Happy Birthday Russ Adams and Scott Richmond

We have two birthdays today.

Scott Richmond turns 40 today. Richmond was a favorite of mine. He had a great story. He came to the Jays within a year of pitching for the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, of the Independent Golden Baseball League. And he’s Canadian. He pitched for Canada in the Beijing Olympics and was on team Canada for the WBC.

He made 5 starts for us in 2008, putting up a 4.00 ERA. In 2009, he started the season in the rotation, had a terrific first month. He was named AL Rookie Pitcher of the Month for April, after going 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA. Things went downhill from there. If he had a pitch that he could use get lefties things would have been better. He finished the year 8-11 with a 5.52 ERA in 27 games, 24 starts.

He missed most of 2010 with a shoulder injury, making a few starts at AAA, finishing with a 1.98 ERA in 9 games. Spent most of 2011 and 2012 in the minors, with a couple of brief appearances with the Jays.

After 2013 he signed with the Rangers, and spent a couple of seasons in their minor league system. Last year he pitched in independent ball.

I thought he might make a good reliever, if you could pick his spots, pitching mostly versus RHB, but it didn’t happen for him.

Over the last couple of years Scott has pitched in Italy, Australia and Quebec in an independent league. He also pitched for Team Canada in the Pan-Am games, picking up a silver medal. He must have some great stories to tell about his travels.

Russ Adams turns 39 today. He was our number one draft pick in 2002 and was our shortstop of the future at one time, but it didn’t work out. He had a hard time with the throw from short and he didn’t hit all that well. The Jays tried moving him to second but he still didn’t hit much and Aaron Hill was a better choice at the position.

In parts of 5 season, with the Jays, he hit .247/.313/.372 with 17 home runs, 85 walks and 118 strikeouts in 993 PA.

He had one full season with the Jays, playing 139 games, hitting .256/.325/.383 with 8 home runs and 63 RBI.

He signed with the Padres as a free agent in 2009 and then with the Mets as free agent in 2010, but didn’t make it to the majors for either team. He last played in the minors in 2011.

I had a lot of affection for Russ, he didn’t become the player we hoped he would

Happy birthday to both Scott and Russ, hope you both have a good one.

It is also my dad’s birthday tomorrow. Not that he will read this. When I first started here I had either funny or frustrating conversations telling my parents about the blog. It would have been easier to explain I figured out how to teleport to the moon and back. “I write about the Blue Jays for a website”. “So they print this in the paper?”. “No it is on the internet”. “It is in a magazine?”. And I would change the subject. Once they saw me interviewed on the news and decided that that is what I do and I figured that was close enough.

Happy Birthday Dad.