Los Angeles Dodgers
McMullen signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers upon graduation from Oxnard High School. After two minor league seasons in which he batted .285 with 42 home runs and 177 runs batted in, McMullen made his major league debut as a September call-up in 1962 at just twenty years old. He collected three hits in eleven at-bats.
He was awarded the starting third base job out of Spring training 1963, but after committing five errors while batting just .205 with one home run and three RBIs through April, he was optioned to triple A Spokane. After Manager Walter Alston shifted left fielder Tommy Davis to third, and tried several other players at third base, McMullen was brought back up from Spokane at the end of June. His first major league home run was a grand slam off the St. Louis Cardinals' Ernie Broglio on the Fourth of July. He raised his average to a far more respectable .236 by the end of the season while hitting five home runs with 28 RBIs. He pulled a hamstring on September 26 against the New York Mets, thereby missing the World Series against the New York Yankees.
He started the 1964 season with the Dodgers, but poor fielding and a .209 batting average landed him back with the Spokane Indians by the middle of June. At the end of the season, he was traded with Frank Howard, Phil Ortega and Pete Richert to the Washington Senators for John Kennedy and Claude Osteen.
Read more about this topic: Ken Mc Mullen (baseball)
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