Kevin Jordan

Pinch hitting is a difficult role in major league baseball. The pinch-hitter may not appear in any given game but must prepare every day for a single at-bat in what is often a high leverage situation. There are few men who are physically and mentally suited to be successful pinch-hitters. Kevin Jordan was one of the select few who could do it well. His career was not long: seven years (1995-2001) and 560 games played. Even so, Jordan – a utility infielder – was one of the best pinch-hitters in Philadelphia Phillies history. His 201 at-bats in that role are the fifth most in franchise history. During those at-bats he produced 45 hits, six home runs, and 34 RBIs – good for sixth, a tie for third, and fifth, respectively, in franchise history.1

Kevin Wayne Jordan was born on October 9, 1969, in San Francisco, California. Information about his parents and siblings has not yet come to light.

Jordan starred in baseball at Lowell High School in San Francisco. He led the team to back-to-back San Francisco City Championships and was named the Most Valuable Player his senior year. After graduating in 1987, Jordan attended Cañada Community College in Redwood City, California, where he continued to win awards (First-Team All-Coast Conference and Coast Conference Most Valuable Player) for his play. He was inducted into the Cañada College Hall of Fame in 2016.2

Although he was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 10th round of the 1989 draft, Jordan chose to continue his collegiate career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During his single season with the Cornhuskers, he batted .348 and earned first-team All-Big Eight and third-team All-American honors.3 The New York Yankees selected Jordan in the 20th round of the 1990 draft, and he spent the next three years advancing through their minor-league system.

During this time, Jordan gained additional experience by playing in the Australian Baseball League. His stellar play for the Brisbane Bandits during the 1992-93 season made him the MVP of the league. He was also the league batting champion with a slash line of .390/.453/.695. The Bandits won the league championship the following season with Jordan and Homer Bush leading the charge.4

Jordan met his wife Nina while he was playing in Australia. The couple had two children, son Kevin Jr. and daughter Vavineh, who were both born in Australia.5 Jordan spent enough time Down Under (the requirement is four years) that he became a dual citizen of Australia and the United States.6

In early 1994 the Yankees traded Jordan, Ryan Karp, and Bobby Muñoz to the Phillies for Terry Mulholland and a player to be named later (that player was Jeff Patterson). Jordan spent the 1994 season and most of 1995 with the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before making his major-league debut as a pinch-hitter on August 8, 1995. Two days later he went 0-for-5 in his first start at second base. Jordan collected the first hit of his career on August 15 with a single off Greg Swindell in Houston.

One of the highlights of Jordan’s rookie season occurred on August 20. The San Francisco Giants were visiting Philadelphia and leading the Phillies 5-2 entering the bottom of the eighth inning. With a man on first and two outs, Phillies manager Jim Fregosi called on Jordan to pinch-hit for pitcher Toby Borland. Jordan sent the second pitch he saw from Shawn Barton over the left field wall for his first home run and RBI of his career. The Phillies went on to win in extra innings. In a curious coincidence, three men named Kevin hit home runs for the Phillies that day. Jordan and Kevin Flora homered in the eighth, and Kevin Stocker went deep in the ninth.

Nine days later the Phillies were visiting San Francisco with Jordan starting the game at second base. He hit the second homer of his career in the third inning. After the game Jordan reflected, “I grew up watching games in this park. I had butterflies but once the game started I calmed down. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anything going after my home run.”7 An interesting aspect of this long ball was that it was delivered by Terry Mulholland, the principal player involved in the trade that sent Jordan from the Yankees to Philadelphia. Mulholland was a free agent at the end of the 1994 season and signed with the Giants before the 1995 campaign.

The two homers were the highlights of Jordan’s rookie year. Those were his only two long balls, and he finished the season with 10 hits and six RBIs in 24 games. In 14 of those contests, he appeared as a pinch-hitter.

Jordan demonstrated his versatility and value as a utility player early in the 1996 campaign. The Phillies’ starting first baseman, Gregg Jefferies, tore a ligament in his left thumb diving into third base for a triple during the first inning of the third game of the season.8 Jordan replaced Jefferies at first in the top of the second. He came to bat in the bottom of the fifth with a man on first and the Phillies trailing by one run. Jordan sent the first pitch over the fence to give Philadelphia a lead it would not relinquish. The pitcher who benefited from the blast was Terry Mulholland. He had signed with the Phillies after a one-year stint in San Francisco and got the win because of Jordan’s home run.

