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J. Lee Richmond (May 5, 1857 – October 1, 1929) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the Boston Red Stockings, Worcester Worcesters, Providence Grays, and Cincinnati Red Stockings, and is best known for pitching the first perfect game in Major League history. After retiring from baseball, he became a teacher.
Worcester joined the National League in 1880, and Richmond signed with the team for $2,400 ($ in current dollar terms) that season. Before a game against Cleveland on June 12, Richmond was up all night taking part in college graduation events, and he went to bed at 6:30 AM. He caught the 11:30 AM train for Worcester so he could pitch in the afternoon contest and then pitched a perfect game to beat Cleveland, 1–0. According to the Chicago Tribune, "The Clevelands were utterly helpless before Richmond's puzzling curves, retiring in every inning in one, two, three order, without a base hit. The Worcesters played a perfect fielding game." Cleveland pitcher Jim McCormick allowed three hits, and the only run was scored on a double error by second baseman Fred Dunlap.
Richmond graduated from Brown University four days after the perfect game, and he finished the year with a win–loss record of 32–32, a 2.15 earned run average, and 243 strikeouts in 590.2 innings pitched. He was the first left-handed pitcher to win 30 games in a season.
Richmond found success throwing an changeup that he termed a "half-stride ball" and that other players referred to as a "drop ball". He also had a rising fastball that he called a "jump ball". He also learned to throw a curveball in college, even though a Brown physics professor tried to convince him that nothing could make a ball curve in midair.
In both 1881 and 1882, Richmond pitched over 400 innings. After the 1882 season, the Worcester franchise disbanded, and Richmond played for the National League's Providence Grays in 1883. He experienced arm problems and was primarily an outfielder that year. He finished his MLB career with a record of 75–100, a 3.06 ERA, and 552 strikeouts.
After his retirement from baseball following the 1883 season, Richmond worked with his tutor Dr. C. T. Gardner in Providence, before returning to his home state of Ohio to set up a private practice facility in Conneaut. In 1886, Richmond attempted a brief, unsuccessful comeback with the Cincinnati Reds of the American Association. He lost two of the three games he pitched in, and allowed 16 earned runs in 18 innings. Richmond then changed careers, and from 1890 to 1921, he was a high school chemistry teacher at Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio. Richmond married Mary Naomi Chapin, his former student, in 1892, and had three children: Ruth, Dorothy, and Jane. He died on October 1, 1929, at the age of 72.
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