High School:  Grant

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* MLB Career:  8 Years (Philadelphia, Seattle)

​* .281 Career Batting Average
* 55 Career Home Runs
* 304 Career RBI

 

Ricky Jordan was born Paul Scott Jordan in Richmond, California.  Adopted a few days after being born, he quickly became known as Ricky. This was because of the noise he would make while he was riding a wooden horse in the house. “Rickety Rack, Rickety Rack” Therefore, his guardian Alice or mom, as he would call her, named him Ricky.  Little Ricky’s early years were tough as his adopted father passed away when he was five years old. Raised by Alice, they were living in Oakland and Ricky began playing baseball at six years old. They moved to Sacramento when Ricky was nine and lived in Del Paso Heights.

 

Rickey loved sports and began making quite an impression early on as a teenager.  He hit a growth spurt at the age of 14. Between the eighth and ninth grade, he grew seven inches. Ricky went from 5’5” to 6’1” in a hurry.  At Del Paso Jr High, he was dunking a basketball in the ninth grade. Ricky went to Grant High and made the Varsity Basketball team as a sophomore. He also played football as a wide receiver, but his real love was baseball and basketball.  Ricky had immense talent and was an All-Capital Athletic League and All-City selection in both sports. 

 

On the diamond, Ricky was putting up big numbers and was a natural at the plate. He hit .450 in his junior year and followed that up by leading the city with 43 RBI in his senior season.  Ricky had numerous college offers including powerhouse programs such as Miami and Arizona State.  However, Major League Baseball was noticing Ricky’s heroics at Grant as he was one of the top prospects in the nation.  In 1983, Ricky was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Phillies.

 

Ricky was making his way up the minor league system but in 1986 he faced more family adversity as Alice suddenly passed away.  It was a crushing blow to Ricky, and he contemplated giving up baseball.  But deep down inside there is no giving up with Ricky Jordan. 

 

The following year Ricky got his groove back and made it up to Triple A and hit .308 with 20 Home Runs and 95 RBI’s and was named Minor League Player of the Year.  In 1988, at the age of 23, Ricky got the call he had long been waiting for. On July 17th, 1988, he made his Major League debut in historic fashion. The Phillies were playing the Houston Astros and in his first official At-Bat, Ricky homered.  At that time, he was one of only 65 players in the history of Major League Baseball to hit a home run in his first plate appearance. 

 

In his rookie season he batted .308 and hit 11 Home Runs and had an impressive .811 On Base plus Slugging Percentage. The following season, Ricky had the best season of his career as he batted .285 with 12 Home Runs and 75 RBI with 149 hits while playing in 144 games. He hit over .300 again in 1992 with a batting average of .304.  The next two seasons his batting average was over .280, making Ricky one of the most consistent hitters in the Phillies lineup.

 

The 1993 season was a special one for Ricky and the Phillies. He hit .289 and Philadelphia won the National League East and were in the playoffs. They went from worst the previous season to first. The Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves in six games in the National Legue Championship Series and went to the World Series. The Phillies ended up losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games on the famous Joe Carter three-run walk off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. 

 

Ricky played eight Major League seasons, seven with the Phillies and one with the Seattle Mariners With an impressive .281 career batting average   After his playing days, Ricky returned home to Sacramento where he still lives.  Ricky  was an incredible all-around athlete and is a proud representation of the rich Grant High School athletic tradition and part of the baseball royalty in the Sacramento Sports Hall of Fame.