Time
to go and give former Chicago White Sox infielder Lee Richard a “not so
missing” card for 1973 after he played in just under a dozen games the
previous season:
Now, you may notice I called Richard an “infielder”, yet the card shows
him as an outfielder. Well that’s because in 1972, for the only season
of his 5-year career, he played more games in the outfield than infield.
In the other four years he was primarily an infielder, so this makes for
a unique card in his career, which spanned 1971 through 1976.
Richard appeared in only 11 games for the White Sox in 1972, hitting
.241 with seven hits over 29 at-bats in his second year as a Big
Leaguer.
In 1971 he made his debut and hit .231 over 87 games and 260 at-bats,
collecting 60 hits with 38 runs scored and 17 runs batted in.
Sadly for him however, those would all be career-highs, as he’d never
come close to that amount of action over the course of his career.
In 1976, which ended up being his last in the Majors, he was with the
St. Louis Cardinals and played in 66 games, getting only 97 plate
appearances and hitting .176.
He’d go on to play another two years in the Minors for the White Sox and
Pittsburgh Pirates organizations, but never got the call-up to the Big
Leagues again, retiring after 1978.