Paul Scott "Ricky" Jordan (born May 26, 1965)Ricky Jordan
Baseball Reference, access date August 28, 2008 is a former

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) who played from to for the Philadelphia Phillies and

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

. He was noted for being a very good

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, A ...

Early life

Jordan was born in

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.

. He was adopted when he was a few days old. Jordan's adoptive father died when he was five, and one of his youth sports coaches became very influential in his upbringing. He attended Grant Union High School in Sacramento, California. He was selected in the first round (22nd overall) on the June 1983 amateur baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Baseball career

Jordan's first MLB game was on July 17, 1988. During his first at-bat that game, he hit a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

. In 677 games over eight seasons, Jordan posted a .281 batting average (592-for-2104) with 261 runs, 116 doubles, 55

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run ...

, 304 RBI, 77 bases on balls and a .424

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

. He finished his career with a .993

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

playing 510 games at first base and 11 games at left field. In 5 postseason games, he hit .182 (2-for-11) with no runs or RBIs.

References

External links

1965 births American adoptees Living people Philadelphia Phillies players Seattle Mariners players African-American baseball players Major League Baseball first basemen Baseball players from Richmond, California Helena Phillies players Spartanburg Suns players Clearwater Phillies players Reading Phillies players Maine Phillies players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Everett AquaSox players Lancaster JetHawks players Tacoma Rainiers players Carolina Mudcats players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-first-baseman-stub