by Francis Ferry, NLN baseball writer

November 13, 2016: Aurora, Colorado – In the beginning was baseball for Mark Richardson. During high school, where he picked up the “Ice Cold” nickname, baseball was innocent. That all changed on the second day of 2007, when he became the fifth selection of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance’s inaugural draft. The Florida Featherheads selected the hard-hitting, fleet, slick-fielding infielder and signed him to a three-year contract worth $32M. With that, baseball no longer was baseball; it became business. Business with great expectations.

Expectations was quite possibly the demise of Mark Richardson’s Florida career. After two All-Star appearances for the Featherheads and a devastating head injury, Richardson was traded to Aurora. A year later, he signed a six-year, $96M deal that changed the contract rules for the league (Richardson’s frontloaded contract was thereafter deemed illegal, causing all such deals to be called “Richardson contracts”). But if expectations were high in Jacksonville, they were astronomical on the Front Range – especially after leading Aurora to their lone championship in 2009.

The weight of those expectations have come to an end. Richardson played his last game in a Borealis uniform after six tumultuous years – Aurora’s 6-3 series-ending loss to Crystal Lake where Richardson, appropriately, struck out in his last at bat.

Expectations crescendoed during the 2011 season – a season “Ice Cold” would win the Royal Raker – but his pathetic performance during the post-season (.203 AVG with 20 K) prevented his team from defeating his former team in the Planetary Extreme Championship when just one hit would have gained Aurora the Cup. He would never be able to play out of the “goat” moniker.

Richardson’s career numbers may look solid (.285, 234 HR, 732 RBI), but over the past few seasons, his playing time lessened as other members of the Aurora family began passing him up. His inability to hit in the clutch and an increasing number of strikeouts put Richardson’s bat on the bench. Injuries didn’t help; he missed nearly 200 games to the disabled list over the life of his six-year deal. Aurora was willing to hold onto him for his defensive prowess, but few takers were out these when his name purportedly rose in trade talks.

GM Will Topham recently revealed that Aurora was all but set to trade “Ice Cold” to Charleston for Mathys Crête, but for a series of late-spring pitching injuries led the Statesmen to pull the plug on the deal. “It will be a sad day for sure,” Topham said to a collection of writers the other day about Richardson’s departure. “We won’t rule out the possibility of his signing a free agent deal and returning – he is still very popular with the fans – but it would have to be for a shell of his old salary. He still has great value off the bench.”

That seems unlikely. A proud Richardson has been very unhappy the past couple of seasons, complaining to everyone and anyone who would stop to listen. He’s lashed out privately and publically at the team and has frequently been seen pouting on the bench. More than one teammate has noted off the record that Richardson’s attitude was a “drag on the team.”

Say what you like about his attitude and decline… “Ice Cold” Richardson will still go down as one of the top infielders in the game. He was named to the recently released Aurora 10^th Anniversary Team. The colorful Richardson will be missed in Aurora. Where the next chapter of his story begins, nobody knows.