BOBBY RICHARDSON







Born:. August 19, 1935 Sumter, South Carolina


Richardson debuted on August 5, 1955. He racked up 1432 hits in his career, with a lifetime batting average of .266, 34 home runs and 390 RBIs. He won 5 Gold Gloves at second base, while forming a top double play combination with shortstop (and roommate) Tony Kubek. With the light-hitting but superb-fielding Yankee third baseman Clete Boyer, Richardson and Kubek gave the Yankees' arguably the best defensive infield in baseball. Many times during Richardson's career it seemed that the Yankees were nearly impossible to beat. There were countless times when a terrific play by the New York infield, coming late in a close game, snuffed out one more team's hope of besting them. Perhaps the most famous came at the end of the 1962 World Series, mentioned below, when Richardson made a clutch catch that prevented Willie Mays and a teammate from scoring the runs that would have beaten the Yankees and given the Series to the San Francisco Giants.

Richardson played at a time when the Yankees won the World Series about as much as all the other teams in baseball put together, and his role in that success was not incidental. There seemed to be several basic ingredients to Yankee success. First, the outfielders, catcher, and first baseman (including Mantle, Maris, Elston Howard, and "Moose" Skowron) hit about as well as any comparable group in baseball, and some years there were no comparable groups. Next the pitching staff had fine starters, led by Whitey Ford, and excellent relievers. Finally Richardson, Boyer, and Kubek played the three most important defensive positions, and played them in a way that kept the Yankee pitchers and batters where they could save many a game. Finally, manager Casey Stengel put all his talent together as perhaps no one else could have. The result was a continuation of a Yankee dynasty that began decades earlier in the days of Ruth, and only faded a year or two before Richardson retired in 1966.

Their dynasty's death knell was first sounded by Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, when their Los Angeles Dodger pitching staff overwhelmed Mantle, Maris, Richardson and mates in the 1963 World Series, beating them in four straight games, a feat not matched since the Giants beat the Yankees 4-0 in 1922.[1] Yet the end did not come because of great competition. The Yankees had always been equal to that before. Internally, the great team was falling apart of its own accord. Though sad for Yankee fans, who were legion, that they did fade at long last was surely good for baseball as a whole, because the game benefitted from spreading the success around. When the Yankees slipped, it allowed some of their superb rivals the chance for World Series glory. Harmon Killebrew, Bob Gibson, Ken Boyer, Brooks Robinson, and Al Kaline were among the greats who never shared in Series glory before New York faltered, but played in the fall classic in the mid- and late 1960s, once Richardson and the Yankees could be beaten. Richardson's twelve-year career statistics also include 643 runs scored and 73 stolen bases. He also had 196 doubles and 37 triples.

His best year was probably 1962, when he batted .302 with 8 home runs and 50 runs batted in. His 209 hits led the American League, and he stole 11 bases in 161 games. He made the AL All-Star team once again that year, won his second Gold Glove, and came in second in the AL MVP voting, just behind teammate Mickey Mantle. That year he was comparable to Dick Groat, shortstop of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Like Richardson Groat played excellent defense. Also like Richardson in 1962, Groat had had a "career year" in 1960. He won the batting title, the NL MVP award, and his Pirates beat Richardson's Yankees in seven games in the dramatic 1960 World Series.

One of the best parts of Richardson's game was his ability to make contact. He only struck out 243 times in his entire 12-year career, usually accomplished today in about two years by power hitters. He was among the top three players in the league in at bats per strikeout eight times during his career, and led the league three times, all later on in his career. He topped out in his last year, striking out just once for every 21.8 at bats.

He also led the league in at bats three times, partly because he batted early in the order and partly because he rarely missed a game, coming to be known as a workhorse. His career high was 692 at bats in 161 games in 1962. He had an all-time fielding percentage of .979 at second base.

Richardson won 3 World Series (1958, 1961, 1962) of the 7 he played with the Yankees(1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964). He made the final out of the 1962 Series, snaring a screaming line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey, that if it had been two or three feet higher would have won the Series for the San Francisco Giants.

He was named World Series MVP in 1960 when he helped the Yankees against the Pittsburgh Pirates, although they lost in a Series in which normally light-hitting second basemen (the other being the Bucs' Bill Mazeroski) shone at the plate. During that Series, he hit .367 with 11 hits in 30 at bats. He had a home run and 12 RBIs, and also racked up 2 doubles and 2 triples in the 7-game series. To this day, Richardson remains the only World Series MVP selected from the losing team.

In the 1964 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he tied a World Series record with 13 hits. However, with his Yankees losing 7-5 in Game 7, and batting against Cardinal ace Bob Gibson, he had the dubious distinction of also making the final out of the Series, popping out to second base counterpart Dal Maxvill.

7-time AL All-Star (1957, 1959, 1962-1966)
World Series MVP in 1960
Lou Gehrig Memorial Award winner in 1963
5-time Gold Glove winner (1961-1965)
Led the league in hits in 1962 (209)

Richardson wore the uniform number 1 (one) for the majority of his career (1958-1966)

Richardson is a born-again Christian. In the 1980s, he served as the collegiate baseball coach at Liberty University. Today, Bobby Richardson is a national leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a much sought after Christian speaker. His manager Casey Stengel once made this observation about Richardson, who was better known for his glove than his bat: "Look at him. He don't drink, he don't smoke, he don't chew, he don't stay out too late, and he still don't hit .250!" His career average was, in fact, .266, and he batted at a .305 clip in World Series play. Referring to Bobby Richardson's clutch hitting, Casey Stengel later said, "Bobby Richardson was the best .260 hitter ever to play the game."