I believe you are right, and he wasn’t the only one to say that. Looking forward to hearing his contemporaries talk about him now that he’s passed, sadly it’s always after the fact.
Oh man, J.R.'s gone. That stings. In '79 I was 5 and starting to really get into loving the Astros due to my Dad- I remember thinking J.R. was some other worldly being.
I imagine the Astros telecast tonight should be interesting.
Man, we’re all getting older…
Rest easy, J.R.
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Yeah this one definitely hurts. J.R. Richard was my first Astros hero. My little kid self knew the names of all those Astros players from the late 70’s but James Rodney Richard was up there with Earl Campbell on my early Htown Mt Rushmore. He was such a force of nature on the mound and his starts were must-see TV in my house. RIP JR, thank you for the great memories.
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His circulation symptoms provide an object lesson, given the resolution of Simone Biles’ health issues, to take athlete’s complaints seriously and not appeal to some misplaced notion of team duty. The era of playing through pain is particularly harmful because players are multimillion dollar investments
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All JR had to do to beat the Dodgers was throw his glove out on the mound. They were helpless against him.
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I hope he’s terrorizing Tommy Lasorda in the afterlife.
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Well put.
As I remember it, the Dodgers were a predominately RH hitting club then. And he had their number.
Besides Bagwell and Biggio, JR was the only other Astro to have spent his entire career only in an Astros uniform.
ETA: Don Wilson
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And J. R. Towles. Don’t forget him.
I’m not allowing him on account he spent time in several MLB teams’ minor league affiliates after being let go by the Astros.
Cameron Drew? Willie Ainsley?
Great interview of Baker in The Athletic on facing JR. I’ll see if I can capture the link.
ETA: Baker was a very good hitter and a tough out. I remember Ryan’s fifth no-hitter very well, not only because it was a record but also because it was on my birthday, and I was watching it on TV.
Baker was the 27th out, and I remember thinking I wished anyone but him was up because he was so tough. He hit the ball hard but right at the third baseman (Walling, I think, or Howe with the other at first), and the rest is history.
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[quote=“Col.SphinxDrummond, post:229, topic:818, full:true”]
Besides Bagwell and Biggio, JR was the only other Astro to have spent his entire career only in an Astros uniform.
Surely you must have a timeframe qualifier?
Dozens of players have not played for any other MLB team but the Astros.
John Paciorek was the first to come to mind.
I was just referring to guys off the top of my head that actually had a career and not just a cup of coffee. I’m sure the are others. For the sake of closure, I’m gonna say: Guys at least 5 years in the majors.
Unless they had a great mustache. Then I’d cut that down to three years.
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Terry Puhl should have been on that list( the service time, not the mustache) that close
Tony Eusebio played 9 years in MLB, all for the Astros.
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Alright let’s not start throwing out names in the dead pool without clear context that they’re not dead. Thought we’d lost Tony for a second there.
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My bad.