TTM Stats
- Sent: 7/2/2018 | Received: 8/3/2018 | 31 Days
- ’81 Fleer, ’83 Topps, ’84 Topps, ’85 Topps
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Gene Richards roamed outfields in the major leagues from 1977 through 1984. He spent all but one year in San Diego, but he spent all of the years he played in California (and the NL West) when he went to San Francisco in 1984.
Richards was born and raised in South Carolina and went to college at South Carolina State. The Padres made him their first draft pick in the 1975 MLB Draft and he made his major league debut two years later in April of 1975. He went from showing off his speed in the minors to showing it off in the majors. As a rookie, Richards set a record for stolen bases by a rookie with 56. That would help him get some Rookie of the Year votes and finish third in the voting.
He wasn’t too bad of a hitter with a .290 lifetime average. He hit over .300 twice in his career. He got his career high in stolen bases in 1980 with 61 and then led the league in triples with 12 in 1981. On top of that he set the franchise record in hits for a season with 194 until good ol’ Tony Gwynn came along.
The Score on Gene Richards – 5.5
It’s a bit interesting how Gene signed these. I don’t mean the style of his autograph, but rather the direction he signed them. Only the ’85 Topps is really done “normally”. The ’81 Fleer and the ’84 Topps are almost verging toward upside down. Gene has a bit of a messy signature, especially towards the end, but I love that he uses up that card.
Thanks Mr. Richards! I’m giving these a 5.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.