This day in baseball history: J.R. Richard debuts

1971 was the year of Vida Blue. The 22 year-old lefty won 24 games and captured the American League Cy Young and MVP awards.

But another African-American pitcher from Louisiana also made a splash in 1971. 21 year-old James Rodney Richard debuted in the majors on September 5.

Blue threw extremely hard, but Richard’s heater was next-level. Only Nolan Ryan, his future teammate, was in the same class. Johnny Bench and Dale Murphy both say Richard was the toughest pitcher they ever faced.

Standing 6-8 and possessing a violently dipping slider to go with his fast ball, Richards was even more intimidating than Ryan. Dusty Baker says:

It was like J.R. was only throwing from about 50 feet. With his reach and he was all legs, you didn’t have much time to make up your mind. You didn’t really feel comfortable at the plate.

Like Bench and Murphy, Baker considers Richard the toughest pitcher he ever faced.

Richard’s first big league game was the backend of a double-header between the Astros and the San Francisco Giants. The Astros were languishing near the bottom of the standings, as usual.

The Giants were well out in front in the NL West and headed to the playoffs. Their potent lineup included Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and emerging star Bobby Bonds. McCovey picked up an injury in the first game and did not appear in the nightcap. But Mays and Bonds played, batting third and fourth, respectively.

Between the two, they struck out five times (Mays three of them) against Richard, who fanned 15 Giants in his first game. This total tied Karl Spooner’s record for strikeouts in a debut game. Before the game, Mays, who know Richard’s reputation, reportedly told Richard, “young man, just don’t hit me.”

The Giants did score two runs off of the rookie in the very first inning, though. Ken Henderson led off with a single. Richard then retired Tito Fuentes and Mays, the latter on a strikeout.

However, Bonds singled and Alan Gallagher doubled home Henderson and Bond.

These would be the only earned runs Richard allowed and the only runs of any kind he yielded until the eighth inning. By that time, the Astros led 5-2.

In the eighth, Richard walked Mays to start things off. This was one of only three walks Richard gave up that day.

Mays advanced to second on a passed ball. Bonds then popped out to first base in foul territory. Mays alertly took third on the out.

After Richard struck out Gallagher, he induced what should have been an inning-ending grounder off the bat of Chris Speier. However, Denis Menke failed to handle it, and Mays scored.

Pinch hitter Jim Ray Hart followed with a single, the last of the seven hits Richard allowed that day. This made another pinch hitter, Fran Healy, the potential tying run. But Richards struck him out.

In the ninth inning, Richard closed strong. He fanned Dick Dietz, Henderson, and Hal Lanier to claim a 5-3 victory.

Richard seemed destined for stardom, and he would attain it. But not for a while. In fact, Richard didn’t crack the Astros’ starting rotation until 1975.

And when he finally did, wildness prevented him from excelling. He led the National League in walks and wild pitches that year, en route to a 4.39 ERA.

Richard was still wild in 1976, but he threw enough strikes to win 20 games with a 2.75 ERA.

Richard won 18 games in each of the following three seasons and led the NL in strikeouts in two of them with back-to-back 300-plus totals. In 1979, he also had the lowest ERA of any National League starter, 2.71.

Richard was even better in 1980. Midway through the season, his record was 10-4 with an ERA of 1.90.

Richard was the National League’s starting pitcher at the all-star game, where he pitched two scoreless innings. Nolan Ryan, by then a teammate, called Richard’s 1980 season “one of the best seasons a pitcher has ever had.” It was comparable to Vida Blue’s 1971 year.

But a week after the all-star game, it all started to fall apart. Pitching against Atlanta, Richard had trouble picking up the catcher’s signs and difficulty moving his arm. He left the game in the fourth inning after throwing a fastball and feeling his right arm go “dead”. At that point, his fingers were numb and he couldn’t even grip the ball.

A series of specialists checked Richard. They found a blocked artery in his throwing arm, but somehow concluded that no surgery was required.

Richard returned to duty with the Astros.

Less than a week after leaving the game with the Braves, Richard was warming up on the sidelines when he collapsed in the outfield from a stroke. It was latter determined that he had suffered three separate strokes from three different artery blockages.

Doctors managed to save Richard’s life and, after a long recovery period and extensive rehab, he tried to revive his baseball career. He pitched some in the minor leagues, at times effectively, but never made it back to the majors.

The Astros released him in April 1983. His career record was 107–71, with a 3.15 ERA and 1,493 strikeouts, then an Astros record.

Richard’s post-baseball life began with a series of misfortunes — divorce, bankruptcy, and homelessness. He spent the winter of 1994 living under a highway overpass in Houston.

But soon thereafter, he pulled himself out of this downward spiral with the help of a church and its minister. He started a business and became a minister himself.

Richard became active in the Houston community, working to bring baseball to the city’s youth. He liked to say, “You can lay down and die or get up and keep living. I just chose to get up and keep on living.”

Richard died last month due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 71.

RIP.

NOTE: Playing without Richard in the second half of the 1980 season, the Astros still managed to win the NL West. They faced Philadelphia in the playoffs.

The Phillies won the hard-fought series 3 games to 2, with four of the five games going to extra innings.

It seems probable that had Richards been available and healthy for the series, Houston would have prevailed.

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