BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Former New York Yankees great Bobby Richardson will be the featured speaker at the Campbell University baseball Diamond Bullpen Club First Pitch banquet on Jan. 31.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and will be held in the multi-purpose room of the new Campbell University Football field house. Tickets are $25.00 per person and include dinner and entertainment.

For information on the First Pitch banquet or to join Campbell's Diamond Bullpen Club, contact the Campbell University Baseball office at (910) 814-5510.

Diamond Bullpen Club memberships begin at the single ($50-99) division and increase to the double ($100-249), triple ($250-499), home run ($500-999) and grand slam ($1000-and-up) categories. All Diamond Bullpen club members receive a pair of complimentary tickets to the First Pitch banquet.

A native of Sumter, S.C., Richardson played for the Yankees from 1955-1966 and collected 1,432 hits, a lifetime batting average of .266 with 34 home runs and 390 runs batted in. He was a five-time Gold Glove winner at second base. He was a member of three World Series winning Yankees clubs (1958, 1961 and 1962) and helped lead the Yanks to the American League pennant on four other occasions.

Richardson was named Most Valuable Player of the 1960 World Series despite the fact that the Yankees lost the seven game classic to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He batted .367 (11-of-30) with two doubles, two triples, a home run (grand slam) and 12 RBI. To this day, Richardson remains the only World Series MVP selected from the losing team.

In the 1964 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Richardson tied a Fall Classic record with 13 hits.

His best major league season came in 1962 when he batted .302 and led the American League with 209 hits. He was named to the American League All-Star team, won the Gold Glove and finished second to teammate Mickey Mantle in the AL MVP voting.

Remarkably, Richardson struck out only 243 times in his 12-year career, less than five percent of his plate appearances. He twice led the league in sacrifice bunts. He recorded a lifetime fielding percentage of .979 at second base.

After retiring from pro ball, Richardson became a baseball coach at the University of South Carolina. In 1975, he led the Gamecocks to a 51-6 record and a trip to the 1975 College World Series final. In the 1980s, Richardson also served as head baseball coach at Liberty University and Coastal Carolina.

A born-again Christian, Richardson is actively involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and is a highly sought-after Christian speaker.

Under the direction of second-year head coach Greg Goff, Campbell opens its 2009 baseball season at home on Feb. 20 against North Carolina A&T. During Coach Goff's first season, the Fighting Camels ranked among the top-10 most-improved teams in the country by doubling its wins total from '07.