led Buffalo to the International League pennant in before, retiring as a player at the age of 40. Career statistics In an eight-year major league career, Richards played in 523 games, accumulating 321 hits in 1,417 at bats for a .227 career batting average along with 15 home runs and 155 runs batted in. In 17 minor league seasons, he posted a career .295 batting average with 171 home runs. While he was a light-hitting player, he excelled as a defensive catcher, ending his career with a .987 fielding percentage. He led American League catchers three times in range factor, twice in fielding percentage and once each in baserunners caught stealing and in caught stealing percentage. Richard's 50.34% career caught stealing percentage ranks 12th all-time among major league catchers. Managing and executive career Richards became a successful manager with the Chicago White Sox in 1951. In a baseball era when many teams relied on home runs for much of their offensive production, Richards went against the perceived common wisdom by relying on pitching, good defense, speed and stolen bases to manufacture runs with a strategy now known as small ball. It was during that stint that he once had starting pitcher Billy Pierce play first base for one batter, bringing in a right handed pitcher to face a right handed hitter, taking out the starting first baseman, and then replacing him when Pierce went back to pitch one hitter later. The White Sox led the American League in stolen bases for 11 consecutive years from to 1961. He managed the White Sox to four winning-record seasons, but his club finished behind the New York Yankees (1951, 1952, 1953), and the Cleveland Indians in 1954. It was during his tenure as the White Sox manager that he was given the nickname, "The Wizard of Waxahachie." In September 1954, Richards was hired by the Baltimore Orioles, where he served as both field manager and general manager through 1958, becoming the first man since John McGraw to hold both positions simultaneously. As general manager, he was involved in a 17-player trade with the New York Yankees that remains the biggest trade in baseball history. Richards concentrated on signing good defensive players (such as Brooks Robinson) and hard-throwing young pitchers (such as Steve Barber, Milt Pappas and Chuck Estrada). After Lee MacPhail was hired as the general manager in 1959, Richards served strictly as