Richard Nevin Folkers (born October 17, 1946) is an American former professional baseball player and coach.

[1] He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1970 to 1977 for the New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.

As noted on Baseball Reference.com, he missed the 1969 regular season while serving in the U.S. military, but did play briefly during the winter in the Florida Instructional League.

On June 10, at the age of 23, Folkers pitched two solid innings in relief, giving up only one hit and allowing no runs.

After having a lackluster 1971 season (7–11, 4.50 ERA), the Mets traded away their former first-round draft pick with Jim Bibby, Charlie Hudson and Art Shamsky to the Cardinals for Jim Beauchamp, Chuck Taylor, Harry Parker and Chip Coulter on October 18, 1971.

This stint in the Majors was much more successful: not only did he collect his first big league win on September 30 against Ron Santo, Rick Monday and the rest of the Chicago Cubs, he also posted a 3.38 ERA.

He was involved in a three-team deal on November 18, 1974 in which he was traded along with Sonny Siebert and Alan Foster from the Cardinals to the Padres for Ed Brinkman who had been sent to San Diego with Bob Strampe and Dick Sharon from the Detroit Tigers for Nate Colbert.

Folkers was traded with Jim Slaton from the Brewers to the Tigers for Ben Oglivie at the Winter Meetings on December 9, 1977.

Of the 11 hits he collected, only one was for an extra base hit—it was a double off Bob Forsch and his former team the Cardinals on August 8, 1975.

He is probably best remembered for a line by the Padres' malaprop-prone broadcaster Jerry Coleman: "Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen."