Sports Odds and Ends
The 2023 St. Paul Saints season is now in the books. It will be remembered as the team’s most successful campaign since it became the Minnesota Twins Triple-A affiliate three years ago.
The Saints finished 2023 with the third-best overall record in the International League (84-64) and set numerous franchise records, including a grand slam mark that only three other teams have achieved in all of baseball since 1901.
It also was Simeon Woods Richardson’s second season in the Saints starting rotation. The Texas-born hurler was traded to the Twins organization in 2021 from Toronto. Woods Richardson originally was a second-round pick by the New York Mets in 2018. He is the team’s only U.S.-born Black pitcher.
“I say it’s a good year because of the work I put in,” Woods Richardson told the MSR after his final start of the season, his 29th in Triple-A and 31st appearance as a pro.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound hurler who just turned 23 on September 27 finished the year with a 7-6 mark, 4.91 ERA. He went through a year where he often pitched well but didn’t always get run support. Yet Woods Richardson persevered, and his last three starts proved successful, giving up only five runs on 11 hits, 14 strikers and zero home runs.
“I got to keep it in my best ability as close as possible for us to win,” noted Woods Richardson before a bullpen session. Whether pitching with a lead or behind, “That’s baseball,” he continued. “There’s gonna be some days where we all have each other’s back, but there’s gonna be some days where I’m not gonna have their [run] support.
“I got to step it up and keep it close,” stressed the pitcher. “Just keep a chance to win.”
Through it all this season, Woods Richardson also brought a can-do optimism to the mound with his pitches.
“Yes, baseball is a game of failure. Yes, you may start slow, but it’s not how you started, it’s how you finish. I was very proud of myself to walk away at the end of the game and to close up the year and see the numbers that I put up.
“That was me not giving up. That was me putting my head down and kept going.”
Woods Richardson looks forward to some R&R back home with family and friends as well as tending to a couple of new businesses he started up. “I always love going back home to be with my family,” said the second-year Saints pitcher. “I can’t wait to enjoy being with the parents, Mom and Dad.”
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