Carney Ray Lansford (born February 7, 1957 in San Jose, California) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball and was most recently the hitting coach of the San Francisco Giants. Lansford, who played for the California Angels (1978-80), Boston Red Sox (1981-82) and Oakland Athletics (1983-92), batted and threw right-handed.

[edit] Career

Originally drafted by the California Angels in the 3rd round of the 1975 Major League Baseball Draft, Lansford became the Angels' best rookie in 1978 and finished third in the overall AL Rookie of the Year vote. The Angels dealt Lansford to the Red Sox after the 1980 season. In 1981, he won the American League batting title in the strike-shortened season, becoming the league's first right-handed hitter to do so in 11 years. However, the emergence of Wade Boggs resulted in the Red Sox sending Lansford to Oakland^{[citation needed]} in a trade involving Tony Armas during the 1982 off-season. Lansford became the A's third baseman for their 1988 through 1992 dynasty, typically hitting second behind Rickey Henderson. Although his power numbers dropped off during those years, and he missed almost all the 1991 season, Lansford's speed, defense and solid hitting made him a significant contributor. He played in three World Series with the A's, losing in 1988, 1990 and winning in 1989.

In his 15-year career, Lansford was a .290 hitter with 151 home runs, 874 RBI, and 224 stolen bases in 1862 games.

[edit] Coaching career

Lansford was a hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. It was announced on October 14, 2009 that Lansford had been relieved of his duties. ^[1]

[edit] Personal

Lansford had a cameo role as Kit "Hit or Die" Kesey, the Chicago White Sox batter that Mel Clark (played by Tony Danza) retires for the final out in the Angels' pennant-winning game in the 1994 remake of Angels in the Outfield.

His son, Jared, was drafted by Oakland in the second round of the 2005 Amateur Draft. His other son, Josh, is a third baseman in the Chicago Cubs minor league system. His brother, Jody Lansford, spent nine seasons in the minor leagues, briefly breaking into the Big Leagues with the San Diego Padres, for whom he recorded 30 ABs in parts of two seasons, with one career home run.^[2]

According to his 1988 Topps baseball card, Lansford is a direct descendant of the British privateer Sir Francis Drake. However, this is extremely unlikely since Drake is not known to have fathered any children.^[3]

He played for the Briarwood Little League team, from Santa Clara, California, which made it to the finals of the 1969 Little League World Series. In the final game of the World Series on August 2, Carney's team was defeated 5-0 by the team from Taipei City, Taiwan. Carney is one of less than a dozen men who have played in both the Little League World Series and the MLB World Series.[1]

[edit] See also

• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of AL Silver Slugger Winners at Third Base
• List of Boston Red Sox awards
• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Baseball Library
• 1969 Little League World Series