Raymond Lewis Lankford was born on the 5th June 1967, in Los Angeles, California USA, and is a retired professional baseball player who is widely recognized for being the center fielder of Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this former professional athlete has accumulated so far? How rich Ray Lankford is? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Ray Lankford’s net worth, as of mid-2017, revolves around the sum if $20 million, primarily acquired through his professional baseball career which was active for almost 15 seasons, between 1990 and 2004.
Ray Lankford Net Worth $20 million
Although he was born in Los Angeles, Ray was raised in Modesto, California, where he attended Grace M. Davis High School, excelling not only at baseball but American Football too. Later he enrolled at Modesto Junior College, and despite becoming the college’s first ever running back who covered over a 1,000 yards in a single season, Ray opted for baseball. He was drafted as pick No. 9 in the third round (72nd overall) at the 1987 Major League Baseball draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. After signing a five-year contract worth $34 million, Ray proceed to minor leagues such as the Appalachian League, playing for the Cardinals, where he began to string successes together, and in his debut season was selected to the All-Star team. Ray continued to hone his batting skills through Florida Winter Instructional League as well as in Midwest and Texas Leagues before appearing in the pro big time. All these involvements provided the basis for Ray Lankford’s, currently rather impressive, net worth.
In August 1990 he debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals in MLB, and during his rookie season Ray established himself as a young, promising player. In 1991 he was already the league’s leader with 44 bases stolen, 15 triplets won and 83 runs scored. Later that season he managed to achieve “hitting for the cycle”, hitting a single, double and triple and scoring a home run in a single game, becoming the only member of the Cardinals to do so in the franchise’s history. All these ventures helped Ray Lankford to add a significant amount of money to his wealth.
By the end of 1992 season, he was already among the league’s best all-around outfielders. Due to his great plays, in 1997 he was selected for the All-Star game. Ray Lankford is the only player in 135-year-long St. Louis Cardinals’ history who managed to repeat the score of 20 stolen basis and 20 home runs five times, in 1992 as well as from 1995 to 1998 consecutively. Doubtlessly, all these accomplishments made a huge impact on the total size of Lankford’s net worth.
After spending the 2001/2002 season as a member of the San Diego Padres, Lankford skipped the entire season of 2003 in order to recover from an injury. In 2004 he returned to the Cardinals where he ended his professional baseball career in October 2004. He is still the only Cardinal who has 200 stolen bases as well as 200 home runs. During his 14-season-long MLB career, Ray Lankford scored 238 home runs, and averaged .272. It is certain that all these achievements massively contributed to Ray Lankford’s wealth in total.
When it comes to his personal life, Ray Lankford is married to Yolanda with whom he has welcomed two daughters.
