Ray Durham (born November 30, 1971, in Charlotte, North Carolina), nicknamed The Sugarman, is a second baseman in Major League Baseball. A 2-time All-Star, he is one of the premier offensive catalysts in all of baseball, providing prototypical lead-off hitting with power. This 9-year major league veteran owns a .279 lifetime batting average with 888 runs, 293 2Bs, 62 3Bs, 120 HRs, 539 RBI and 232 stolen bases in 1,310 career games. Durham is currently tied for 12th with Brian Downing on the all-time list with 25 leadoff HRs and ranks 21st among active players with 232 stolen bases. Prior to an injury-riddled 2003 campaign, Durham posted at least 15 home runs with 100 runs, 20 steals, a .450 slugging percentage and 65 RBI in each of his previous 3 seasons, becoming just the 10th player in baseball history to accomplish such a feat. In fact, this list includes future and current Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez. Ray Durham was originally a 5th round pick by the Chicago White Sox in 1990. He left Chicago as the club's all-time leader in leadoff home runs (20), while ranking 5th in steals (219), 7th in doubles (249) and extra base hits (408) and 8th in runs (784). The San Francisco Giants is his third major league club, after the White Sox (1995-2002) and the Oakland Athletics (2002). Durham was traded during the 2002 season to Oakland from Chicago for RHP Jon Adkins.
He graduated from Harding (Charlotte, NC) High School in 1990, where he played baseball and football. He was on the state select baseball team and honorable mention All-America defensive back. He did not attend college as he began playing minor league baseball with the Gulf Coast White Sox.
