Fresh cut green grass. The “pop” of aluminum smacking against a ball with 108 stitches of red cotton thread in a cage. The “smack” of the same ball hitting a pocket of a leather glove. Sunflower seeds all over the dugout. Dirt lifted up in the air because of engraved cleat marks down the first base line.
These are the sights and sounds that have been engraved in Kagan Richardson since he was three years old. The native of Rancho San Margarita, Calif., remembers the first time he was exposed to baseball. Born in Beverly Hills, Richardson and his father played wiffle ball in the hallways of his apartment complex before moving out of Los Angeles.