James Rodney Richard (March 7, 1950 – August 4, 2021) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a right-handed starting pitcher for the Houston Astros from 1971 to 1980. Richard led the National League (NL) twice in strikeouts and was named an NL All-Star player in 1980.
After graduating from high school, Richard was selected by the Astros as the second overall pick in the first round of the 1969 amateur draft. From the time he made his major league debut with the Astros in 1971 until 1975, Richard had a limited role as an Astros pitcher, throwing no more than 72 innings in a season. In 1975, Richard played his first full season in the majors as a starting pitcher.
From 1976 to 1980, he was one of the premier pitchers in the majors, leading the National League twice in strikeouts, once in earned run average, and three times in hits allowed per nine innings, winning at least 18 games a year between 1976 and 1979.
On July 30, 1980, Richard suffered a stroke and collapsed while warming up before an Astros game. The cause was found to be a blood clot in his neck. He would never appear in another major league game. His 313 strikeouts in 1979 remained an Astros franchise record until Gerrit Cole surpassed it on September 24, 2019, and he held the team's record for career strikeouts (1,493) until 1987. Two-time National League MVPs Johnny Bench and Dale Murphy both named Richard as the toughest pitcher they ever faced.
In 1981, Richard attempted a comeback with the Astros, however this failed because the stroke had slowed down his reaction time and weakened his depth perception. He spent the next few seasons in the minor leagues before being released by the Astros in 1984, ending his career. Afterward, Richard became involved in unsuccessful business deals and went through two divorces, which led to him being homeless and destitute in 1994. Richard found solace in a local church and later became a Christian minister. In 2019, he was inducted into the Houston Astros Hall of Fame.
Early life Richard was born to Clayton and Lizzie () Richard in Vienna, Louisiana,Porter (2000), p. 1276. and gained prominence in both baseball and basketball at historically black and since closed Lincoln High School in nearby Ruston. By the time he was a high school senior, Richard stood tall and weighed . That year, he was one of the starting pitchers for Lincoln High School and did not concede a run for the entire season. In one game Richard hit four consecutive home runs while pitching his team to a 48–0 victory against its local rival, Jonesboro's Jackson High School. Richard, whose baseball idol was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, never lost a game he started during his high school career.
Upon graduation from high school, he turned down more than 200 basketball scholarship offers to sign with the Houston Astros.Porter (2000), p. 1277. The Astros selected him with the second overall pick in the 1969 amateur baseball draft, behind the Washington Senators' selection of outfielder Jeff Burroughs. Richard later recalled, "There were other guys in my high school with as much ability as I had, but instead of working at a job, they wanted to drink wine on Saturday nights. They thought that was the in-thing to do, and consequently our lives went in different directions. For some people it takes that to make a world. It does not for me."
Early minor league career After the Astros drafted Richard, they sent him to play for the Covington Astros, a rookie-level minor league baseball team in the Appalachian League. Richard started 12 games for Covington, finishing with five wins and four losses. Despite accumulating an average of 11.41 strikeouts per nine innings, Richard had trouble throughout the season with his pitching mechanics and control. In 56 innings, Richard struck out 71 batters but walked 52 and gave up 41 earned runs, resulting in a 6.59 earned run average (ERA).
The following year, at 20 years of age, Richard was promoted to the Cocoa Astros of the Florida State League in high-A minor league baseball. Richard again compiled a low hits per nine innings (H/9IP) ratio by giving up only 67 hits in 109 total innings pitched. Despite his 4–11 win–loss record, Richard finished the season with a 2.39 ERA and even threw a no-hitter against the Daytona Beach Dodgers. During the season, Richard was able to throw an accurate fastball which occasionally exceeded 100 miles per hour, and his slider 93 miles per hour, faster than those of most major-league pitchers. During the 1970–71 off-season, the Astros again promoted Richard: this time to Class-AAA baseball, one step below the major leagues, with the Oklahoma City 89ers of the now-defunct American Association. Richard wore number 50 and kept that number for the rest of his minor-league and major-league career. Richard started all but one of the games he pitched that season. He pitched eight complete games and led the league with 202 strikeouts in 173 innings of work. He ended the season with twelve wins and seven losses before being called up by the Houston Astros.
Early major league career
1971 season Richard entered Major League Baseball with the Astros in 1971 as a September call-up. On September 5, Richard made his major league debut at just 21 years of age, in the second game of a doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants. Richard used his fastball–slider combination to pick up the win and tied Karl Spooner's 17-year-old major league record for striking out 15 batters in his first major league start. Richard was charged with two earned runs and seven hits in the 5–3 Astros win, and struck out Willie Mays and Dick Dietz three times.
