Denzel Richardson and the lessons learned on the way to CPB play-offs

The international players gathered for the second season of Chinese Professional Baseball are a long way from home but you’d be doing well to beat the 9,033 clicks on the clock that lie between the dusty parks of the Caribbean island of St. Maarten where Denzel Richardson grew up to where he is now in the bustling Chinese metropolis of Shanghai.

Across Richardson’s 14-year pro-ball journey there have been stints on the books of the Colorado Rockies, with Amsterdam of the Dutch Major League and with Dos Laredos of the Mexican League – and many clubs in between. Now, the 32-year-old slugger has settled in with CPB’s Shanghai Orcas and he’s been lighting up the park.

“It’s a fun league and it’s getting more competitive,” says Richardson. “There are recognisable names coming in and that makes the competition much more interesting. The higher the demands the better the league. I think anybody would love to be here.”

Richardson caught wind of what is happening China while working his trade in the Japanese independent leagues – not exactly a cashed-up existence but one he hoped would keep him in the shop window when it came to further opportunities in Asia. Seems there might have been a little divine intervention in the move as well.

“The call came and I had a [contract] number in my head … and it was the same number,” says Richardson. “A day and a half later I signed and I flew here to China.”

Hopefully word is spreading elsewhere about the form he’s found with the Orcas.

Across this second season of the nascent Chinese pro league, Richardson’s has batted a league-best .438, with a league-best four home runs. The Orcas were 0-4 when he joined. They ended the regular season on 8-7 and with an offense that’s found its range.

On Saturday night at the Xuhui West Bund Baseball Field, the Orcas downed the Shenzhen Bluesox 6-4, and now they’ll be lining up in the first round of the summer league playoffs – on September 22 – against the league-leading Xiamen Dolphins.

Naturally gifted as a child – there was grand slam, at nine-years-old, in his first-ever organised game – Richardson admits it took years for him to become comfortable with his place in the game, and in the world.

“When I started, I didn’t have the right mindset. I was suffering with like you know panic attacks and overthinking,” says Richardson, who was signed by the Rockies at 18.

“I lost my mum when I was 23, then my dad at 25, and those were the years that I built my mind really strong. You quickly become a man very early because you know life is not dependent on anybody else – it depends on yourself.  

“I see it like everybody is born with a kind of car. Some people might be born with natural abilities that are bigger than others but they might not know how to drive that car. So it’s about finding the full potential of that car – and I was just a guy that found the full potential of my car later down the road.”

Shanghai have this season been reaping the benefits of that evolution.

“I’m here and I can go out and smell the grass,” he says. “I can be in that environment and compete with the tools that I have, that I have been blessed with. I’m in a good position and I am just grateful for the opportunity.”