FARMINGTON – Jay Payton, a 12-year Major League Baseball veteran player who was a part of the 1991 Midland Redskins championship team in the Connie Mack World Series, has been chosen as an inductee in the CMWS Hall of Fame.
Payton, who grew up outside Cincinnati, attended Zanesville High School where he excelled in baseball, soccer and basketball. Following his senior season in high school, he was the Most Valuable Player in the 1991 Connie Mack World Series as Midland was capturing its fourth championship trophy.
“It’s a great feeling to be back here, remembering the guys I played for and the coaches, like Joe Hayden and Dave Evans who had such a big part of my early baseball career and really helped put me on the map,” Payton said shortly before induction ceremonies took place Monday at Ricketts Park.
Payton would play college baseball at Georgia Tech University, where he was teammates with fellow future MLB stars Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek. That trio lead the Yellow Jackets to their first ever NCAA Men’s College World Series appearance, losing to Oklahoma in 1994.
In 1992 and 1993, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he teamed up with Garciaparra in 1993 to lead Orleans to the league championship.
“Those were really special times. I was a small town kid coming out of Ohio and Garciaparra and Varitek were pretty heralded prospects coming out of high school,” Payton said. “In college, I got to learn a lot from them and we ended up being a really high caliber baseball team.”
Payton was drafted by the New York Mets with the 29th pick in the first round of the 1994 MLB June Amateur Draft. After several seasons in the minor leagues, Payton made his official MLB debut for the Mets on Sept. 1, 1998 against the San Diego Padres, in which he recorded a pair of base hits.
Payton played for the Mets, as well as the Colorado Rockies, Padres, Boston Red Sox, Oakland A’s and finally, again, for the Rockies, where he played his last game in MLB on Oct. 3, 2010 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Payton retired with a career batting average of .279, with 119 home runs and 522 runs batted in. Among his notable career achievements came in the 2000 World Series as a starting center fielder for the Mets. Facing their crosstown rival Yankees, Payton hit a dramatic 3-run home run off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning, one of only two home runs Rivera ever gave up in his Hall of Fame career.
“It was a good, fun ride,” Payton recalled of his time in MLB. “I wasn’t able to ever get back to a World Series, but it all goes by so fast. It was a good, fun ride and it was good to enjoy it while I could.”
Despite spending a great deal of time dealing with injuries in the later years of his career, Payton managed a strong .987 fielding percentage playing at all three outfield positions. In 21 postseason games, Payton recorded a .253 batting average with nine runs, three home runs and 10 runs batted in.
During a stint with the A’s in 2005 and 2006, Payton hit a home run in his first at bat with the team in a 7-2 win over the Texas Rangers. In 2006, Payton played regularly in the outfield while batting .296 with 10 home runs and 59 RBIs in 142 games. On July 3, 2006, Payton recorded the 100th home run of his career in a 5-3 win over the Detroit Tigers.
Payton says the way athletes condition themselves and how they physically prepare for the sport has changed dramatically since his days playing the sport at a professional level.
“All the information is out there about how to stay conditioned. When I was out there, there wasn’t nearly as much information about conditioning and taking care of your body,” Payton said. “Now these kids have everything at their fingertips and there’s so much great instruction and coaching out there. These kids are bigger and faster and stronger than I was at their age and they’ve advanced so much at an earlier age.”
Payton joins former MLB umpire Mike Everitt as the latest members of the Connie Mack World Series Hall of Fame, joining more than a dozen inductees including the likes of former CMWS stars like Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey, Jr., as well as local stars from the series like Duane Ward and Mike Dunn.
For more information about the Connie Mack World Series, visit the official tournament website at CMWS.org.
