Fred Charles Richards (born November 3, 1927 in Warren, Ohio) is a retired American professional baseball player. Richards, a first baseman, played eleven seasons of minor league baseball and appeared in ten games played in the Major Leagues for the Chicago Cubs in the waning weeks of the 1951 season. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg).
Richards signed with the Cubs in 1946 and he had finished his sixth season in their farm system when he was called to the Majors; ironically, 1951 was his worst pro season, as he had batted only .223 in 120 games split between the Class A Des Moines Bruins and the Triple-A Springfield Cubs. In his first at bat on September 15, facing Sheldon Jones, he flied out to center fielder Willie Mays of the New York Giants, but overall he collected eight hits (including two doubles) in 27 at bats during his Major League audition. Richards would split 1952 between Des Moines and Springfield again, but he never returned to the Major Leagues.
Famous quotes containing the words fred and/or richards:
“For me, it’s enough! They’ve been here long enough—maybe too long. It’s a funny thing, though. All these years Fred was too busy to have much time for the kids, now he’s the one who’s depressed because they’re leaving. He’s really having trouble letting go. He wants to gather them around and keep them right here in this house.”
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women of a Certain Age, by Lillian B. Rubin, ch. 2 (1979)
“We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)