J.R. Richard never faded. His next to last start was at the All-Star Game in 1980. He was 30 years old, at the apex of his powers, when it all went away. He was the Sandy Koufax of his generation.

Richard died on Wednesday in Houston, at age 71. He never made the Hall of Fame, never won a Cy Young Award, never pitched in the World Series. He might have done all of those things, but a stroke abruptly ended his career and changed the course of his life.