John Thoma
Ballplayers Wounded in Combat
| Date and Place of Birth: | November 27, 1919 Albany, NY |
| Date and Place of Death: | August 9, 2013 Albany, NY |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | First Baseman |
| Rank: | Sergeant |
| Military Unit: | Company E, 397th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division US Army |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
John E. Thoma, Jr., was born on November 27, 1919, in Albany, New York.
He attended Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, where he starred in
baseball and football for four years. He entered Villanova College, near
Philadelphia, where he continued to play baseball and also played for
McEnaney's Diner, and Graves and Rodgers in the Albany Twilight Baseball
League. In 1940, the left-handed hitting first baseman led the Twilight
League with a .400 batting average.
Following graduation from Villanova in 1941, Thoma signed with the
Eastern League's Albany Senators and was optioned to the Quebec
Athletics of the Class C Canadian-American League. He played six games
and batted .136 before the Quebec club returned him to the Senators, who
sent him to the Hutchinson Pirates of the Class C Western Association,
where he batted just .166 in 87 games.
Thoma, who was expected to report to the Eastern League's Albany
Senators in spring 1942, voluntarily retired from baseball. He entered
military service in May 1943, and was sent overseas in October 1944.
Sergeant Thoma served with Company E of the 397th Infantry Regiment,
100th Infantry Division in France and Germany. "Over here now we are
finally having some good weather," he wrote the Albany Knickerbocker
News in February 1945. "Today you might compare to a day in May at home.
That old feeling is still with me and now I have the urge to throw a few
again.
"At present my outfit finds itself in the middle of a lull in fighting.
It is a welcome rest, but I don't know how long it will last. We have
thus far come through the Voges Mountains with flying colors. I have
been lucky."
Unfortunately, Thoma's luck was soon to run out after writing this
letter. On April 7, at Heilbronn, Germany, Thoma suffered an eye wound
and earned the Purple Heart. He was hospitalized in France.
Following military service, Thoma returned home to Albany but not to
baseball. He was employed by Seagram's Distillery Company, as New York
Sales Manager and retired in 1984. He passed away at the Teresian House
Center for the Elderly in Albany, following a long illness on August 9,
2013, aged 93. John Thoma is buried at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in
Albany.
Date Added December 27, 2017
Can you add more information to this biography and help make it the best online resource for this player? Contact us by email
Read Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice Through The Years - an online year-by-year account of military related deaths of ballplayers
Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice is associated with Baseball Almanac
Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice is proud to be sponsored by
