Ken Phelps - Amateur/Minor Leaguer

Amateur/Minor Leaguer

Phelps was born August 6, 1954 in Seattle, Washington. After attending Seattle's Ingraham High School he played a year at Washington State University before he headed south to Mesa Community College looking for an opportunity to play at Arizona State University, the school of his dreams. He gained national acclaim in his only season at MCC and was named a Junior College All American. At Mesa, he was drafted twice in the first round (January and June drafts) by the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively. He had previously been drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the eighth round out of high school. All this earned Phelps a chance from Coach Jim Brock to play at ASU, where he was named to the College World Series All Star team in 1976, when the Sun Devils lost a heart breaker to the University of Arizona after having defeated the Wildcats seven times previously that season. The left-hitting first baseman was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 15th round of the 1976 baseball amateur draft. Phelps became a feared minor league hitter, clubbing a combined 43 HR from 1980-81 for Kansas City's Omaha affiliate in the American Association. Nonetheless, the Royals traded him to the Montreal Expos in the 1981-82 offseason for pitcher Grant Jackson. Phelps proceeded to demolish the American Association in 1982, hitting .333 with 46 home runs and 141 RBI for Montreal's Wichita affiliate. However, the Expos still saw fit to give him only eight major league at-bats that year. That gave him a grand total of 32 in his career. There was no room on a very talented Montreal roster for Phelps to break in. Instead, Phelps' hometown club, Seattle, purchased him from the Expos during the 1982-83 offseason.

Phelps, an average defensive player, was better suited to play with Seattle in the American League, as he could serve as the designated hitter there. The struggling Mariners franchise also had plenty of room for advancement. Phelps split time in 1983 between Seattle and its Pacific Coast League affiliate in Salt Lake City. Again, he destroyed minor league pitching (.341 with 24 HR and 82 RBI in 74 games), but did not play much in the majors. In 1984, he played a bit more for Seattle, clobbering 24 HR in only 290 at-bats. Bad luck intervened that year when he broke his hand in the third game of the season after winning the regular first base job and hitting two home runs in his first three game and five hits in his first 10 at bats. The next season, he found himself behind Gorman Thomas who had been signed as a free agent, which limited Phelps to a mere 116 major league at-bats.