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Sports Odds and Ends
First of two parts
Baseball can be frustrating with its typically slow path for a player from amateur to professional.
Simeon Woods Richardson’s ultimate goal is to make a major league pitching roster. He’s had only a few short stints with the Minnesota Twins. His latest stopover came when the parent club called him up to pitch the second game of the April 13 doubleheader in Detroit.
Woods Richardson pitched six innings, allowed a run on two hits, and struck out five to earn his career first major league win. He retired his final 14 batters.
However, the 23-year-old pitcher and Texas native is back in St. Paul, the Twins AAA farm club, with a 1-1 MLB career record. Ironically, he made his big league debut against the Tigers in October 2022.
“I’m always still working to get better at my craft,” Woods Richardson told the MSR before the Saints’ season started in late March. “We’re just trying to really define and hone in and clean up those mechanics, and my job is to be ready to help the big league team no matter when or where.”
Woods Richardson, a right-hander drafted 48th overall by the New York Mets in 2018, was later traded to Toronto. He logged pitching time with several minor league clubs in the Mets and Blue Jays farm systems before he was again traded to Minnesota in July 2021. The pitcher was again assigned to the minors and eventually promoted to Triple-A St. Paul.
Since then, we have talked several times, and if Woods Richardson is frustrated, he hides it well. He stays upbeat despite the ups and downs and the number of times he’s pitched well enough but didn’t get the win.
At Indianapolis, Woods Richardson pitched five solid innings, striking out four and only allowing two runs on six hits while walking one. But St. Paul suffered a 7-2 defeat after a five-run eighth inning by the home team.
“I think everybody knows the first half of my season last year wasn’t the greatest,” remembered Woods Richardson. “But I came out and still had six or seven wins in the second half.”
He’s working on “a couple new pitches, but it’s all of them, just trying to hone in on the same delivery,” said Woods Richardson on his array of pitches.
Last Thursday, Woods Richardson was with the big club, started and pitched five innings but didn’t get credit for the Twins’ 6-3 win. Yet he pitched well enough to earn a spot in the rotation and is with the club on its road trip.
Finally, despite his young age and whether he’s in St. Paul or Minnesota, Woods Richardson could be considered a grizzled veteran of sorts as one of the very few with MLB experience, albeit brief.
“I’ve been in professional baseball since I was 17 years old,” he said. “I’m always still learning. I’m always still gonna be the youngest guy in the clubhouse.”
Next: Woods Richardson is one of two Black players on this year’s Saints roster. We speak with his teammate next week.
Seth Jones joins 2024 U.S. hockey team
Seth Jones, who leads with four medals, is one of the first 15 players on the 2024 U.S. Men’s National Hockey Team to play in the IIHF Men’s World Championships May 10-26 in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia. He is the only Black player on the squad and joins Laila Edwards, who was the only Black player on the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Jones was the fourth overall pick by Nashville in 2013 and has played for four NHL clubs.
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