Jeff Richardson

Infielder Jeff Richardson played in the major leagues every other year from 1989 through 1993: in 53 games with the Cincinnati Reds from July 14, 1989, through the end of the season, and then brief stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates in May 1991 and the Boston Red Sox in April and May 1993.

All told, he appeared in 74 big league games, driving in 13 runs and scoring 13, with an overall .176 batting average and a .971 fielding percentage.

Oddly enough, there was another Jeffrey Scott Richardson who pitched very briefly for the California Angels in 1990. He was a 6-foot-3 right-handed native Kansan who put in seven seasons in the minor leagues but couldn’t have had a much briefer big league career – all of three pitches.1

Jeffrey Scott Richardson, the infielder, stood 6-foot-2 and was listed at 175 pounds. He was right-handed as well and came from a state bordering Kansas, born in Grand Island, Nebraska on August 26, 1965. His father, Dean Richardson, was from a small town in Nebraska; his mother, Mary Ann (née Rogers), was from Sacramento. They met while Dean was in the military and moved to Grand Island. Their first born was Jeff’s sister Ronda, three years older. “My father worked in sales in the clothing business for a while. He got into real estate a little also but mainly clothing sales. After I left high school, my mom got a job as a bank examiner and worked for the FDIC. She was in Omaha and got moved to Dallas – that’s when I was in college. Once I was in pro ball, she got transferred to Massachusetts. They lived there for approximately five years before she got transferred back to Nebraska.”2

Jeff – known locally as “Whitey” – played for Grand Island Senior High School and Grand Island Home Federal’s American Legion team.3 He lettered in basketball in high school, but the high school had no baseball program. “I was the second-team all-state basketball player. That probably was my favorite sport in high school. [Regarding baseball] I just played about 30-35 summer league Legion games. Everything about it came pretty natural as far as running, catching, throwing.

“My dad was a huge baseball fan. He was signed and played D-league baseball with the Yankees. He was obviously a pretty good player. He played like two years. He was a catcher/infielder, but mainly a catcher.”

Jeff played one year of baseball at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and then two at Louisiana Tech, named both years to the All-Southland Conference team. In 1985 he played a year of collegiate summer ball with the Wichita Broncos. The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs were conference champions in 1986.4

Shortly before Richardson turned 21 years old, the Cincinnati Reds selected him in the seventh round (176th overall pick) of the June 1986 amateur draft. His signing scout was Julian Mock. His first assignment was to Billings, Montana, to play in the rookie-level Pioneer League that summer. The Mustangs played 70 games and Richardson appeared in 47, hitting .315 and scoring 42 runs while driving in 20.

He split his time in 1987 between the Single-A Florida State League’s Tampa Tarpons and the Double-A Eastern League’s Vermont Reds. In exactly 100 games for the Tarpons, he batted an even .300 with 37 RBIs and was named club MVP. In Burlington, he struggled and hit .209 in 35 games, driving in eight. However, he scored 24.

In 1988, Richardson put in a full season with the Chattanooga Lookouts, playing Double-A ball in the Southern League. He hit .251 in 122 games, with his first home run in pro ball (his only one that year) and drove in 37. He scored 50. For the most part, he played shortstop.

Richardson made the major leagues in 1989. He began the season in Triple A with the Nashville Sounds. He had a solid first half, appearing in 88 games and batting .273 with 25 RBIs and his second career home run.

After Barry Larkin was forced to the disabled list, Richardson was called up to Cincinnati. He told reporters that he considered himself more of a “defensive shortstop than an offensive threat.”5 Just a week beforehand, he had been struck on the right side of his head near the temple by a batted ball hit by one of his teammates and was knocked unconscious. He awoke in the ambulance but for a while could not feel his legs and arms.6 He missed a few games, but it was right at the All-Star break, and he recovered.

He made his big league debut at Riverfront Stadium on Friday evening, July 14. There he was playing on the same team as Ken Griffey, whose baseball card he had treasured while in third grade.7 The Reds were 44-44 heading into the game, third in the NL West, eight games behind the San Francisco Giants. The visiting Montreal Expos (50-38) led the NL East by a game and a half over the Chicago Cubs. Richardson started at shortstop, batting eighth. Bryn Smith was pitching for the Expos. He struck out Richardson, looking, in the second inning. In the fifth, Richardson fought off some pitches but struck out swinging on eight pitches. When his time to bat came again with two outs in the seventh, Reds manager Pete Rose had Todd Benzinger pinch-hit for him. Benzinger struck out. The Expos won the game, 1-0.

