After four years in the Padres chain,the White Sox claimed him in the 1987 minor league draft. Never much of a hitter (his career minor league batting average was just .226),McCray proved effective by drawing walks (enough to pump his career on-base percentage up to .362) and stealing bases (as many as 91 in one season,with Charleston in 1986).
After making the majors with the White Sox in 1990,McCray was sent back down to the AAA Vancouver Canadians of the Pacific Coast League the following year. On May 27,1991,at Civic Stadium (now Providence Park) in Portland,Oregon,McCray chased after a fly ball hit by Portland's Chip Hale. McCray initially made the catch,but immediately turned to run right through a plywood fence in right field,just to the right of the 369-foot (112m) marker,which caused him to drop the ball. The play was shown repeatedly on newscasts across the country;a video clip of the play is now part of a blooper reel looped at the Baseball Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
McCray made it back up to the White Sox later that year,but was used almost exclusively as a pinch runner and backup outfielder.
After signing with the New York Mets in 1992,McCray was again relegated to pinch running until May 8 against the Dodgers in Shea Stadium,when he pinch-ran for Eddie Murray,stayed in the game as the right fielder and then batted in the ninth with two men on and the score tied at 3-3. Off reliever Tim Crews,McCray delivered a game-winning single in what was to be his only major league at-bat of 1992 (and the final one of his career). After appearing in two more games as a pinch runner,the Mets released McCray on June 8;after batting .242 in 61 games for the independent Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks of the Northern League in 1993,he retired as a player.
McCray played in 67 major league games but logged just fourteen at-bats (with three hits),while stealing nine bases in ten attempts.
On August 12,2006,McCray was honored in Portland with the "Rodney McCray Bobblehead Night",honoring his memorable crash through the wall.[3] McCray threw out the first pitch,and right-center field of PGE Park was renamed "McCray Alley" in his honor. "I just wish I had run through something like a Coca-Cola sign so I could have gotten endorsements," McCray said. "Instead,I ran through a local sign,`Flav-R-Pac meats.'"[This quote needs a citation]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
