AR with some home town ink.....

From todays Nassau, Bahames newspaper

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE long, winding road towards a professional baseball contract is back on track for one long-standing Bahamian minor league player.

Antoan Richardson was signed as a free agent last week to the Mississippi Braves, the AA subsidiary of Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves.

Richardson spent his previous year with the Schaumburg Flyers of the Northern League, an independent league in the Northern US not affiliated with MLB.

The Flyers removed outfielder Lynden Poole from the disabled list and placed him on the active roster which prompted the club to part ways with Richardson.

They then sold his contract to the Atlanta Braves organisation and gave Richardson a coveted return to the minor leagues.

Since signing with the Braves, Richardson has seen immediate playing time and has appeared in a pair of games thus far with productive results.

In his first outing with the team against the Mobile BayBears, Richardson was immediately inserted into the starting lineup and went 3-5 with one stolen base.

Richardson loaded the bases late in the ninth inning when he put a ground ball in play to second and all runners reached safely.

He set the stage for Willie Cabrera who singled to right field and scored Juan Gonzalez, however the comeback attempt ended there in the Braves' 8-4 loss.

In his second game, Richardson went 2-4, highlighted with his first RBI and first run scored.

Again with late inning heroics, Richardson hit a fly ball to left-center field and was safe at second on a fielding error and a pair of runners scored to tie the game at six.

Cabrera, who lengthened his hit streak to 10 games, doubled to score Richardson.

In his previous stint in the AA minors, Richardson spent two years with the Connecticut Defenders.

In his first season with the Defenders in 2008, Richardson hit .241 with five home runs, 63 runs, 31 RBIs and 33 stolen bases in 123 games.

In 2009, he hit just .207 with six RBI and six stolen bases and was released by the Defenders in July.

The Mississippi Braves boast several major league alumni to its credit, most notably, Jeff Francoueur, who won a Gold Glove Award in 2007.