The next night the Cincinnati Reds were in town. In the seventh inning Jordan replaced Gene Schall at first base and led off in the bottom of the ninth. With the Phillies trailing by a run, Jordan worked the count full against Jeff Shaw, and for the second consecutive night, sent a ball over the fence. The Phillies lost the game in the 10th, but Jordan was off to a terrific start to the season.

He put together a five-game hitting streak at the end of April that included driving in what proved to be the game-winning run in the seventh inning of a contest in Colorado against the Rockies on April 24. Another five-game hitting streak at the beginning of May improved his batting average to .313. This streak also included a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning in a game against the Florida Marlins on May 2 that provided an important insurance run in the Phillies’ 2-0 victory. Jordan hit his third home run of the young season on May 4, and he started at second base for the first time that year on May 7. In his role as a utility infielder, he played first, second, and third base during May and also had three pinch-hitting appearances.

The San Diego Padres visited the Phillies on June 2. Jordan came to bat in the bottom of the 12th inning with one out and the score knotted at eight runs each. He lined the second pitch he saw from future Hall of Fame pitcher, Trevor Hoffman, to center for a double. Two batters later he scored the winning run in the Phillies’ walk-off victory when Ricky Otero singled with two outs. Unfortunately, Jordan’s promising season was cut short in mid-June when he hurt his knee chasing a fly ball on June 16.9 He missed the rest of the season after having arthroscopic surgery to repair the damage.10

The Phillies had veterans Rico Brogna and Mickey Morandini, along with upcoming star Scott Rolen, manning first, second, and third base respectively during the 1997 season. Their presence relegated Jordan to a pinch-hitting role for much of the campaign. Jordan got off to a slow start, going hitless in his initial 10 pinch-hit at-bats. But his first hit of the season on May 16 got him going offensively and he hit his first homer of the year off Billy Wagner on the 19th. A modest three-game hitting streak at the end of the month included the second pinch-hit homer of his career in a game against the Reds in Philadelphia.

On June 10, the Phillies were in Montréal to take on the Expos. With Philadelphia trailing by a run in the seventh inning, the Phillies’ rookie manager, Terry Francona, sent Jordan in to pinch-hit for pitcher Reggie Harris with Kevin Stocker on first. Jordan’s second pinch homer in just over a fortnight put Philadelphia ahead 5-4. Although the Phillies would relinquish the lead in the eighth and lose the game, Jordan had once again demonstrated his value as a pinch-hitter.

Jordan struggled at the plate for the rest of June and much of July. But he got hot again starting in mid-August, putting together a nine-game hitting streak. His pinch single in the top of the eighth with two outs and a man on second on August 16 in Houston drove in the tying run, and the Phillies won the game with two more runs in the top of the ninth. He made his first appearance as the Phillies’ designated hitter on August 29. Jordan recovered his power stroke in September with a home run on September 14 against the Cincinnati Reds and two more long balls at the end of the month. His six homers that season would prove to be the highest of his career.

In one sense, the 1998 season was similar to the previous year for Jordan. Philadelphia had established veteran players in the infield, so Jordan was mostly used as a pinch-hitter with an occasional infield start. But it was also a breakout season of sorts, as he played in over 100 games (112) and got over 200 at-bats (250) for the first time in his career. Jordan was also used as a designated hitter in 1998, making eight starts in that role over the course of the season. About half of his appearances during the season were as a pinch-hitter where he batted .278 with 15 hits, 10 RBIs, and two homers. 

But unlike the previous season when he started slowly, Jordan got off to a great start in 1998. He singled home a run in his first pinch-hitting opportunity of the year on April 4 against the Atlanta Braves. A week later he started his first game of the season at second base and went 3-for-4 with a crucial RBI in the fifth inning to go along with scoring the eventual winning run in the eighth. Both runs helped stretch a Phillies winning streak to five games. Jordan once again displayed his versatility on April 19 by starting at first base against the Cardinals in St. Louis.11

Nine days later the Phillies were visiting the Reds in Cincinnati. It was a high-scoring affair, with the contest knotted at eight runs each at the end of regulation. The Phillies put a runner on first with two outs in the top of the 10th. Jack McKeon, the Reds’ manager, elected to intentionally walk Bobby Abreu in order to bring the pitcher to the plate. Francona countered by bringing Jordan in to pinch-hit. The specialist responded by sending the first pitch he saw from Stan Belinda over the wall in left field. The blast provided the winning runs in the Phillies victory. It was the fourth pinch homer of Jordan’s career.

