Carl Ray Stephens Jr. (born September 22, 1962) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

catcher who played for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

and Texas Rangers between 1990 and 1992. Born in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Stephens attended

Bradley Central High School Bradley Central High School is a public high school located in Cleveland, Tennessee that serves approximately 1,700 students from grades 9-12. It was founded in 1916, and is part of the Bradley County Schools system. The school maintains a cross ...

Cleveland, Tennessee Cleveland is the county seat of, and largest city in, Bradley County, Tennessee. The population was 47,356 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee (consisting of Bradle ...

. He attended

Troy State University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. It was one ...

and

Middle Georgia College Middle Georgia College (MGC) was a four-year state college unit of the University System of Georgia, United States. On January 8, 2013, it was consolidated with Macon State College into a new institution, which is now known as Middle Georgia Stat ...

. He threw and batted right-handed, was and weighed 190 pounds. Drafted by the Cardinals in the 6th round of the 1985 amateur draft, Stephens was not a very successful minor leaguer when it came to hitting-he had a career minor league average of .238-and in 1988 with Louisville, he batted only .189 in 115 games. Nevertheless, on September 20, 1990, at the age of 27, Stephens made his Major League debut. Even though he went 1 for 3 in his Major League debut with his first Major League hit being a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

, his career never quite panned out-he hit only .133 in his rookie year (his second of two hits that season was a double, though). His career average ended up being .171. In the field, he made zero errors over the course of his career for a 1.000 fielding percentage. Stephens played his final professional game on October 3, 1992, at the age of 29.

Other information

*He earned $100,000 in 1990 and $179,000 in 1992. *In 1990 and 1991, he wore the number 54. In 1992, he wore 24. *He currently resides in

Charleston, Tennessee Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The land now occupied by Charleston and Bradley County was home ...

. He currently volunteers as a coach for his alma mater, Bradley Central High School

External links

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Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Ray 1962 births Living people Arkansas Travelers players Baseball players from Houston Cleveland State Community College alumni Cleveland State Cougars baseball players Erie Cardinals players Louisville Redbirds players Major League Baseball catchers Oklahoma City 89ers players Savannah Cardinals players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players St. Louis Cardinals players Texas Rangers players Tigres de Aragua players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Troy Trojans baseball players Troy University alumni Middle Georgia Warriors baseball players