Fred "Fuzz" Richards, who enjoyed a brief September cup of coffee with the Cubs in 1951,
passed away of natural causes on March 18. He was 88. A first baseman, he hit pretty well in his 10 game trial, getting 8 hits in 27 trips to the plate (.296). In 11 minor league seasons, he hit .268 with 135 home runs. 50 of those home runs came in his two seasons with the L.A. Angels of the PCL--1952 and 1953. No offense to Fred but the old L.A. Wrigley Field was a home run hitter's paradise. At least it got him a 1953 Mother's Cookies card.
bearman14 posted a nice portrait photo of Fuzz
here (which I'd love to see in a larger size, if anyone has it). John had posted a couple of good'uns at Baseball-Birthdays.
The first attached photo below was one of John's. The second accompanied Fred's obituary (and, though I chose not to waste the bandwidth, you can find it in humungo-size version
here--you gotta click on it a couple of times for the full Fuzz or just hunt it down in a google image search).