Jordan continued to hit well through the rest of the season. Fifteen hits in 12 games played from the end of June through early July put his batting average at .321 on July 11. He cooled off during the second half of July but put his power back on display on August 1. The Giants were visiting Philadelphia and led 7-5 entering the bottom of the eighth. With a man on third and two outs, Jordan was sent in to pinch-hit for the pitcher. As he’d done in April, Jordan sent the ball over the fence in left. Although the Phillies eventually lost the game, Jordan’s second pinch homer of the season had tied the game at seven. He finished the season with two homers, 27 RBIs, and a .276 batting average.

In addition to being a valuable utility player for the Phillies, Jordan, along with Rolen and a few other veterans, set a good example in the clubhouse about how to behave on and off the field. Referring to this core of players before the 1999 season, Phillies manager Francona gushed, “We’ve got great people. They try hard to do the right thing all the time. Even when it isn’t the right thing, they’re trying hard. And I can live with that.”12 Jordan credited his time in the Yankees organization with forming his baseball persona. When Joe DiMaggio passed away in March 1999, Jordan said, “If I learned anything from being with the Yankees, it was how to be professional. The Yankees were real big on that and Joe was one of the guys they used as an example, about how much pride he had to be a Yankee.”13

Jordan asked for a $625,000 contract for the 1999 season, but Philadelphia was offering $425,000. The two sides avoided arbitration by agreeing on $500,000.14 The Phillies’ general manager, Ed Wade, argued that the agreement was necessary for the team to be successful. “In any team sport you can’t just win with your starting lineup. You’ve got to have guys who can fill in and contribute on a regular basis. These guys [Alex Arias, Kevin Jordan and Kevin Sefcik] have done that for us,” he said.15

Francona used Jordan primarily as a pinch-hitter for the first couple of months of the 1999 campaign. His prowess in the role was well respected. In the bottom of the ninth in a tie game in Philadelphia on April 17, the Florida Marlins intentionally walked Jordan with men on first and second to load the bases. Doug Glanville singled to drive in the winning run for the Phillies’ first walk-off victory of the season. The next day Jordan started the game at second base. In the bottom of the first he singled and scored as part of a six-run rally that provided the foundation for the Phillies’ third consecutive victory over the Marlins.

In mid-May Jordan put together a six-game hitting streak in which he collected a triple, four doubles, and four RBIs. He continued to swing the bat well over the next 10 days, batting .351 for the month. On June 1 with the Phillies trailing by one in the bottom of the seventh, Jordan pinch-hit and drove home the tying run. Although Philadelphia would lose the game in the 12th inning, Jordan had given his team a chance to win. Two days later, starting at third base for the injured Rolen, Jordan led off the bottom of the fourth with the Phillies trailing 1-0. His first homer of the season tied the game.

The start at third foreshadowed what would happen later in the season as Rolen missed substantial time with a lower back injury. Jordan played 53 games at third base from mid-July to the end of the season. He made the most of his opportunity to play regularly. On July 21 Jordan went 4-for-5 with two RBIs in the Phillies’ 7-0 victory in Milwaukee against  the Brewers. In the first game of a doubleheader two days later, Jordan came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded, two outs, and Philadelphia trailing by two runs. His line drive single to center drove in three runs that were the final tallies in the Phillies’ victory.

On July 26 he had his second three-RBI game in a week when he went 3-for-5 with a double and a triple. The outburst came during a seven-game hitting streak in which Jordan had 13 hits and eight RBIs. During 19 games in July, he batted .404, collecting 23 hits, six doubles, and 13 RBIs. Jordan’s numbers should have been good enough for him to be the National League Player of the Month. However, the award went to Mark McGwire because 26 of his hits that month went over the fence.

Jordan continued to hit well in August with three-hit games on August 1, 16, and 22 which improved his batting average for the campaign to .332. One of his hits on the 22nd went over the fence for his first long ball since early June and gave him four RBIs for the game. Six days later the Phillies were visiting Colorado for a series against the Rockies. Jordan’s RBI single in the first put the Phillies ahead 1-0. In the fifth, he came to bat with men on first and second and Philadelphia trailing 5-3. His line drive down the left field line cleared the fence and put the Phillies ahead 6-5.

