Looking Back: Richbourg Played and Managed the Vols

The journey to the major leagues for an ambitious and promising minor league youngster can be long or short. The road for former Nashville Vols player and manager, Lance Richbourg, began in Florida and covered nine years.

   Richbourg was born in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., in 1897. He played summer ball in the Dixie League with Dothan (1916-17) and the Virginia League at Newport News (1918).

   In the spring of 1919, while playing third base for the University of Florida, the New York Giants noticed him. Manager John McGraw's Giants were working their way north at the conclusion of spring training and stopped in Gainesville for an exhibition game.

   "My father said before the game that the president of the university told them, 'Who knows but some day, one of you might wear the colors of the New York Giants,'" said Lance Richbourg, Jr., the son of Richbourg. "It was one of those pep talks. I guess he had a good day. I once read that my father came running in on a bunt from Giants batter. Instead he hit a line drive and my father caught it anyway.

   "The next day he was sitting in the bleachers watching the Giants workout. McGraw came over to him and said, 'Son, would you consider a career in professional ball?' And signed him to a contract then and there for $250 a month."

    Having not been a part of the Giants spring training and the fierce competition, Richbourg was farmed to Grand Rapids, Mich. He hit .415 in 87 games before being promoted to Tripe-A Toledo of the American Association in 1920.

   The next year, Richbourg was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Casey Stengel. Richbourg only played in 10 games for the Phillies recording a .200 batting average (1-for-5). He finished that season in Dallas and the following year he landed in Charleston for the 1922 season.

   While struggling to get back to the big leagues to stay, Richbourg was sent to Nashville in 1923 where he enjoyed one of his best seasons. Roaming the outfield at Sulphur Dell, Richbourg was batting .378 at midseason when his season abruptly ended. While trying to leg-out a triple, he broke his leg sliding into third base. It appeared his career was over.

   "My father was having a fantastic season that year," said Richbourg, who is an art professor at St. Michael's College in Vermont and considered one of America's foremost baseball artists. "I had a bunch of telegrams that was in one of his boxes that were from railroad workers and all sorts of people. There must have been 25 or 30 telegrams with sympathies from the Nashville Vols fans. There was a phrase in the Nashville Tennessean that read, "Why couldn't it have been President [Warren] Harding or the King of Spain who broke their leg?'"

   Richbourg was property of the Washington Senators in 1924, but once again failed to stick around very long. He hit .281 (9-for-32) in 15 games. Richbourg was sent to Milwaukee (American Association) for the rest of that season. His stay in Milwaukee lasted another two years recording batting averages of .312 and .346. In 1926, he led the American Association in runs, hits, triples and stolen bases.

   The 5-foot-10, 160-pounder was a left-handed batter that threw with his right arm. Richbourg's speed and talent enabled him to hang around baseball when the Boston Braves picked him up in 1927.

   From 1927 to 1931, Richbourg was the right fielder for the Braves. His best season was in 1928 where he posted a .337 batting average. His 206 hits ranked fourth in the National League. Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby was the Giants manager that year.

   "He enjoyed playing for Hornsby and everybody else hated Hornsby," said Richbourg. "I never heard him say anything bad about Hornsby. He said he was strict, but my father was sort of a disciplinarian with himself. My father never smoked or drank. He always kept in shape and worked hard. Fans would always ask Hornsby out to dinners and he would ask my dad to go so he'd have someone to talk to."

   On May 14, 1927, Richbourg established a major league record that made Ripley's Believe It or Not, by playing a doubleheader of 18 innings without a single fielding chance. His third triple in a game on July 31, 1929 tied the major league record for most triples in a game.

   After batting .287 in 1931 in an injury-plagued season, Richbourg was traded to the Chicago Cubs. After hitting .257 in just 44 games, he was sent back to Albany of the International League. Richbourg would never face a major league pitcher again. Cincinnati acquired his rights, but after refusing to report to Rochester of the International League, Richbourg was sold to Nashville.

   In 1933, Richbourg found himself in different surroundings in the Sulphur Dell ballpark. In 1927, Sulphur Dell was rebuilt with the grandstand standing where the outfield was once. Richbourg batted .359 in 140 games that season. Midway of the 1934 season, Vols' manager Charles Dressen was named the manager of the Cincinnati Reds and was replaced by Richbourg.

   "When my father really came to love Nashville was when he went back," Richbourg said. "When Dressen goes up to Cincinnati to manage the Reds, they made my father manager. Then at the end of the season they fired him. And he really thought that was it for him. One of the newspapers said that Richbourg was too much of a gentleman to be a successful manager. Then for some reason, they hired him back a week or so later to be the player-manager again.

   "I think that was a great relief to him. It was like he got a reprieve. I read one article when they interviewed after his firing and he really sounded very low. My father usually wouldn't let anything show like that. He thought it was all over for him. Then when he came back he really fell in love with Nashville. The stories that I remember him talking about baseball lovingly was his time in Nashville."

   Richbourg became the Vols player-manager through 1936 and manager only in his final year in Nashville (1937).

   Richbourg's best finish as a Nashville manager was in 1936 with a second place at 86-65. As a hitter his averages in Nashville were .359, .310, .304 and .333. Richbourg accepted another player-manager situation in 1938 at Richmond of the Piedmont League. This ended his career in professional baseball.

   In Richbourg's eight-year major league career, he recorded a .308 batting average (806-for-2, 119) in 698 games. He clubbed 13 home runs and 51 triples with four teams. 

   Richbourg died in 1975 at age 77 on his farm in Crestview, Fla.

   If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email [email protected].