Jay Payton

Payton with the Baltimore Orioles

Outfielder

Born: November 22, 1972 (age 44)
Zanesville, Ohio

Batted: Right

Threw: Right

MLB debut

September 1, 1998, for the New York Mets

Last MLB appearance

October 3, 2010, for the Colorado Rockies

MLB statistics

Batting average

.280

Home runs

119

Runs batted in

522

Teams

Jason Lee "Jay" Payton (born November 22, 1972) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He has played for the New York Mets (1998-2002), Colorado Rockies (2002-2003), San Diego Padres (2004), Boston Red Sox (2005), Oakland Athletics (2005-2006) Baltimore Orioles (2007-2008) and the Colorado Rockies in 2010. He batted and threw right-handed. Payton was an opposite-field hitter with some power. He had great speed as a runner, but did not steal many bases. Defensively, he was a solid outfielder with an above-average arm, and his quickness getting rid of the ball helped him hold baserunners on the base paths. He is currently serving as an in game analyst with ESPNU for college baseball.

Payton attended Zanesville High School in Zanesville, Ohio, and starred in soccer, basketball, and baseball. He was also an excellent student and graduated 4th in his class. While in Zanesville Payton played for the Junior Pioneers. After his Senior year he helped lead the Midland Redskins of Cincinnati to the Connie Mack World Series Title where he was named MVP of the tournament. That exposure helped lead to a full ride scholarship to Georgia Tech where he would team up with future Major League All Stars Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek to help lead Georgia Tech to their first ever World Series appearance in school history. The Yellow Jackets came up short losing to Oklahoma in the 1994 Championship game.

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Wikipedia