The next day he led off in the top of the third. His second long ball of the weekend, and third in a week, extended the Phillies’ lead to two runs and increased his total to four on the season. Jordan started every September game for the Phillies at third base. Although he cooled down offensively that month, he still had the best year of his career in terms of games (120), at-bats (347), hits (99), runs (36), doubles (17), triples (3), RBIs (51), and batting average (.285).

In addition to helping the Phillies on the field, Jordan’s excellent offensive performance also helped him financially. In early 2000, Philadelphia offered him a $1 million contract – double what he’d made the year before.16 Rolen was healthy entering the 2000 season, so Jordan returned to his utility infielder and pinch-hitting roles for most of the campaign. But he got off to a difficult start to the season offensively, batting just .077 in 13 games prior to April 25 before hitting in three consecutive contests late in the month.

Jordan returned to form in May. Starting 22 games at first, second, or third over the course of the month, he collected 26 hits and batted .299. He went 3-for-5 in consecutive appearances on May 7 and 10. The next night Jordan hit a two-run triple in the first inning of a 6-4 victory against the Expos in Montréal. The three games were the start of a nine-game hitting streak. At the end of the month, he had two hits in five separate games, including his first homer of the year on May 31 against the Giants in San Francisco. The offensive outburst that month increased his batting average to .254.

On June 4, the Red Sox were in Philadelphia for the final game of a three-game series. Boston scored five runs off Curt Schilling in the third to take a 5-0 lead, but the Phillies chipped away while holding the Red Sox scoreless, and tied the game with a two-out single by Desi Relaford in the eighth. The score didn’t change until the bottom of the 12th, when Jordan came to bat with men on first and second and two outs. His line-drive double off Rhéal Cormier was the second walk-off victory over the Red Sox in the series. Two days later, Jordan’s second home run of the season knotted the score in a game against Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Philadelphia.

Francona continued to use Jordan as a utility infielder and pinch-hitter over the rest of the season, but his batting average drifted downward in August and September. He did display more power than the previous season by hitting a home run in August and two more late in September, to give him his second-best season with five long balls. His home run on September 26 was particularly memorable. The Phillies were visiting Chicago to play the Cubs when Jordan came to bat with men on first and second in the top of the ninth. His fly ball split the outfielders, and Jordan was able to race around the bases to score. It was the first, and only, inside-the-park homer of his career.

This marked the third consecutive year that Jordan played in more than 100 games. But with the exception of home runs, his production declined from 1999, and he finished the season with a .220 batting average. Jordan became a free agent after the season. His offensive challenges prompted the Phillies to offer him less money for the upcoming season ($700,000) than he’d made the previous year.17 A healthy Rolen meant that his primary role for the 2001 season would be as a pinch-hitter.

Jordan demonstrated his value in that role immediately, getting a pinch hit in his first two opportunities over the initial four games of the season. At the end of April, he put together a five-game hitting streak that included three pinch hits which improved his batting average to .471. The second of those was very special. On April 20, the Braves were visiting Philadelphia for the opener of a three-game series. The Phillies were leading 4-2 in the seventh when Jordan was sent in to pinch-hit for the pitcher with the bases loaded.

He watched one pitch from Marc Valdes go by, then broke the contest open by sending the second offering over the fence for a grand slam – the only one among his 23 homers in the majors. It was also the sixth and last pinch homer – and last of any kind – of his big-league career. In an oddity, Jordan’s was one of five grand slams in MLB on April 20, 2001.18

Jordan was unable to sustain the hot start. By the end of June, he was batting .254, and that mark tailed off to .239 by the end of the campaign. He appeared in 68 games during the season, with roughly one-third the number of at-bats (113), hits (27), and RBIs (13) compared to the previous two years. When the Phillies acquired Dave Hollins and John Mabry after the 2001 season, Jordan became expendable; he was released by Philadelphia just before the 2002 campaign began.19 Several clubs signed him as a free agent over the next two years, but he never played in another major-league contest.

