J.R. Richard, 1950-2021

From 1971 to 1997, Zander Hollander published The Complete Handbook of Baseball, including profiles of major league teams' key players. He usually began those profiles with a player's nickname. In the 1978 edition, he began his profile of J.R. Richard this way: "His name is James Rodney, but call him Sir."

James Rodney Richard was born on March 7, 1950 in Vienna, in Northern Louisiana. He grew up near Ruston, at the same time as quarterback Bert Jones, and, about 70 miles to the west in Shreveport, quarterback Terry Bradshaw. By the time he was a senior at Lincoln High School in Ruston, he was already 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, so he certainly had the build of a football or basketball player.

But baseball was his sport. His idol was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, and it showed: Gibson was "only" 6-foot-2, but was a black man with a savage glare on the mound, and not afraid to throw close to a batter, and with good enough control to do it while scaring him but not hitting him. And Richard turned out to be the closest thing we've had to Gibson since Gibson.

Colleges saw his size and wanted him for their basketball programs. But in the 1969 amateur baseball draft, the Houston Astros made J.R. the 2nd overall pick, after the Washington Senators picked Jeff Burroughs. (Burroughs would become an All-Star for the Senators after they moved to become the Texas Rangers, and for the Atlanta Braves. But medical issues, in his case standard injuries, would cut his career short, too.)

He struggled with his control in the minor leagues, but secured it enough to pitch a no-hitter for the Cocoa Astros of the Class A Florida State League. He developed a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and a 93-mile-per-hour slider. In 1970, with the Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers, he began wearing Number 50, and would keep that number throughout his career.

He made his major league debut on September 5, 1971, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. He set a new major league record for strikeouts by a pitcher in his debut: 15 San Francisco Giants went down that way. Willie Mays? 0-for-3 with a walk and 3 strikeouts. He said after the game, "He nearly scared me half to death." Bobby Bonds? 1-for-4 with 2 strikeouts. Willie McCovey? Lucky him: He didn't play. (Mays played 1st base.) Richard went the distance, allowed 3 runs, 2 of them earned, on 7 hits and 3 walks. He was supported by 2 hits and 2 RBIs each by Cesar Geronimo and César Cedeño, and the Astros won, 5-3.

Richard still had control difficulties, and made only 4 appearances in 1971, 4 more in 1972, 16 in 1973, and 14 in 1974. He got into the Astros' rotation in 1975, but led the National League in walks and wild pitches, going 12-10. He was considerably better in 1976: Although he again led the NL in walks, he went 20-15 with a 2.75 ERA, and topped 200 strikeouts for the 1st time. He did it again in 1977, going 18-12.

In 1978, while he again led the NL in walks, he also led it in strikeouts, his 303 a new record for a righthanded pitcher in the NL. He went 18-11. In 1979, He went 18-13, led the NL with a 2.71 ERA, and broke his strikeout record, with 313. He finished 4th in the voting for the NL Cy Young Award in '78, and 3rd in '79.

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In 1980, he was off to another great start, and was selected as the NL's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He went 2 innings, and struck out Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees, Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White Sox, and opposing starting pitcher Steve Stone of the Baltimore Orioles. The only baserunners he allowed were walks to Rod Carew of the California Angels and Ben Oglivie of the Milwaukee Brewers, and a single to Bucky Dent of the Yankees. Under the rules, he could have pitched a 3rd inning, but left because of pain in his back and shoulder.

This was a big year for the Astros. After some close calls, team owner John McMullen, a naval engineer who had been a part-owner under the Yankees' George Steinbrenner, and would bring an NHL team to New Jersey as the Devils, decided he wanted to follow Steinbrenner's path: He opened the vault, and tried to buy a champion.

He gave Nolan Ryan the 1st $1 million-a-year contract, adding him to a rotation that already included Richard, Joe Niekro, Ken Forsch and Vern Ruhle. He also brought Joe Morgan back to the Astros, after 8 successful seasons in Cincinnati, to a lineup that already included Cedeño, José Cruz Sr., Jeffrey Leonard, Enos Cabell, Terry Puhl and Art Howe.

And, despite Ryan being a native of the Houston suburbs, Richard looked like the centerpiece of the operation. In 2012, Atlanta Braves legend Dale Murphy was asked who the toughest pitcher he ever faced was. He said, "Anybody that played in the late Seventies or early Eighties will probably give you the same answer: J.R. Richard."