Richard made his next start, after five days rest, against the Cincinnati Reds, who would later finish the NL West season in a tie for fourth place with the Astros. Richard gave up a lead-off home run to Pete Rose in the first inning and pitched five innings of the two-hit, one-run game. He struck out five batters but walked six. Richard struggled in his two following starts. In a September 16 match-up against the Astros' division rival, the third-place Atlanta Braves, Richard pitched seven innings and surrendered four runs on seven hits. He struck out nine batters and even struck out the side in the first inning but also walked four batters. Furthermore, he threw two wild pitches in the first and fifth innings. In his final game of the season, against the Giants, Richard was replaced in the first inning after pitching to only four batters.
In and out of the minors During the next few seasons, Richard split time between the minors and majors and did not become a regular starter with the Astros until 1975. After his "cup of coffee" with the Astros in 1971, Richard was sent back down to Class-AAA baseball to work on his pitching with the Oklahoma City 89ers for the 1972 season. He started 19 games with the 89ers before being called back up to the Astros. In Triple-A baseball in the American Association, Richard finished with 10 wins and eight losses in 128 innings of work. His 3.02 ERA was slightly higher than that of the previous season, though he maintained approximately the same walks per nine innings ratio (BB/9IP) that he had the previous year. He recorded six complete games and finished with 169 strikeouts, for a ratio of 11.88 strikeouts per 9 innings. Richard re-entered the majors, starting a day game of a day-night doubleheader for the Astros against the San Diego Padres on July 30, 1972. He struggled and took the 10–7 loss. Richard did not pitch again until two weeks later, when he entered in relief for Ken Forsch in the fifth inning to keep the Giants limited to a one-run lead. In two innings of relief, Richard gave up one hit, struck out three batters and garnered the win. In his two final relief appearances of the season, Richard gave up five earned runs in just over one inning of work. He finished the season with a 13.50 ERA in only six innings of work and was again sent back down to Triple-A, this time with the Astros-affiliated Denver Bears.
Richard started eight games with the Bears in 1973 and posted minor league career-worsts in ERA and hits allowed per nine innings. Despite his poor performance with the Bears, Richard was again called up by the Astros. Richard entered in the fourth inning of a June 16 game against the St. Louis Cardinals and his idol Bob Gibson. He pitched four innings of one-run ball and three innings of a two-hit game in his next relief outing. Afterwards, the Astros placed Richard in the starting rotation, and he made his first major league start since July 30 of the previous year. He pitched six solid innings of a one-run ballgame and struck out six while walking three batters. Richard would make his next start four days later. Richard again pitched more than six innings but earned no decision after the Astros' bullpen gave up nine runs during the top of the ninth inning.
After starting a July 4 game against the Atlanta Braves, which he won, Richard was sent into the bullpen in order to add Tom Griffin into the Astros' starting rotation. He made three relief appearances against the Montreal Expos before making a start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 27. Four days later, Richard threw his first shutout against the Dodgers, in which he gave up just five hits and struck out nine batters. Nineteen days later, Richard pitched another complete game, this time giving up two runs while striking out nine and walking three batters. He concluded the season with six wins and two losses in 16 total games, 10 of which he started. He finished with a 4.00 ERA, and struck out 75 batters in 72 innings. He walked 38 batters, giving him a ratio of 4.75 walks per nine innings, which was lower than the ratio he had in his two previous minor league seasons.
Despite his improved performance in the 1973 season, Richard was sent down to work on his pitching mechanics and ball control in Class-AA baseball with the Columbus Astros of the Southern League. He started 13 games with Columbus before being moved back up to Class-AAA with the Denver Bears. In four starts with the Bears, Richard threw three shutouts and pitched 33 scoreless innings with a 4–0 record and 26 strikeouts. He was called back up to the majors on July 13 and stayed with the Astros for the remainder of that season. He first pitched 14 innings of baseball in six relief appearances before being placed back in the starting rotation. He then started in all nine of the games he pitched during the remainder of the season. Richard finished with a 4.18 ERA in just over 64 innings of work during the 15 pitching appearances he made during the season.
Even though Richard's statistics showed he bounced between Houston and the minors during his first four years with the Astros due to his wildness, he often told reporters that racism played a role in keeping him from becoming a regular with the big club sooner.
Mainstay with the Astros