Talk:J. R. Richard

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[edit] Father-son

All little boys need to have at least one father-son baseball memory. It is the warp and weave of father-son relationships. It may be the time spent playing pitch and catch in the back yard, dad coaching his son's little league team or the first Major League Baseball game that dad took his son to see. Mine is the latter. I still replay this memory over and over in my mind and it seems as fresh today as ever.

I grew up in the rural south in a place that was bereft of baseball interest. There was meager participation in the local little league and there were no professional teams close enough to qualify for rooting interest. Despite the lack of enviornmental encouragement I loved baseball and for whatever reason, perhaps it was their "cool" and very unique uniforms (I'm being kind but what does a child know of fashion), I chose to cheer for the Houston Astros. At that time they were not a very good baseball team and they certainly lacked the history of New York or St. Louis. Maybe, just maybe it was because we had recently begun to receive cable telecasts of TBS which carried all of the Atlanta Braves baseball games, and one night I caught a glimpse of a fireball pitcher named J. R. Richard.

I began to comb the newspaper for the Astros box scores hoping to find the stats on the latest outing of J. R. Richard. My resources were limited but I did my best to keep up with this 6'9", 100+ mph fastball phenom. I did everything I could to find a J. R. Richard baseball card, and remember, this was before there were big markets for baseball cards so the task was daunting but through perserverance I was able to place a J. R. Richard card in my collection. Happy day!

I remember asking my dad if we could go to a Major League baseball game but the answer was always "maybe one day" which is the answer you give your kid when the real answer is no but you don't want to dash their hopes and besides, even the nearest Major League city seemed a million miles away to me. Then one day my dad told me that we were going on a father-son vacation, just the two of us. That was great news in itself but then he casually remarked that we would be stopping in Atlanta to catch a Braves baseball game. He might as well have told me that there would be two Christmases that year. I could not have been happier. I began to count the days till the magical trip would take place. I scanned the local newspaper to try to determine who the Braves opponent would be for that day of days. Having no luck with the paper, I wrote the Atlanta Braves and requested a schedule. The Braves sent me a schedule and it would be difficult to describe the joy and utter disbelief at the wonderful luck I had experienced because right there in full color on the schedule for the day we would attend was "HOUSTON ASTROS". From that moment until the moment we arrived at the gates of Alanta-Fulton County Stadium, every moment felt like an eternity.

On that fateful day we arrived early and were allowed into the stadium to watch the Braves batting practice. The stadium was cleared after batting pratice and we returned to the gates to wait for gametime. I still remember the heat and the aromas of that beautiful August evening. Standing outside those gates having just stood in a Major League baseball park and watched real professional baseball players take batting practice, I must have had the perpetual grins. I don't think I could have hoped for better, but better was about to happen for at that moment several large busses pulled up outside the stadium and big men began to pour off those busses. I quickly realized that the Houston Astros baseball team was exiting those busses right before my very eyes. I was mere inches away from them. I became a wide eyed speechless child looking at my heroes, Watson, Cruz, Joe Niekro, Cabel, Howe, Cedeno and Puhl in near disbelief and suddenly there he was. The tallest man I had ever seen. I knew in an instant who it was, my ultimate hero, J.R. Richard. I cautiously stepped toward him and plaintifly called out "Mr. Richard!" To my amazement, this giant stopped and looked down at me. I clumbsily extended pen and paper and asked for his autograph. He smiled, said "sure kid" and penned his signature on the piece of paper then moved on with his teammates into the stadium. He didn't know it at the time but he had done more that give a little kid an autograph, indeed he indelibly engraved a love for the game on my heart. My hero of heroes pitched against future Hall Of Famer Phil Niekro and won that night. He went the full 9 innings and gave me the most perfect night of my young life. I still remember the score, 5-2 ASTROS WIN!

Now, many years later, I live in the shadow of Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers. I root for the home team but I am still very much a fan of the Houston Astros. I have been fortunate enough to see my favorite team play both at the Astrodome and in their new digs at what was called Enron Field (before the Enron fiasco). Now these many years later, after the strikes and the missed World Series, after inflated salaries and the petulant attitudes of some of todays superstars, even after the steroid stains that haunt the careers of some of baseballs brightest stars, I remember that night and I am still a fan. Thanks Mr. Richard, that gift of one gracious moment of your time lives on and will keep inspiring for generations to come. I recently became a father myself and I can't wait to pass along a love for the great game to my young son. I wonder who his J. R. Richard will be? Ironmikeusa 05:01, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Move?

This should really be J. R. Richard, not J.R. Richard as it is now, to meet the style guidelines, but someone who sees themself as the "guardian" of the page should probably be the one to take the lead in this (like the person involved with the online petiton for the Astros to retire # 50). Rlquall 20:50, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sigh

The doctors blew it Iamhungey 18:11, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA

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  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
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    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    a (fair representation): b (all significant views):
  5. It is stable.
  6. It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
    a (tagged and captioned): b lack of images (does not in itself exclude GA): c (non-free images have fair use rationales):
  7. Overall:
    a Pass/Fail:

[edit] Copyedit

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[edit] section titles

Regarding this edit. It seems mistaken, as in fact Richard's minor league career is also covered in later sections. Hence I put "Early minor league career," to make that clear. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 03:01, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah, apologies for that! I forgot about Richard's minor league stints during his first few MLB seasons. Nishkid64 (Make articles, not wikidrama) 03:17, 4 May 2008 (UTC)