Dusty Baker, then an All-Star left fielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- and, today, the manager of the Astros -- said NL batters suffered from "J.R.-thritis": 

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. He was the toughest guy I ever faced.

Morgan, now grateful to be Richard's teammate, backed this up as well: "He had the greatest stuff I have ever seen, and it still gives me goosebumps to think of what he might have become."

On July 14, 1980, J.R. Richard started for the Astros against Murphy's Braves. At the time, the Astros had the best record in the NL, 48-36, and were half a game ahead of the Dodgers in the NL Western Division.

Richard was then 30 years old, and had a career record of 107-71, with a 3.15 ERA, a 1.243 WHIP, and 1,493 strikeouts. He pitched a 1-2-3 1st inning, then struck out the side in the 2nd: Gary Matthews Sr., Bob Horner, and the aforementioned Jeff Burroughs. Murphy ended up going 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk.

But Richard had trouble seeing the signs from catcher Alan Ashby, 60 feet away. By the 4th inning, his fingers were too numb to even hold the ball. He had to leave the game.

The Astros put him on the 21-Day Disabled List. On July 23, he checked into Methodist Hospital in Houston, to find out what was wrong. They found an arterial obstruction in his right arm, his pitching arm. They took his blood pressure in both arms. In his left, it was within normal healthy range. In his right, there was no blood pressure at all.

Every time he tried to warm up, he said he had pain in his forearm, his shoulder, and even his neck. Astro management refused to listen, and the Houston media reported leaks that he was "whining" and "malingering." It was also suggested that, making $195,000, which would have been an enormous sum in the reserve clause years that ended in 1976, he was jealous of Ryan making a cool million.

On July 30, 1980, having not made the Astros' trip to Philadelphia to play the Phillies, Richard went to see a chiropractor. This man thought the flow of blood in J.R.'s upper body would benefit by having his neck rotated. As occasionally happens to people, the "solution" turned out to be far worse than the problem.

He went to the Astrodome that night, and was warming up for a simulated game in the outfield. He later said that he developed a headache, heard a ringing in his ear, and felt complete weakness in his body. He collapsed. He was taken back to Methodist Hospital, and found to have had a stroke: The arterial blockage found in his arm had gone to his carotid artery, and required emergency surgery.

A CAT scan of his brain showed it was actually three separate strokes, and the arteries in his right arm were still obstructed. In other words, he was still heavily at risk for another stroke, which, in his weakened condition, would probably have killed him. Finally, Astro management took his earlier complaints seriously.

Without Richard, the Astros ended up needing to win a 1-game Playoff with the Dodgers, in Los Angeles, to decide the NL West title. They won it. They played the Phillies in the NL Championship Series, at the time a best-3-out-of-5 series. It turned out to be one of the greatest postseason series of the Divisional Play era. The last 4 games all went to extra innings.

The Astros scored 4 runs in the 10th inning to win Game 2. Morgan's leadoff triple and Denny Walling's sacrifice fly won Game 3 in the 11th. They led Game 4 2-0 after 7 innings, and were 6 outs away from the franchise's 1st Pennant, with a game to spare. But the Phillies rallied to win in 10 innings. The Astros again led after 7 in Game 5, 5-2, but, again, down to their last 6 outs, the Phillies came back, knocked Ryan out of the game, and won in 10 innings, to win their 1st Pennant in 30 years, and then the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

Would a healthy J.R. Richard have made the difference? Almost certainly. In Game 4, the Astros started Vern Ruhle, a career 67-88 pitcher, who fell apart in the 8th inning. In Game 5, they started Ryan, who fell apart in the 8th. Had Richard started Game 4, or had Ryan done so and then Richard started Game 5, who knows? The Astros might have won their 1st Pennant, 25 years earlier than they actually did; and their 1st World Series, 37 years earlier than they actually did, and without cheating.

But, at age 30, J.R. Richard never threw another major league pitch. He tried to work his way back, to regain his strength. This did not include any rehabilitation starts in the Astros' minor-league system. When rosters were expanded on September 1, 1981, Richard was called up. But manager Bill Virdon did not think he was ready to enter a game, and he didn't.

