Two faces gaze down from the WANTED poster on the side of the Radatat Tattoo bus at Ray and McClintock. On the left is the face of a nice-looking young man with a pleasant expression, politely tipping his cowboy hat. On the right, perched above a jaunty bandana, is the face of a slightly perplexed but eager-to-please boxer.
Of the canine variety, that is, not the pugilistic.
And what is it for which these two desperadoes are WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE? Well, according to the poster, it’s “FOR GETTING CLIENTS KILLER DEALS.”
The human visage belongs to one Mike Felton.
Fans of Corona del Sol High School baseball, and devoted readers of Wrangler News, may remember Felton as a killer second baseman who set several records with his bat, and who went on to an All-American college career. But these days, he’s going to bat as a real estate agent for his family business, Exclusive Properties.
A Tempe native, Felton set the records at Corona del Sol for batting average, a staggering .498, hits, with 156, as well as doubles and RBIs with 99 of each, among other achievements. He was part of the school’s state championship team of 2009.
Felton went on to attend Southwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was a Division II All-American. Some of his accomplishments at SWOSU were, if anything, more impressive than his numbers at Corona.
In July of 2010 Wrangler News sportswriter Alex Zener noted that Felton had a .495 batting average, for instance, as well as a 35-game hitting streak thought to be a record at SWOSU, and that he led the team in RBIs and doubles, among other categories.
Felton missed his family and the Valley, however, and chose to come home after his freshman year at SWOSU. He played the 2011 season at Gateway Community College, where he was offensive player of the year, and was credited with helping the Geckos reach the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division II World Series for the first time.
Felton then decided to leave the Valley once again, this time to finish his college career at Campbell University in North Carolina, where fraternal pitching greats Gaylord and James Perry also played. Felton spent the 2012 and 2013 seasons at Campbell, during which time he was named a Division I All-American.
“I was the first All-American from Campbell,” Felton notes proudly, adding “Gaylord Perry went to Campbell, and he wasn’t an All-American.”
After all this high school and collegiate glory, however, Felton decided it was time to come home to the East Valley once again. After graduating from Campbell, he returned to Arizona to take his place in the family business of real estate.
While Exclusive Properties of Arizona, the real estate firm owned by Felton’s parents, is based in Scottsdale, Felton, who has had his real estate license for about a year, is focused on properties in his familiar stomping grounds. “I do my real estate out of Chandler,” he notes. Hence the WANTED poster he shares with boxer and lovable sidekick, Biggie.
Among Felton’s specialties is helping his fellow college athletes with their real estate needs. It’s work he professes to enjoy.
“For most people, buying a house is the biggest purchase they’ll ever make,” Felton observes. “I like to be a part of that.”
