Richard Eugene Lysander is a former Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

. He had a four-season career in the majors, spread out over six years.

Major League career

Lysander was drafted by the Oakland Athletics

Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....

 in , and he toiled in the minors for several years before finally pitching five games for the A's in . He was then returned to the minors, and remained there for the rest of 1980 and all of . Oakland traded him to the Houston Astros

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...

 after the 1981 season, but Lysander never played in the majors for Houston. The Astros traded him on to the Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...

 for Bob Veselic

Bob Veselic

Robert Mitchell "Bob" Beselic is former Major League Baseball pitcher. Veselic played for the Minnesota Twins in and .-External links:*...

 the following off-season, and in Rick was back in the majors. He remained with the Twins until , after which he was released, ending his major-league career.

Post-MLB life

Lysander didn't give up on pitching entirely, and eventually found a home in the Senior Professional Baseball Association

Senior Professional Baseball Association

The Senior Professional Baseball Association was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over . The league began play in 1989 and had eight teams in two divisions and a 72 game schedule...

. In he pitched for the Bradenton Explorers

Bradenton Explorers

The Bradenton Explorers were one of the eight original franchises that began play in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in . That season, the club complied a record of 38-34 and finished in second place in the league's Northern Division, narrowly holding off the Orlando Juice. Jim...

, leading the league in saves with 11. In , he moved on to the Daytona Beach Explorers, pitching in eight games without allowing an earned run. This earned him a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....

, and he pitched in ten games for the Syracuse Chiefs that season before retiring.

Rick's son, Brent, pitched in the A's minor league organization in 2007-08, and for the independent Lake Erie Crushers

Lake Erie Crushers

The Lake Erie Crushers are a professional baseball team based in Avon, Ohio. It is a member of the independent Frontier League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball.The Crushers won the Frontier League Championship in their inaugural season...

 in .

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