David Phelps? Alan Phelps laughs. David Phelps will be fine. It's Alan's blood pressure that the family's trying to keep from boiling over.
"I talked to him a little bit (Wednesday)," Alan said of son David, the former Hazelwood (Mo.) West star who's slated to make his first major-league start tonight against the Kansas City Royals. "He's a pretty even-keeled person. Not a whole lot upsets him."
Papa Phelps, on the other hand, is getting a bit skittish. You'd blink funny, too, if your kid was pitching for the New York Yankees, and toeing the rubber less than four hours from his childhood home.
"Oh, yeah. Nervously excited. But as a father, you're always nervous," said Alan, one of a cadre of 20 or so family members and friends expected to be in attendance at Kauffman Stadium this evening. "It hasn't sunk in yet that he's starting for the Yankees. Even though I've seen him pitch a few times, it still hasn't sunk in yet."
The Phelps clan has been on a roll lately. David and wife Maria welcomed their first child, a daughter, on March 22. Shortly thereafter, the 6-foot-3 right-hander got the call to go north with the big club, initially slotted as long-relief help. Then came last weekend, which brought word that he was the first choice to replace struggling Freddy Garcia in the starting rotation.
"One of his concerns, early on, was, 'Am I going to get a good opportunity?' He was concerned because the Yankees will spend the money and go out and sign a free agent," recalled Butch Beiter, David's prep baseball coach. "If they've got a need, they have got a tendency to go buy (a pitcher). But then I got to talking with Alan, and Alan knew more than I did. He said the Yankees just don't rush their pitchers. So he's got a good opportunity there. And I think he'll do well."
A 14th-round draft choice out of Notre Dame in 2008, David's posted a 3.57 ERA over his first six appearances, allowing just 12 hits and fanning 14 in 17 2/3 innings. His four-seam fastball pops in the mid 90s, his two-seamer cracks the low 90s, and his curveball bites like a mosquito.
"I'm trying as much as I can to take it like it's any other game, but it's a big deal for me," The 25-year-old hurler told the New York Daily News. "It's going to be awesome to have family there. Hopefully, I'll go out and do what I've been doing."
With Andy Pettitte expected to rejoin the rotation later this month, the younger Phelps is probably just holding serve until the cavalry arrives. But if he can go out there and put on a show, who knows?
"It's hard to explain," Alan said. "Anything David can put his mind to, David's going to be able to do. He's that type of kid."
He's the type of kid who respects authority, even when authority goes out and shoots itself in the foot. Beiter likes to tell the story about this time at districts, when Phelps was an underclassman and would have to be pushed up a day or two ahead of his normal rest in order to take the mound. Beiter was ready to do it -- "We didn't have a whole lot behind him at that point in time," the coach said -- but he was talked out of it by his assistants.
Sure enough, West High got beat.
"I took a bunch of grief over it," Beiter said. "And Dave went to bat (for me). I guess he got online and made some comments (explaining that) 'It was a team decision, and I support it, and I support Coach Beiter.'"
David became one of the most storied arms to come out of one of the area's most storied programs — Cardinals reliever Kyle McClellan prepped at West, a school that also counts former big-leaguers Al Nipper and Morgan Burkhart among its notable alumni. As a teen, David was driven like a '79 Pinto. Honor Roll. National Honor Society. Two letters in basketball. All-state in baseball. He even worked part-time as an agate clerk in the sports department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, helping to enter in prep stats.
"He's kind of what I call the All-American Boy," said Jerry Daniels, grand poobah at Balls-n-Strikes, a baseball and softball instruction school in greater St. Louis, and one of David's early mentors. "He's the one who had the (good) ACT scores, he went on to Notre Dame, he was just that kid. Never in trouble. Just a class act."
The youngest of two boys, David was also pushed by sibling rivalry. Older brother Michael had a rocket arm, too, eventually pitching at Central Missouri and getting drafted by the Chicago Cubs.
"You give him a box of building blocks, he's over the corner building something. He didn't need attention like Mike did," Alan noted. "But David probably is where he is because of Mike. There are other people involved, but a lot of it is (that) he wanted to be like his older brother and do (things) like his older brother and outdo his older brother.
In high school, Mike wore No. 6. David chose 16. When people would ask the younger Phelps why he went with that particular number, he'd smile and reply: "Because it was one better than six."
"They always had a rivalry," Alan said. "It was a fun rivalry.
"David was one of the skinniest little kids you'll see in your life. When I see him on the mound, that's what I see. That skinny little kid — how did he even come to this?"
Naturally, of course. He's just that type.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com