Richardson was back again on Saturday night and got his first major league base hit. His first time up, he grounded out to pitcher Mark Langston. He drew a base on balls leading off the fourth. Leading off the eighth, in a game the Reds led, 4-3, batting against reliever Andy McGaffigan, he looped a fly ball into right-center for a single. Though he was retired in a force play at second base, the Reds managed to push across an insurance run and won, 5-3.

Richardson started in five consecutive games, appearing 14 times altogether in July, entering seven of them as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. He was batting .174 at month’s end. His first run batted in came on August 15, as Jody Reed scored from third on a bases-loaded groundout to first base. His first extra-base hit came a day later, a sixth-inning double to center off the Cubs’ Mike Bielecki. His first major league home run came against the Cardinals, in St. Louis on August 29—a two-run shot off Joe Magrane off the top of the left field wall.8 It broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth, but the Cardinals later scored four and won.

After being out for a week, Richardson next played on September 6 and homered again, pinch-hitting to lead off the bottom of the eighth against the visiting Dodgers. The homer came on the first major league pitch ever thrown by Mike Muñoz.9

By season’s end, Richardson had appeared in 53 games. He had 140 plate appearances, batting .168 with a .234 on-base percentage. He had 11 RBIs and scored 10 times. In the field, he had played most of the time at shortstop, but played third base enough to handle seven chances there. His fielding percentage at short was .969.

Richardson was outrighted to Nashville after the season, but the Reds invited hin to spring training in 1990. Though he was living in Dallas at the time, his hometown newspaper was naturally interested in Richardson’s career. “I wanted to hit around .250,” he said of his first time in the majors. “When you do hit balls good, a lot of times there’s somebody there to get it. You’d think you hit a good ball up the middle that would be a hit in Triple A and Ozzie [Smith] would pick it right up. I don’t think I swung the bat badly. It’s a game of adjustments and you’ve just got to make them.” He added, “I’ve never had a problem defensively. I played much better in the field than I thought I would. There’s a lot of speed in the big leagues and I haven’t played on turf that much.”10 He spent the offseason lifting weights and following a diet to keep up his own body weight.

Six days before Opening Day 1990, the Reds traded for outfielder Billy Hatcher, sending both Richardson and rookie right-handed pitcher Mike Roesler to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates assigned him to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, but he got into only 66 games, hitting .207 with 15 RBIs. He played in the fall Instructional League and was seen as a possible backup shortstop to replace Rafael Belliard in that role. Pirates GM Larry Doughty said, “He has the best hands of any shortstop we have.”11

As it happened, early in the season one of those hands (the left) was broken by a pitch. He did not return until the middle of July and was asked to play a utility role, primarily in the infield. That often meant waiting for someone to be hurt or need a day or two off – and made it difficult to develop consistency in hitting.

Fielding was never a problem. That seemed to come naturally. “I can remember going home for the winter and coming back to spring training and Cam Bonifay [who became Pittsburgh’s assistant GM in 1991] would say, ‘Man, where were you all winter? You’re in midseason form.’ I’m thinking. ‘I haven’t picked up a ball in….’ I could take five or six groundballs and feel like I already had the rhythm.”

Richardson never played winter ball. He lived in Lincoln around this time, and became engaged to Jane Jeffries, a law student at Nebraska who was also from Grand Island. They married in December 1991 and had their first child – Megan Jane – in May 1993. The Richardsons eventually had three daughters. They moved back to Grand Island and spent the winters there, eventually remaining in the city full-time.

Richardson was optioned to Buffalo in April 1991 and was with them again that year. However, he had a brief stint with Pittsburgh, getting into six games in the second half of May after Jeff King experienced some back problems and went on the disabled list. He had four at-bats, singling once but striking out the other three times. He was optioned to Buffalo on the 31st. In 62 games with Buffalo, he hit .258 in a season cut short by injury. “It was a weird thing. I hit a ball to left-center in Syracuse and I was coming around second and I just kind of dropped. My knee kind of gave out. I just snapped what I believe they called a patella tendon. They sewed that back up. It wasn’t a major deal, but it took me out a while.”

In 1992, he put together a much stronger season, playing in 97 games for Buffalo and batting .290. He drove in 29.

Another early April trade in 1993 sent him to Boston when the Pirates dealt to acquire right-handed relief pitcher Daryl Irvine. With both Tim Naehring (shoulder surgery) and John Valentin (broken ring finger) injured at the time, the Red Sox needed more infield depth.

