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 organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) who played from to for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

and

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They 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 League ...

. He was noted for being a very good

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

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 7, 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

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 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 i ...

. In 677 games over eight seasons, Jordan posted a .281

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(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 i ...

, 304 RBI, 77

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...

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, ...

. 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 defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

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

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 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 Sportspeople from Richmond, California 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{US-baseball-first-baseman-stub