What will it take to get J.R. Richard's number retired?

Well, I looked up WAR, and Berkman, in his 11.5 years, nearly doubled Richards in his 10 years.

So, there's that.

 

If Berkman was a quality defender (to be fair, he got stuck in the OF and was better than Carlos Lee or Daryle Ward out there) and base runner, he'd have been Jeff Bagwell. If he had Jeff's work ethic, he'd be in the HOF, but he didn't, so he goes into that group of guys just below that level.

BTW, it can be easy to forget, especially when the last you saw of him was at the very best.

 

I think you're right that one can easily forget the offensive prowess due to distracting from that work ethic. Guilty as charged, I think.

 

...distractION. This stupid phone refuses to type "ion". Always autocorrecting to "ing". Drives me mad.

 

His post-season track record for the Astros also shouldn't be simply dismissed... he filled a huge hitting void that Bagwell/Biggio never had early on when they were going up against the Braves' best.

He also had a pretty good post-season run with the Cardinals. He definitely rose to the occasion.

 

...

 

Well, strikeouts have a tendency to offset walks; Ryan notoriously walked a lot of batters, too. Hell, early in his career, Randy Johnson did, as well.

Richard was actually getting better; he only walked 98 in '79 and was on pace to walk ~87 in '80. I was a tad too young to have enough perspective to really understand the entire Richard situation; I remember him being great; I remember(ish) the stroke (but didn't really know what a stroke was) - but I didn't have the maturity to put it all together. Thon was the first "aw, man...." Astro I really *understood.* Looking back, man - Richard is the great "Aw, man..." Astro.

(But that doesn't mean his jersey should be retired.........)

 

What the Astros of the 80s might have been.

 

What truly set Richard apart was his ... 91 MPH ... slider, which he threw for strikes. Absolutely impossible to hit.

Most Astros fans were expecting 2-3 more years of "Cy Young" years from Richard when he had his stroke.

 

Agreed. But by normal standards, neither should most of the jerseys hanging in the rafters. But by the standards they've set, Richards is more deserving than some of those guys, and equal to others (on the field, at least).

 

There's only one J.R. Richard... thus, no S. Richard. RICHARD.

 

Oh, good grief. I knew that. -=puts on dunce cap=-