the minors and 24-31 in games with teams outside the United States. He is the Atlantic League’s career league in wins (100), innings pitched (1,548) and strikeouts (1,102).

“For me, it all started back in Bryantown and playing little league with Hughesville,” Thompson said. “I’ve always been part of this community. But for me it’s something that I will never forget. I always enjoy playing baseball and pitching and now it’s something that I have doing professionally for over 20 years. When you’re a kid growing up, you never really think something like that is possible.”

In recent years not only has Thompson maintained his status as the ace of the staff, boasting league-leading win totals in 2019, 2021 and 2022, he has also been tasked with being the team’s pitching coach. Longtime Blue Crabs’ managers Stan Cliburn noted that Thompson’s role as pitching coach has impressed him more than his statistics on the mound.

“Daryl has always been a great pitcher for us,” said Cliburn, who moved to within one win of 2,000 victories on Tuesday. “I know every time that I send him out to the mound he’s going to compete and give us a chance to win the game. But it’s what he does the other four days that really impresses me. He works with the other pitchers every day and when he’s not pitching he talks to the pitchers between innings of every game.”