Richardson was added to the roster and started the season with the big club, playing in seven April games and eight in May. He had five base hits in 24 at-bats, with two RBIs and a .208 average. His biggest hit came on April 15, in the bottom of the 13th inning at Fenway Park against the Cleveland Indians. The score had been 2-2, but Cleveland scored a go-ahead run in the top of the 13th. The Red Sox responded with two singles off Eric Plunk and then a sacrifice fly from Bob Zupcic, which re-tied the game. Manager Butch Hobson then called for a hit-and-run play, and Richardson executed, swinging at Plunk’s first pitch and doubling into the right-field corner. It scored Scott Cooper all the way from first base and won the game. Richardson also made a “terrific defensive play at shortstop in the 10th to force Jeff Treadway at second on a grounder labeled for center field.”12

Richardson talked about the role he had played to that point. “It seems like I get a lot of calls to the big leagues and guys get hurt and go on the DL for a couple of weeks. When I’m up, I try to play good defense and help out with the bat as much as I can. Hopefully, I can stay around, but if I go down, then I’ll just do the best I can wherever I go.”13

On April 19, after Alex Fernandez of the White Sox had retired 12 batters in a row in a scoreless game, Richardson worked a walk. The Red Sox batters jumped on Fernandez, scored six runs that inning, and ultimately won the game, 6-0.

Hobson was impressed with his spirit, saying, “Richardson hangs in there tough. He’s a gritty kid.”14

Nearly 30 years later, Richardson said, “I loved that area. I loved playing for the Red Sox. Out of everywhere I played, that was probably my favorite place.” At the time, his parents were living in Massachusetts, where his mother had taken a job with the FDIC. Thinking back to those days evoked an amusing memory. While he was with the Red Sox, he lived at home with his parents. Mary Ann often gave him some names for complimentary tickets. But there were occasional nights that Jeff got home a little later than she thought he should. She’d say, “Last night you didn’t get home until 1 o’clock, You need to be home by midnight.” He would respond, “Last night we went 12 innings with Cleveland, or whatever. I’m playing in the big leagues; I don’t have a curfew where I have to be home by 12.” He added, “It got to be the funniest thing. Some of the players I’d be playing with would go, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this game over with so you can get home!’”

After seven games in April, Richardson was sent down to Pawtucket, but was briefly recalled soon afterward when Andre Dawson went on the DL. He played in another eight games. May 28 was his last game in the major leagues, owing to another injury in which he tore two of three discs in his lower back.

He was sent to Pawtucket and reactivated in mid-June but played in only nine games as the problem persisted into August. Rehab included a visit to see a specialist in California, but he was hampered all season long.

After being released by the Red Sox on October 15, he was brought back to spring training in 1994, then sent to Pawtucket. Despite hitting over .300 for the PawSox in nine games, he was released – perhaps because of concerns that the back issue might manifest itself again and perhaps also because the team wanted to give more opportunities to younger players. “I had probably the best spring I ever had, but my back was not very good. The chances of it holding up were not going to be very good, and I think they knew it as well as I knew it. So, when I got released, I wasn’t surprised.”

His agent knew Ted Simmons of the Cardinals and even though it was recognized that Richardson couldn’t be an everyday player that summer, there was a role for him and he signed as a free agent. He was assigned to the Triple-A American Association’s Louisville Redbirds. As he tells it, “At that time the Cardinals had two middle infielders who were major league prospects. They wanted them to play every day [in the minors, to get their work in]. If one of their [major league] infielders got hurt, they didn’t want to pull one of their prospects up. More than likely, they would end up as a bench player up there. They wanted me basically just to be a backup in Triple A in case somebody would go down. Then I would fill in. I was playing three or four days a week. I was able to get through the season that way.”

Richardson got into 89 games for Louisville in 1994, batting .259 with 21 RBIs.

While the major league players’ strike of 1994 extended into 1995, he signed as a minor league player with the Pirates in April 1995. However, when given the chance to play in spring exhibition games, he declined to do so. Yet he appreciated having been given the choice. “I think Cam [Bonifay, by then Pirates GM] is handling this the right way. He’s doing the right thing, and he’s doing it under tough circumstances.”15

An amusing note carried in several newspapers that February said Richardson was in the Pirates camp on a minor league contract and that his media guide entry read: “Bats: D.” Asked what the D meant, his reply was “Doesn’t.”16

Richardson’s final games in pro ball were seven games with the 1995 Pacific Coast League’s Calgary Cannons. He had six hits in 18 at-bats, but fielding was his forte and he really was hampered. “I was just too beat up. That was the very end of it for me. I went back there and tried, but I just couldn’t. I would have had to have back surgery and there’s no way you can play shortstop in the big leagues with back surgery.”

That October, Richardson received a liquor license to operate Ruff’s Bar in Grand Island.17 It was “an old tavern downtown. My dad used to work there. That’s what got me looking at it.” But he still had some more baseball work to do.

In 1996, he signed with the Pirates to manage their Single-A team in Erie, Pennsylvania – the Erie Sea Wolves. He managed them in 1996, then the Augusta (Georgia) Green Jackets in the South Atlantic League in 1997. It was a split season; he left at midseason to manage the Carolina League’s Lynchburg Hillcats. There was another split season in 1998 when he was the first of two managers for Lynchburg.

