KENNEBUNK -- In a long pitching career that started in Portland Little League One and culminated with a season as a reliever for the Boston Red Sox, Ed Phillips was always known for his pinpoint control.

"If I couldn't put the ball right there," Phillips said last week, holding his hands just more than a foot apart, "I would be in trouble."

"I never threw that hard in my career, but I could put the ball where I wanted. I pitched before radar guns, but if I ever hit 90 mph with a pitch, I would have been surprised."

As the pitching-first base coach for the Kennebunk American Legion baseball team, Phillips, 63, tells his pitchers you don't have to throw hard to be effective.

"The most important thing is to throw strikes. If I had a pitcher who could throw his breaking ball for strikes, I would tell him to throw it," he said.

Phillips was a tall, side-arming right-hander who pitched for the Red Sox in 1970. His made his major league debut in Yankee Stadium on April 9, 1970.

Phillips relieved in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. The batter, John Ellis, took a called strike on the first pitch and then popped out to first baseman George Scott on a low curve.

Phillips was soon sent back to Louisville, Ky., Boston's Triple-A club at the time, for three weeks and then returned to the Red Sox for the rest of the season.

Phillips, a standout pitcher for Deering High, Colby College and in the minor leagues, returned to Maine seven years ago after a divorce. He had lived in Kentucky and Illinois after his pro baseball career ended. Retired, Phillips, 63, now lives in Wells with his fiancee -- Barbara Page, a high school friend.

"She brought me back to Maine," he said.

Phillips got back into baseball as a coach with Kennebunk last summer.

Surprisingly, it was the first time he had ever coached, but the wealth of pitching knowledge was still there.

"I'm having a great time. The game hasn't changed," he said.

Kennebunk's pitchers have benefited from his expertise.

"Coach Phillips is very knowledgeable," said James Nutter, Kennebunk's top pitcher. "He's helped me a lot. He gives me tips on the importance of maintaining the same arm speed, how to pitch from a stretch and other valuable tips."

Nutter said it's pretty cool to have a former major leaguer as a pitching coach.

"He has some great stories," Nutter said.

One of Phillips' best friends on the 1970 Red Sox was fellow reliever Sparky Lyle. He also remembers having dinner on the road with future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski and pitcher Gary Peters and Yaz asking him what he could do to get out of an early-season slump.

"When I came back to the Red Sox after being in Louisville, Yaz was batting .300," Phillips said.

Phillips' opportunity to coach happened when Phillips and Kennebunk head coach Bob Nutter, also a former Deering standout, met at a Christmas party two years ago. Nutter, who played for the Rams from 1969 to 1971, watched Phillips pitch in high school as a kid.

"Someone came up to me at the party and asked, 'Do you know there's a former Red Sox pitcher here?' " Nutter said.

"I wondered who that might be and then I saw Eddie Phillips and knew right away. We got talking and I told him I was going to coach Kennebunk's Legion team and asked him if he would be interested in being the pitching coach. Ed has been a great addition."

While Phillips said the game hasn't changed, the times certainly have. When he was growing up in Portland, he remembers playing pickup baseball, football and basketball games with his friends. They would play for hours, and if they were any disputes -- which often there were -- they would settle them amongst themselves.

Looking out at the Kennebunk High baseball field, Phillips said: "They have this baseball field here and it seems to be hardly used. I wish more kids played on their own."

Phillips, a top three-sport athlete in high school (football and basketball being the others), had a 22-5 pitching record in three seasons at Deering.

He was 16-5 at Colby where he also played basketball. He signed with the Red Sox two days after graduating from college in 1966 for $9,000. His career is highlighted by having thrown no-hitters in Little League, Pony League (now Babe Ruth baseball), American Legion, college and 40 years ago last Saturday, a perfect game pitching for Winston-Salem, N.C., in the Class A Carolina League.

"I made it to the major leagues in 1970, but I was as good a pitcher in 1967," said Phillips, who was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

"I was very fortunate to have played for some great coaches and wonderful players. I was coached by Leroy Rand in Pony League, Freddy Harlow at Deering and John Winkin at Colby. I played with guys like Billy O'Flynn, Mort Soule and Paul Pendleton in high school."

At the time and for a few years afterward, Phillips was bothered by the fact his major league career lasted only one season. His statistical line in the Baseball Encyclopedia reads: 0-2 record, 18 games, 23.2 innings, 29 hits, 23 strikeouts, 14 runs and a 5.32 earned run average.

But through the years, Phillips has reconciled his brief major league career.

Of all the kids who pick up a bat and glove, only a tiny percentage make it to the big leagues.

Phillips was one who made it.

"I feel that if I was pitching today, I would have had a 15-year career," he said.