Royce Clayton

Royce Spencer Clayton (born January 2, 1970) is an American former Major League Baseball shortstop and appeared in the film Moneyball.[1] He is currently the head varsity baseball coach at Oaks Christian School.[2]

Royce Clayton
Shortstop
Born: (1970-01-02) January 2, 1970
Burbank, California
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 20, 1991, for the San Francisco Giants
Last MLB appearance
September 30, 2007, for the Boston Red Sox
MLB statistics
Batting average.258
Home runs110
Runs batted in723
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Early life

Clayton was born in Burbank, California to Antoinette and Royal Clayton. He played baseball at St. Bernard High School in Los Angeles and signed a letter of intent to play college baseball for the USC Trojans.[3]

Baseball career

San Francisco Giants

He was drafted out of St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey in the first round (15th pick overall) of the 1988 Major League Baseball draft by the San Francisco Giants, and made his major league debut for the Giants on September 20, 1991.[4] He played for the Giants for the first five seasons of his baseball career.

St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox

Clayton was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1995. In 1997, Clayton was selected to represent the St. Louis Cardinals at the 1997 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Clayton's first and only All-Star appearance.

Texas Rangers

Halfway through the 1998 season, Clayton was traded to the Texas Rangers. He hit a combined 28 home runs in 2 full seasons with Texas. In April 2000, Clayton had a heated confrontation in the clubhouse weight room with teammate Chad Curtis that nearly came to blows, after Curtis insisted on turning off rap music that Clayton was playing whose lyrics Curtis objected to.[5][6][7][8] He was traded to the Chicago White Sox that offseason.

2001-2007

Over the next 7 seasons, Clayton played for 8 different ball clubs, those being the Chicago White Sox (2001-2002), Milwaukee Brewers (2003), Colorado Rockies (2004), Arizona Diamondbacks (2005), Washington Nationals (2006), Cincinnati Reds (2006), Toronto Blue Jays (2007), and Boston Red Sox (2007). He won a ring in the 2007 World Series, playing 8 games with the Boston Red Sox.

Post-baseball career

Clayton was hired as the head varsity coach at Oaks Christian School on August 31, 2016 to oversee the high school and middle school baseball programs.

Film appearances

In the 2002 film The Rookie, Clayton is played by Jorge Sanchez in a brief appearance.[9] The 1999 time frame portrayed in the film shows Clayton playing for the Texas Rangers.

Clayton portrayed Miguel Tejada in the 2011 film Moneyball.[10]

Though Clayton doesn't appear at all in the movie, the 2001 supernatural horror film Thirteen Ghosts coincidentally has a character who is the ghost of a 1950s baseball player named Royce Clayton. It is unknown if Clayton is this character's namesake or inspiration.

Personal life

Clayton's older brother, Royal, Jr., was a star pitcher at UC Riverside and played ten seasons of minor league baseball.[3][11]

Between 1991 and 2007, Clayton was married to British Olympic sprinter Samantha Davies.

See also

References
  1. "Royce Clayton Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  2. "MLB All-Star Veteran leads OCS Baseball | oakschristian.org".
  3. Raatz, David (22 June 1990). "Ex-St. Bernard Star Is the Rolls-Royce of California League". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  4. "Royce Clayton Baseball Stats by Baseball Almanac".
  5. Hanlon, Greg (April 3, 2014). "Sins of the Preacher: How Chad Curtis went from hero to convict". SportsonEarth.com. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  6. Lee, Edward (February 9, 2005), "Sour notes in clubhouse. Baseball: The pre- and post-game tunes that soothe one player have been known to enrage another", The Baltimore Sun, retrieved May 29, 2017
  7. Krattenmaker, Tom (2010), Onward Christian Athletes: Turning Ballparks Into Pulpits and Players Into Preachers, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 184, ISBN 9780742562479
  8. Rogers, Phil (May 21, 2000), Rangers' Feud Tangled In Web, Clayton, Curtis At Odds Over Clubhouse Music, Chicago Tribune, retrieved May 29, 2017
  9. "Alumnus of the Month: Jorge Sanchez '87". Hofstra University. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
  10. Royce Clayton to play the role of Miguel Tejada in "Moneyball" movie
  11. "Royal Clayton Minor, Mexican & Independent Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
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