Richmond was born in Sheffield, Ohio, in 1857. He was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers and he had eight siblings, all of them older. He went to the college preparatory academy affiliated with Oberlin College. He started attending Brown University in 1876 and was an outfielder and pitcher on the school\'s baseball team. He was also class president and he played on the football team.\n', '

On June 2, 1879, Richmond was paid $10 to pitch for Worcester of the National Baseball Association in an exhibition game against the Chicago White Stockings. He pitched a seven-inning no-hitter and signed with Worcester after the game. On July 28, he pitched a no-hitter against Springfield.\n', '

Worcester joined the National League in 1880, and Richmond signed with the team for $2,400 ($62,309 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.\n', '

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