SLIPPERY ROCK — Greg Jelks finally got to the top of the Frontier League last season.

Now he gets to start over.

After leading the Evansville (Ind.) Otters to the Frontier League championship in 2006, Jelks, 44, is taking the managerial reins of the expansion Slippery Rock Sliders this summer.

He spent five years as manager of Evansville and reached the league championship series three times in the past four years.

"I had been working there on a one-year contract every year," Jelks said. "After proving I could win consistently as a manager, I thought I deserved a raise.

"I went in and asked for a two-year contract plus a raise — and got fired. It floored me. At the time, they said they couldn't afford to pay me."

Jelks returned to Australia, where he had lived since 1992, when he moved there to play in and later to coach in the Australian Winter League, without a job.

"It was time to move on," he said. "I just didn't know where. Then (Frontier League commissioner) Bill Lee called and asked if I'd be interested in going to Slippery Rock."

Sliders general manager Steve Tahsler was the GM in Evansville during Jelks' tenure. Tahsler had already accepted the Sliders job by league request when Jelks was let go in Evansville.

"It turned into a big boost for us," Tahsler said. "Getting the manager of the defending league champion is a major plus. Greg is an experienced manager, and we've worked well together before. We've been on the same page here since day one.

"He trusted me to make some baseball decisions for the franchise while he was coaching in Australia. That helped keep us ahead of the game."

Jelks has been involved in professional baseball since signing as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies organization in 1980. He was an all-state basketball and baseball player at Centere High School in Alabama.

Averaging 27 points per game as a guard, he received basketball scholarship offers from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan State, UNLV and other prominent schools.

"But I wanted to play basketball and baseball in college, and no Division I school would allow a kid to do that," Jelks said.

He wound up going to Gadsden State Community College in Alabama, made all-conference as a freshman in basketball and tore cartilage in his knee 12 games into the baseball season.

Jelks missed the rest of the college baseball season, but he healed in time to play semi-pro baseball in his hometown that summer.

"My team reached the NBC national tournament in Wichita, Kan.," he said. "Major league scouts are all over that event every year. There's been 100 kids signed from that tournament. That's where the Phillies saw me and signed me."

Jelks spent nine years in the Phillies organization and produced power-hitting numbers as a third baseman. He hit 26 home runs during his first full season in Class A. He had 24 home runs by Aug. 1 for Class AAA Portland (Maine) in 1987 and was called up to the big league club Aug. 10.

He was with the Phillies for the remainder of the season, but appeared in only 10 games.

"I was playing behind Mike Schmidt," he said. "I wasn't gonna play much."

Hitting .400 during spring training in 1988, Jelks was assured he'd made the Phillies' 25-man roster. The club traded for veteran major league infielder Bill Almon before Opening Day, however, and Jelks was sent back to Triple-A.

"I hit .266 with 16 homers and got traded to St. Louis, where I was stuck behind Terry Pendleton," he said.

He played a year for Class AAA Louisville and was released.

"I got discouraged, sure," Jelks said. "If that Almon trade didn't happen, I'm probably still in the major leagues right now. Baseball is all about being in the right place at the right time, and I wasn't."

Jelks received an offer to play in the Italian League and did so for two years. He was league MVP in both seasons, hitting .350 with more than 20 homers both years.

After turning down an offer to play Class AA ball with the Chicago White Sox, he wound up playing eight years in the Australian League and became a dual citizen there in 1995.

"I was better than a Double-A ballplayer. That's why I didn't go back to the states," Jelks said.

During his playing years in Australia, Jelks won four batting titles and was league MVP three times. He won an Olympic bronze medal playing for Australia and later was on that country's gold medal-winning team that upset Cuba in the finals.

"The highlight of my career, for sure," he said.

Jelks retired as a player in 1999 and served as hitting coach for the Australian Olympic team. He returned to the states as a hitting coach for Duluth (Minn.) of the independent Northern League in 2001.

Duluth manager Ed Nottle lived in Evansville, which is how Jelks learned of the Frontier League managerial opening there.

After winning in Evansville, he vows to do the same in Slippery Rock.

"I'm not coming here to lose," he said. "We won in Evansville by playing small-ball, doing a lot of hit-and-run, bunting, getting runners on, moving them around and playing good defense.

"We have to build a team here. Our players aren't going to be as talented as what we had (in Evansville), but we can still play winning baseball."

Jelks will be the Frontier League's only manager in 2007 with major league playing experience.

<B>• 2002: </B>33-51 in rookie season as manager and was selected as a coach in Frontier League All-Star Game<B>• 2003: </B>51-37, guided Evansville to divisional playoff series win over Chillicothe (Ohio), lost to Gateway (Ill.) in league championship series; named East Division manager for All-Star Game and was named Frontier League Manager of the Year<B>• 2004: </B>54-42, guided Evansville to divisional playoff series win over Washington (Pa.), lost to Rockford (Ill.) in league championship series; selected as coach in Frontier League All-Star Game<B>• 2005: </B>52-43, selected as coach in Frontier League All-Star Game<B>• 2006: </B>46-50, guided Evansville to divisional playoff series win over Rockford and league championship series win over Chillicothe; selected as coach in Frontier League All-Star Game