Like many big-leaguers, Jordan stayed in the game after his playing days were over. He was a hitting coach in the Phillies’ minor-league system from 2007-12.20 Jordan and his Australian-born wife, Nina, moved Down Under, where he did construction work and managed the Brisbane Bandits from 2010 to 2012.21 Jordan was a hitting coach for Team Australia during the 2017 World Baseball Classic.22 The family moved back to the United States, where Jordan tried his hand as a radio announcer for the Phillies in 2018.23

Currently married to Cathy, whom he knew from high school, Jordan continues to work with aspiring major-league players through his KJHitting organization in Belmont, California.24

Last revised: September 19, 2024

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-reference.com, Retrosheet.com, MLB.com, and material from the Kevin Jordan file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to SABR member Rory Costello. His careful review of the first draft of this biography and the modifications he suggested significantly improved the final product, which was also reviewed by Kim Juhase and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Thanks to Cassidy Lent at the Hall of Fame Library for providing the Hall’s Kevin Jordan file.

The author is not related to Kevin Jordan.

Notes

1 Jordan’s pinch hit data generated by Stathead at Baseball-Reference. For example, the Stathead query for his at-bat total is https://stathead.com/tiny/rmY6I.

2 “2016 Cañada Colts Hall of Fame Inductees: Kevin Jordan,” HomeoftheColts.com. Accessed April 26, 2024, https://homeofthecolts.com/hof-2016.

3 “Kevin Jordan,” Huskers.com. Accessed April 26, 2024,  https://huskers.com/sports/baseball/roster/season/1990/player/kevin-jordan.

4 “Brisbane Bandits,” Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen. Accessed April 27, 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Brisbane_Bandits.

5 Kevin Jordan File at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Tim Wiles, e-mail message to the author, December 4, 2000.

6 “Kevin Jordan: Baseball Player,” FamousBirthdays.com. Accessed July 18, 2024, https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/kevin-jordan.html.

7 “Mulholland Back on Track,” Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), August 30, 1995: B1.

8 “Sports in Brief: Jefferies Injured, Out Two Months,” San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, California), April 5, 1996: C2.

9 “Phillies Cut Loose Whitten, Leiper,” Los Angeles Times, June 18, 1996.

10 “Notebook, Notable,” San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, California), June 18, 1996: C3.

11 Another man with the surname Jordan also started in this game. Brian Jordan was the starting center fielder for the Cardinals.

12 Michael Knisley, “Getting to the Heart of Winning,” The Sporting News, February 15, 1999: 57.

13 “Phillies Fondly Remember Baseball Legend DiMaggio,” Ellwood City Ledger, March 10, 1999: 7.

14 “Phillies Avoid Arbitration with Jordan,” Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), February 9, 1999: B3.

15 “Phillies Will Rely on Bench,” Tyrone Daily Herald (Tyrone, Pennsylvania), March 17, 1999: 5.

16 “Phillies Re-Sign Two Players,” Indiana Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania), January 12, 2000: 23.

17 Ronald Blum, “Baseball Roundup, Indiana Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania), December 22, 2000: 19.

18 The other men to hit a grand slam on April 20, 2001 were: Barry Larkin (Reds), Sammy Sosa (Cubs), Tino Martinez (Yankees), and Raúl Mondesí (Toronto). The record for grand slams in one day is seven on June 3, 2017.

19 Chris Edwards, “Philadelphia Phillies,” The Sporting News, April 8, 2002: 61.

20 “Kevin Jordan: Baseball Jobs,” TheBaseballCube.com. Accessed May 16, 2024, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/page.asp?PT=player&ID=1047&Y=2001&View=jobs.

21 Paul Hagen, “Where Are They Now? Kevin Jordan,” MLB.com, September 22, 2017, https://www.mlb.com/news/where-are-they-now-kevin-jordan-c256371240.

22 “Australia Names Coaching Staff for World Baseball Classic,” Baseball Victoria, January 31, 2017, https://baseballvictoria.com.au/australia-names-coaching-staff-for-world-baseball-classic/.

23 Patrick Berkery, “Phillies Add Kevin Frandsen, Kevin Jordan and Kevin Stocker to Radio Broadcast Team, Phillyburbs.com, January 9, 2018, https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/01/09/phillies-add-kevin-frandsen-kevin/16333543007/.

24 “Hitting and Fielding Lessons with Kevin Jordan,” KJHitting.com. Accessed May 16, 2024, https://www.kjhitting.com/.