Had he ever met “the other Jeff Richardson”? They both had the same first, middle, and last names – everything spelled the same. The Jeff Richardson from Nebraska was, as noted, born on August 26, 1965. The Jeff Richardson from neighboring Kansas was born on August 29, 1963. “Never met him. How I got to know about him – I was in Cincinnati in ’89 and my wife and I had a baby shortly after that. There was something with our insurance. It kept getting denied. Wrong address, or wrong this. ‘No, it’s not a wrong address. This is our address. Everything on here is correct. This is the same as it’s been since I signed.’

“They were going, ‘You finished playing a year ago…’ ‘No. I’m still playing.’ It was the weirdest thing. I’d hang up and my wife and I would look at each other, and she’d go, “What in the world? I thought this insurance was supposed to be the best in the world and they can’t even…” Obviously, our Social Security numbers were different. That’s how it got figured out.”

In November 1997, Richardson had gone into partnership with local entrepreneur Geoff Linder, and they opened Balz Sports Bar on West State Street.18 “I knew that someday I wanted to open up a sports bar,” he said. “Now I’ve got a couple of sports bars. I’ve got a banquet center in my hometown where we do banquets and receptions. Balz Sports Bar is the one I’ve had the longest. The other one is Whitey’s Bar and Grill. And then I opened a place downtown called Balz Banquet and Reception Hall where we do bigger parties, bigger weddings, bigger events.”

All three daughters have graduated from college.

Overseeing the three facilities in Grand Island keeps him busy, but he is quick to say, “I’ve got a lot of good help and that’s the key. I go in every day – I’ve got my routine – but I’ve got a lot of really good people, so I can just kind of overlook and help manage. It’s been good.”

Last revised: April 25, 2023

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the Boston Red Sox for facilitating contact and to Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts and Scouting Committee.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Norman Macht and fact-checked by David Kritzler.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 On September 19 at Anaheim Stadium, the Tigers were winning 9-5, when Angels manager Doug Rader summoned him into a bases-loaded situation with two outs in the top of the ninth. Travis Fryman jumped on his first pitch and hit a three-run triple. None of the runs were charged to Richardson. On his second pitch to Mike Heath, he fielded a grounder hit back to him and threw to first base for the final out. He’d thrown nothing but strikes – three pitches. As the pitcher of record, had the Angels scored eight runs in the bottom of the ninth, he would have had a win. They scored none.

2 Author interview with Jeff Richardson on November 15, 2022. Unless otherwise attributed, all quotations from Jeff Richardson are from this interview.

3 Brad Fuqua, “G. I. player close to making the Reds,” Grand Island Independent (Grand Island, Nebraska), April 13, 1989: 9.

4 Associated Press, “Tech dominates All-SLC team,” Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge), May 9, 1986: 10F.

5 Mark Lyons, “Reds in a Real Pickle,” Kokomo Tribune, July 16, 1909: 23, 24.

6 Jeff Korbelik, “Richardson goes from injury to big time,” Grand Island Independent, July 19, 1989: 21.

7 Fuqua.

8 Dick Lien, “Guerrero, Magrane, keep Cards close,” Journal Star (Peoria, Illinois), August 30, 1989: D1.

The Sporting News reported it as only the third home run Richardson had hit after 1,430 professional at-bats. It was just the second home run Magrane had allowed at Busch Stadium all season. “Reds,” The Sporting News, September 11, 1989: 17.

9 Associated Press, “Ruffin crushes Cubs, lead slips to ½ game,” Kokomo Tribune, September 7, 1989: 15.

10 Stu Osterthun, “Richardson happy about Reds’ choice,” Grand Island Independent, November 4, 1989: 18.

11 “Pirates GM Expects 20 Percent Turnover,” The Sporting News, October 29, 1990: 22.

12 Marvin Pave, “The hero’s role has its ups and downs,” Boston Globe, April 16, 1993: 50.

13 Pave.

14 Nick Cafardo, “Situation works for Russell,” Boston Globe, April 18, 1993: 68.

15 Kevin Roberts, “Bonifay: Monday is players’ decision day,” North Hills News-Record (North Hills, Pennsylvania), February 26, 1995: 24

16 Thomas Stinson, “Replacement spring training stumbles through slapstick start,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, February 26,1995: E13.

17 “Council votes against giving vendor permit,” Grand Island Independent, October 10, 1995: 3-A.

18 Michael Hooper, “New sports bar features former major leaguer’s memorabilia,” Grand Island Independent, November 30, 1997: D-1. Within three years, Richardson bought out Linder.