19 Facts About Francis Richter

Francis Charles Richter was an American journalist who served as founder and editor of Sporting Life from its inception to its demise, and editor of the Reach Guide from its inception in 1901.

Francis Richter's early career as an amateur baseball player was an invaluable tool, which provided him with a rich supply of insight into the game and players' lives.

Francis Richter began writing for the Sunday World and started the nation's first newspaper sports department of the era while working at the Public Ledger.

Francis Richter helped form the original American Association of baseball in 1882 and to place the Philadelphia Athletics in it.

In 1883 Francis Richter founded the Sporting Life, a weekly magazine devoted to coverage of all sports, with an emphasis on baseball.

Francis Richter was the first editor of the journal, which became the mouthpiece of baseball and a great force in the national pastime.

In 1902 Francis Richter jumped ship to join with the American League's founders.

Francis Richter was a World Series official for many years, and wrote a history of baseball.

Francis Richter succeeded in lifting the game to these heights, seeing the sport through its darkest scandal in 1920 after the Black Sox Scandal.

Francis Richter continued his prestigious writing career, always seeking to improve the national sport, until the day before his death.

Francis Richter had roles in the promotion of baseball and sportsmanship, as a player's advocate in salary wars, as a force in the amalgamation of the National and American Association into a twelve-team National League in 1892, in the formation of a new National Agreement, in prestigious rules committees, and as a mouthpiece against gambling.

Francis Richter had prominent roles in areas such as promotion, record-keeping and shaping of public opinion.

Francis Richter was a financial backer of the 1884 Union Association and its Philadelphia team.

Francis Richter died in his Philadelphia home on February 12,1926, at the age of 71, the day after completing the 1926 edition of the Reach Official Guide.

Francis Richter was survived by his wife Helen and their two children, and was buried without fanfare in the Rockland section, Lot 248 at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Mr Francis Richter founded Sporting Life and was one of the best informed men in the world in regard to the game of Base Ball.

Francis Richter advocated changes in rules from time to time, assisted in the amalgamation of the American Association and the National League in 1891, and at one time was offered the presidency of the National League.

For many years Mr Francis Richter edited Reach's American League Guide and was an advocate always of the higher ethics of professional sport.

Francis Richter was for clean Base Ball through and through, and the best policies for the game as a national pastime had no stronger supporter in all the coterie of great Base Ball writers who flourished when Base Ball was beginning to get away from its minor surroundings to its present position in sport.