Group of 79 Project - Ken Phelps

The Group of 79 Project continues this week with Ken Phelps.

Common theme here. I liked Ken Phelps when he was playing. I never understood how a guy with this much power couldn't get a full-time job in the majors. He was drafted by four teams. So as an amateur he was much desired. In the majors, however, his skill set was not appreciated and much maligned, much like that Adam Dunn character of which I'm so fond. Phelps didn't hit for average and walked and struck out a lot. The three seasons in which he got a ton of playing time, he hit over twenty homers and had an OBP over .400.

Lest you think that we are much more modernized and knowledgeable these days, check out native Hawaiian Kila Ka'aihue. He's been in a power drought of late but he's another one of the brand of players who walks and strikes out a ton with a low average and a lot of power. And there he sits in the minors.

Returning to Mr. Phelps, I sent him a couple of cards recently which he signed and added a Bible verse inscription. The card I did not scan has John 3:16. If you watched a football game in the 1980's, you're already familiar with that excerpt (and if you didn't, well, swing by a church or hotel or Google and check it out).

An aside...don't you miss scripture signs at games? A friend of mine had end zone seats for one of the Eagles playoff games this past season and I tried to get her to take a sign that read Matthew 1:9 because I thought it would be fun to have people scrambling for their Bibles and looking up that verse and going "Huh?" but she wouldn't do it. No fun.

Returning to Ken Phelps and his quote, John 14:6 reads "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Here's where the Scientologists let me down. You don't here them quoting L. Ron Hubbard like the Bible gets quoted. Wouldn't the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where the warden tosses Andy's cell been different if Andy had been reading Dianetics? "The scientific fact, observed and tested, is that the organism, in the presence of physical pain, lets the analyzer get knocked out of circuit so that there is a limited quantity or no quantity at all of personal awareness as a unit organism". Salvation lies within.