July 29, 2008 - Former Douglas pitcher makes big league debut

An unbelievable pitch

North Van hurler to make major league debut at 28

Andy Prest, North Shore News

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Baseball is a game of myth and legend, great players and even greater stories.

You can add one more story to the grand old game anthology: the story of the one-time North Vancouver barnacle scraper who made his Major League debut as a 28-year-old rookie for Canada's team, the Toronto Blue Jays.

The hurler is Scott Richmond and on Wednesday, July 30 the undrafted 6-5 right-hander who played Forest Hills Little League while growing up in North Vancouver will start his first ever big league game against the American League East Division-leading Tampa Bay Rays (the game starts at 9:30 a.m. PST).

One year ago he was a member of the Edmonton Cracker Cats of the independent Northern League. Richmond signed with Toronto last fall and this season he was 5-8 with a 4.95 ERA in Double A New Hampshire and then 0-2 with a 2.53 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 35 innings at Triple A Syracuse. With the Blue Jays pitching staff hit by injuries, Richmond got the call to the big club on Sunday and will start Wednesday.

North Van native Scott Richmond fires a pitch in a recent Triple A game for the Syracuse Chiefs. After only two starts at Syracuse the 28-year-old righthander - who used to work scraping barnacles off of barges at the North Shore shipyards - was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays and will start in his big league debut Wednesday.View Larger Image View Larger Image North Van native Scott Richmond fires a pitch in a recent Triple A game for the Syracuse Chiefs. After only two starts at Syracuse the 28-year-old righthander - who used to work scraping barnacles off of barges at the North Shore shipyards - was called up to the Toronto Blue Jays and will start in his big league debut Wednesday.

But first things first - a big league ball player needs a big league hairstyle. When the North Shore News caught up with Richmond Tuesday he was just getting off of the barber chair.

"I do want to look good for that first start and some lady in New Hampshire when I was in Double A hacked off a bunch of my hair at the back and raised my hairline up, so I had to get it corrected," he said. "It was ridiculous."

Richmond's story could also be called ridiculous if it wasn't true. On Monday night, one day after his call-up, he was in uniform in the dugout at the Roger's Centre watching A.J. Burnett pitch a gem. It was Richmond's first time at the Blue Jays' home stadium.

"I'd never been to the Roger's Centre before so the first time I go there is as a player. That's kind of crazy," he said. "To watch those guys go out there and do their thing like they've been doing for years and then for me to go out there is special."

That story, as Richmond said, is a bit crazy, but there's more. This summer Richmond was pegged to play for the Canadian Olympic team in Beijing. On Wednesday the team will be introduced before the Blue Jays game and Richmond was to be one of those players. Instead he's the starting pitcher in the game that follows. While pitching in the majors is Richmond's dream come true, the timing of his call up likely means he will not be going to Beijing.

"Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player and it's just bad timing," he said, referring to the Olympic conflict. "I'm not upset, the guys are going to do great - we've got a great group of guys on Team Canada. I was able to see a bunch of them last night and say hi. They were all excited and happy for me. . . . The guys are going to go out there and do great. I'm just really excited for them and I wish I could be there with them but I have a little bit of a job to do here and I'm really excited about that."

That's quite the story - but wait, there's more. You might ask why a 28-year-old is making his major league debut. Well, after high school Richmond was not on anyone's radar. In fact, the local boy didn't even get a look from the North Shore Twins. He caught on with the Vancouver Pharoahs and while he played with that senior men's team he also took a job at the North Shore shipyards with Seaspan International. For three years he worked scraping scum, barnacles and rust off of boats and barges.

Pharoahs coach Gehrig Merritt finally convinced Richmond to go to Douglas College where he played and studied as a 21-year-old rookie. From there his path wound through an amateur team in Moose Jaw, then Missouri Valley College, then Bossier Parish College in Shreveport, La., then finally to Oklahoma State in the NCAA's first division.

Though he pitched well at all levels he was never drafted and his shot at the bigs never came. Next came Edmonton and after three seasons mowing down batters with the Cracker Cats he was finally signed after Jays scout and fellow Canadian Rob Ducey recommended him to the team.

"I've definitely gone through a lot of adversity and it's made me stronger and given me a bit of a leather skin to deal with a lot of people saying 'no, you're too old, you didn't go to a big school, where do you come from, you didn't play on the North Shore Twins,' all these things," Richmond said. "I just heard 'no' a lot. Now I'm getting yeses and I've worked really hard to get that. . . . It's not like I had the silver spoon treatment all the way to the big leagues. I've had to overcome a lot of things to get here so I feel I can handle this."

Despite the adversity he faced, Richmond said he always stayed positive.

"I'm a positive person, the cup is always half full with me," he said. "I believe in my ability. I've had a lot of good friends along the way, they really encouraged me and if I ever got down on myself they'd say, 'no, you're young, you've got the stuff, you're going to get your chance.'"

With all of those challenges already met, the first place Rays should be no problem.

"I think my age will be a little bit of a help out there . . . I've done a lot of things at 28. This is obviously the highlight of my career but I feel like I can try to be as mature as possible and I'm obviously nervous but I'll try to keep it under wraps as much as possible."

Quite the story - but it gets even better for Richmond and his family. Linda and Kelly Kaye, Richmond's mom and stepfather, recently took two weeks off to follow their son in Triple A. They were in the stands in Indianapolis on Sunday getting ready to watch Scott pitch for Syracuse when they got a phone call from Scott saying he wasn't going to pitch that day.

"We said, 'oh, why?'" recalled Linda. "And he said, 'because they need me to start on Wednesday for the Blue Jays.' So they scratched him from that game and the rest has been a whirlwind."

Linda was relating the story as she and Kelly - a former minor league pitcher himself and Scott's coach through much of his Little League career - crossed the border at Windsor on their way to Toronto. They already had tickets to Wednesday's game to watch Richmond get introduced with the rest of the national team. Now they'll get to watch him pitch instead - and they've even got great seats right behind home plate.

"It's unbelievable, but it isn't," said Linda. "We've believed in him for so many years and pictured him on the mound."

No longer just in their minds, that picture of their son on the mound in a Major League game is now a reality.

Now that is a story.

aprest@nsnews.com

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