1978 Padres: Gene Richards

Note to our reader: From time to time during the 2009 baseball season this humble blog will publish posts celebrating the first winning team in San Diego Padres history: the 1978 San Diego Padres. I expect these posts will be generally uninformative and will pass on no information that you did not already know. But at the least I hope they will serve as a reminder of one of the overlooked, but sneaky good, Drino teams of the past. Now, with that bold and courageous mission statement out of the way, let us move on to today's spotlight player: Gene Richards.

Gene Richards: How He Came To Be On the 1978 Padres

- Eugene Richards, Jr. was born on September 29, 1953, in Monticello, SC.

- He played college baseball at South Carolina St. University, a historically black college in Orangeburg, SC (on Route 26 between Columbia and Charleston for anyone interested in visiting Orangeburg, which looks to be a historic and ridiculously quaint town). Gene played baseball there until Spring 1974. Incidentally, Gene's college teammate was Willie Aikens, who would be drafted exactly one spot behind Richards in the 1975 January draft.

- About that 1975 draft ... Peter Bavasi of the famed Bavasi family was the Padres GM at the time. Back then the baseball draft worked a bit differently than it does now. The draft was split between at least two phases, one in June and then a second phase held in January the following year that involved players drafted earlier but who did not sign.

- The Padres drafted Gene Richards as the #1 overall pick in the January phase of the 1975 draft (Aikens, as noted above, was #2).

Gene Richards: His Performance In The Years Leading Up To 1978

- Gene smoked the minors from the start, spending only two years on the farm.

- In the Summer of '75, as a 21-year old rookie in professional baseball, Richards dominated the Cal League for the Padres then-Class A affiliate Reno Silver Sox. Those were heady times to be in Reno. The Silver Sox were dominant that season, rolling to an 86-54 record with a roster graced by future greats such as Butch Wynegar, Juan Eichelberger, Aran Ahu and the legendary Galen McSpadden. Richards was the beast of the squad, however, pacing the team with a .381 batting average, 10 triples and 29 doubles. He also added 12 bombs which is remarkable considering he is Gene Richards.

- The next season, Richards, now 22, bounced right past AA to the Padres AAA affiliate Hawaii Islanders. Richards again was a monster, hitting .331 with 8 bombs, 9 triples and 24 doubles. He finished the season with a .425 OBP over 628 plate appearances. No doubt he was the talk of Honolulu.

- Needless to say, with those two stellar minor league seasons on his resume, the 22-year old was ticketed to San Diego for 1977.

- And Richards did not disappoint. As a 23-year old rook he made the Drinos Opening Day roster batting lead off and playing left field, a spot and a position he would man regularly for the Padres over the next 7 seasons. Indeed, in a sign of things to come, Richards singled in his first professional at bat off the Reds' Woodie Fryman, and then promptly stole second base. Unfortunately, in a sign of things to come for the 1977 Padres, Mike Champion and Dave Winfield both popped out and, after a walk to George Hendrick, Gene Tenace flew out to right to end the inning, stranding Gene at second. So much for the '77 Padres.

- All in all, Gene played well in '77 for an underachieving Padres team that finished 69-93, 25 games back of the first place Dadgers. He hit .290 with 56 bags and 11 triples, finishing the year with a .363 OBP as the Pads' regular leadoff batter. Not too shabby for the 23-year old.

Gene Richards: What He Did For The Padres In 1978

- Simply put, Gene probably had his best overall season in 1978. He posted career highs in batting average (.308), OBP (.381), walks (64) and slugging percentage (.420). He also stole 37 bags, laced 12 triples and choked up on 629 bats (the number of his plate appearances). As the Padres regular left fielder and lead off man, he also led the team with 90 runs scored, benefiting from the likes of Gene Tenace (whammy!) and Dave Winfield batting behind him.

- Just perusing the game logs on baseball-reference.com (which made this post possible), I think Richards' best game of the season was a May 12 night game at home against the Pirates. Bob Owchinko started for the Padres, Jim Rooker for the Buccos. Gene went 3-4 with 3 ribeyes and 2 runs scored. He also walked once and had a bag (though he was caught stealing twice which, incidentally, happened a bit too often over his career). His 3 hits included an RBI triple in the bottom of the 5th that scored catcher Bob Davis. Richards would score on the next play on a sac fly by Ozzie Smith to bring the Padres within one run at 4-3. Richards big hit, however, came in the bottom of the 8th. With the game tied 4-4 (after a Winfield bomb in the last half of the 7th), Richards came up with one out and the bases juiced against Grant Jackson. Gene hit a single to center (I imagine it was a frozen rope) plating two Padres with the go-ahead runs. Though Oscar Gamble was thrown out at third on the play, and Gene would get caught trying to steal third during the next at bat, the damage was done and the Padres went on to win 6-4.

- Honorable mentions for Gene's best game during the 1978 season: June 10 at the Cubbies (3-4 with a triple, a bag and a run scored); June 14 at home against the 'Spos (3-5, 2 doubles, a triple and 2 runs scored); August 23 at Philly (3-5 with a double, a triple and a run scored); and September 21 at home against the Gints (4-4 with a run scored).

- I also note that Gene's season included two monster hot streaks. The first occurred mid-summer. Hitting just .265 on June 7, Gene went on an impressive month-and-a-half stretch that included only 5 games where he started but didn't have a hit, and raised his average to .310 on July 30. The second hot streak came at the end of the season. On September 20 he was hitting .296, but by the last game of the season - an October 1 victory over the first place Dadgers - Gene had raised his average to .308.

So there you have Gene Richards, a key member of the 1978 Padres. He has always been one of my favorite Drinos and it's a shame he was allowed to leave in free agency after the '83 season, right before the Padres made the playoffs for the first time. But I guess when you have young beasts like Kevin McReynolds, Carmelo Martinez and Tony Gwynn manning the outfield spots, veteran pinch hitters like Bobby Brown and Champ Summers coming off the bench, and a guy like Alan Wiggins taking Gene's leadoff role and playing some outfield, there wasn't much need for a lefty speedster with questionable defensive skills.

But whatever happened in later years doesn't change what happened in '78.

In '78 Gene was the man.