In 1982, the rehab games began. He pitched well in 6 games with the Class A Daytona Beach Astros. He was called up to the Class AAA Tucson Toros. But in 6 games, he had little control: In 6 games, he went 0-2 with a 2.548 WHIP and a 13.68 ERA. Again, he was called up to the big club on September 1. Again, he made no appearances.

He was assigned to the Rookie League in 1983, and seemed to be pitching better, but felt pain in his left calf. This was where an arterial graft was taken to save his life 3 years earlier, and now, he needed a surgical bypass in the leg. That was it: On April 27, 1984, the Astros released Richard, and he never threw another professional pitch.

Since the Baseball Hall of Fame measures eligibility from a player's last major league game, he became eligible for election in the vote of January 1986. He received only 7 votes, 1.6 percent, and dropped off the ballot.

Baseball-Reference.com, a website that makes writing this blog a lot easier, has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which it says a "Likely HOFer" has a score of 100. Richard's is 64. It also has a "Hall of Fame Standards," which is weighted more toward career stats, on which it says the "Average HOFer" has a score of 50. Richard's is 24. He had Hall of Fame talent, but not Hall of Fame numbers.

Let the record show: In addition to possibly making a huge difference in 1980, a healthy Richard might have made even more of a difference. In the split-season format of 1981, the Astros won the NL West in the 2nd half of the season, and lost the NL Division Series to the Dodgers. Since they went on to win the World Series, it's reasonable to conclude that the Astros with a healthy Richard had a good chance to do the same thing. In 1983, they finished 6 games behind the Dodgers for the Division title. Richard could have made a difference that season as well. 

In 1986, with Mike Scott having a Cy Young Award season, the Astros won the NL West, and lost the NLCS to the Mets in 6 games. Scott won Games 1 and 4. Ryan lost Game 2. Bob Knepper started Game 3, and allowed the Mets to score 4 runs in the 6th. It's likely Richard, even at age 36, wouldn't have let that happen, or allowed the walkoff home run to Lenny Dykstra. And Knepper started Game 6, which turned into a classic that the Mets won in 16 innings.

If Richard had been available for Game 6, the Astros win, and then Scott, a former Met who had handcuffed the Mets all season long, would have started Game 7 at the Astrodome, and it would have been an Astros-Red Sox World Series. The Mets' "inevitable" title would have been ruined, they would be without a title since 1969, and we would be talking about The Curse of Amos Otis.

By that point, Richard would have had about 250 career wins, and might have gone on to become a member of the 3,000 Strikeout Club, and he would have been elected to the Hall of Fame sometime in the mid-1990s.

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Instead, J.R. Richard was out of baseball. He went back home to Louisiana, and fell prey to an oil business scam. His 1st wife divorced him. Between these two events, he lost $1 million. He married a 2nd time, but was again divorced, and he lost his house in the Houston suburbs, along with whatever money he had left.

In 1989, the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a Florida-based league for players age 35 and up (the oldest turned out to be 54, and catchers were allowed in at 32), offered him, at 39, income and a chance to play baseball again. He tried out for the Orlando Juice, but didn't make the team. It might not have mattered, as the league folded after just 1 season.

By the Winter of 1994, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, only 44 years old, was living under the overpass of U.S. Highway 59 at Beechnut Road in Houston. The following March 7, he turned 45, making him eligible for his MLB pension, giving him an income.

He turned to the nearby New Testament Church and its pastor, the Rev. Floyd Lewis. The pastor got him a job with an asphalt company, and into divinity school. Soon, Richard was ordained himself, and became the Astros' team chaplain. It was also through this church that he met his 3rd wife, Lula. He is not known to have had any children.

The Astros have never retired his Number 50, but have elected him to their team Hall of Fame, and invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball on several occasions, including postseason games.

In 2005, a film was made about him, titled: Resurrection: The J.R. Richard Story. David Ramsey, better known as John Diggle in The CW's "Arrowverse" shows, played Richard. In 2015, Richard he published a memoir: Still Throwing Heat: Strikeouts, the Streets, and a Second Chance.

J.R. Richard died yesterday, August 4, 2021, from complications from COVID-19. He was 71 years old.

UPDATE: He was buried at Houston Memorial Gardens, in suburban Pearland, Texas.