Kenneth Allan Phelps (born August 6, 1954) is an American former professional baseball designated hitter and first baseman. He played for six different Major League Baseball (MLB) teams from 1980 to 1990, primarily with the Seattle Mariners. Baseball statistician Bill James cited Phelps as an example of a player who is unfairly denied a chance to play in the majors, despite compiling strong minor league statistics.
Early years
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Phelps graduated from Ingraham High School in north Seattle in 1972. He played a year at Washington State in Pullman under Bobo Brayton, then headed to Mesa Community College, looking for an opportunity to play at Arizona State in Tempe.
In his only season at MCC in 1974, Phelps was named a junior college All-American. 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 in 1972.
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 to rival Arizona after having defeated the Wildcats seven times that season, including a first-round game in Omaha.
Professional career
The left-hitting first baseman was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fifteenth round of the 1976 baseball amateur draft. Phelps hit a combined 43 home runs from for the Omaha Royals, KC's Triple-A affiliate in the American Association. The Royals traded him to the Montreal Expos prior to 1982 season for pitcher Grant Jackson. In the American Association in 1982, Phelps hit .333 with 46 home runs and 141 RBI for the Wichita Aeros. He had only eight major league at-bats that year, as 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 after the 1982 season.
Seattle
An average defensive player, Phelps was better suited to play with Seattle in the American League, as he could serve as the designated hitter, and the struggling 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 hit minor league pitching well (.341 with 24 home runs and 82 RBI in 74 games), but he did not play much in the majors. In 1984, he played a bit more for Seattle, hitting 24 home runs in only 290 at-bats. Bad luck intervened early that year when a pitch broke his hand in the third game of the season; he had won the regular first base job, and hit two home runs in his first three-game and had five hits in his first ten at-bats. The injury resulted in the call-up of first baseman Alvin Davis after just one game in Triple-A, who immediately produced; Davis was named to the American League All-Star team and was the league's Rookie of the Year.
The next season, Phelps found himself behind Davis at first and Gorman Thomas at DH, who had been signed as a free agent the previous season as an which limited Phelps to a mere 116 major league at-bats.
In 1986 at the age 31, Phelps got into the major league lineup on a more-or-less regular basis. Although he was normally platooned against left-handed pitchers, Phelps still clocked 51 home runs from It was at this time that his career travails inspired author Bill James to create the "Ken Phelps All-Star" team. As James described it:
Ken Phelpses are just available; if you want one, all you have to do is ask. They are players whose real limitations are exaggerated by baseball insiders, players who get stuck with a label -- the label of their limits, the label the things they can't do -- while those that they can do are overlooked... The Ken Phelps All-Stars [are] a whole teamful of guys who are wearing labels, but who nonetheless can play major-league baseball, and will prove it if they ever get the chance.