COACHING CAREER
Named Rays bench coach on Oct 11, 2007...the Rays are 458-352 (.565) since then...served as a spring training coach for Rays Manager Joe Maddon in 2006 and 2007...filled in as first base coach the first three weeks of the 2007 regular season while George Hendrick recovered from knee surgery...he also oversees baserunning and bunting. Is the seventh bench coach in club history and the longest tenured, following Frank Howard (1998-99), Bill Russell (2000), Hal McRae (2001), Billy Hatcher (2001-02), John McLaren (2003-05) and Bill Evers (2006-07). Is the second former Tampa Bay player to join the Rays major league coaching staff...Wade Boggs served as hitting coach in 2001. Has made three trips to the postseason in his five years as a coach after making only one postseason appearance in 16 seasons as a player.
PLAYING CAREER
An original Devil Ray, he played 16 seasons in the majors with eight different teams from 1986-2001...was a career .276 hitter, playing in 1,919 games and collecting 1,599 hits. Played center field, right field and first base...also pitched in two games, reaching 87 mph the first time he threw for Montreal in 1990. Played with the Rays from 1998-2000, batting .272 in 261 games...was the starting right fielder in each of the Rays first three seasons...in the inaugural game on March 31, 1998 vs. DET he recorded the first hit in franchise history, a third-inning single off the first base bag against Justin Thompson. Was also the first Rays player to steal two bases in a game and the first to record an insidethe-park home run when he did it off Hideki Irabu on July 10, 1998 vs. NYY, 11 days before a hamstring injury ended his season. Rebounded to have his best season with the Rays in 1999...in 131 starts, he set career highs in at-bats (514), hits (146), doubles (25) and RBI (66) and led the team with 79 runs scored...was leading the majors in outfield assists the following year when he was traded to the Cubs for pitcher Mark Guthrie on May 12, 2000...was traded two more times that season-first to Texas, then to Toronto-making it three trades in a span of 83 days...is one of 10 players to have played for 4 MLB teams in one season. His last season in the majors came with Atlanta in 2001 and for the first time in his 16-year major league career, his team made it to the postseason...the last five games of his career were in the postseason after 1,919 games without. Was a teammate of Rays third base coach Tom Foley with the Expos, 1988-91. Prior to joining the Rays, batted .302 combined during three years with the White Sox...had a career-best 19-game hitting streak with the Sox in 1997...won the Carolina League batting title with Winston-Salem in 1985 when he batted .342.
PERSONAL
He and his wife, Lisa, have four children: David Joshua (23), Jagger Lee (19), Dalton Richard (18) and Angelica Kathleen (15). Jagger is a sophomore midfielder on the University of Tampa soccer team that went 10-6-1 last fall.
