[Cusick]

In comparing photos of major league pitcher Rich Thompson with the Topps Vault photos KF 584 & 585, I don't see a perfect match in their facial characteristics. Furthermore, the Cleveland Indians uniform which the pitcher in KF 585 is wearing (see below) dates from the years 1978-80. In that photo, the "S" as the last letter in "Indians" is very thin and characteristic of those years. Rich Thompson didn't come into the Indians' system until the draft of 1980, which would have been after spring training had ended. In 1980, he only played in 7 games for a Low A farm team of the Indians, an indication that he arrived in the Indians' organization late in the summer.

I haven't been able to figure out who the pitcher in KF 584 and 585 is. I checked all the Indians' spring roster players and non-roster invitees for the 1978-80 period who were career minor leaguers and could not find a match.

On the remote possibility that Rich Thompson could have been wearing an old uniform in 1981 spring training, I checked to see if he was an Indians spring roster player or non-roster invitee that year. Found no evidence that he was. Of course, he did not play any regular season games for the Indians until 1985.