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James Rodney Richard (born March 7, 1950) is a former right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire career, from 1971 to 1980, with the Houston Astros. After leaving high school, Richard was selected by the Astros as the second pick in the first round of the 1969 amateur draft.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1969 Houston Astros Trades and Transactions )〕 From the time he made his major league debut with the Astros in 1971 until 1975, Richard had a limited role as an Astros pitcher, throwing no more than 72 innings in a season.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=J.R. Richard Statistics )〕 In 1975, Richard played his first full season in the majors as a starting pitcher. From 1976 to 1980, he was one of the premier pitchers in the majors, leading the National League twice in strikeouts, once in earned run average, and three times in hits allowed per nine innings, winning at least 18 games between 1976 and 1979.〔 On July 30, 1980, Richard suffered a stroke and collapsed while playing a game of catch before an Astros game, and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blood clot in his neck. His condition brought a sudden end to his major league career at the age of 30.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=July 1980 in baseball )〕 His 313 strikeouts in 1979 remains an Astros franchise record, and he held the team's record for career strikeouts (1,493) until 1987. In 1981, Richard attempted a comeback with the Astros, but this failed because the stroke had slowed down his reaction time and weakened his depth perception. He spent the next few seasons in the minor leagues before being released by the Astros in 1984. After his professional baseball career ended, Richard became involved in unsuccessful business deals and went through two divorces, which led to him being homeless and destitute in 1994. Richard found succor in a local church and later became a Christian minister. ==Early life== Richard was born to Clayton and Lizzie (''née'' Frost) Richard in Vienna, Louisiana〔Porter (2000), p. 1276.〕 and gained prominence at Lincoln High School in nearby Ruston in both baseball and basketball. By the time he was a high school senior, Richard stood six feet, eight inches tall (2.03 m) and weighed . That year, he was one of the starting pitchers for Lincoln High School and did not concede a run for the entire season. In one game Richard hit four consecutive home runs while pitching his team to a 48–0 victory against its local rival, Jonesboro's Jackson High School. Richard, whose baseball idol was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, never lost a game he started in his high school career.〔 Upon graduating from high school, he turned down more than 200 basketball scholarship offers to sign with the Houston Astros.〔Porter (2000), p. 1277.〕 The Astros would later select him with the second overall pick in the 1969 amateur baseball draft, behind the Washington Senators' selection of outfielder Jeff Burroughs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MLB First Round Draft Picks – 1969 )〕 Richard later recalled, "There were other guys in my high school with as much ability as I had, but instead of working at a job, they wanted to drink wine on Saturday nights. They thought that was the in thing to do, and consequently our lives went in different directions. For some people it takes that to make a world. It does not for me." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「J. R. Richard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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