Rayford\'s professional baseball career began in 1975, when he was drafted as a catcher out of Manual Arts High School in the fourth round of the amateur draft by the California Angels. He spent the 1975 through 1979 seasons in the Angels\' minor league system, spending the 1979 season at the Triple-A level playing for the Salt Lake City Gulls. In his first Triple-A season, he batted .294 with 13 home runs while playing third base.\n', '

After playing one season for the Gulls, Rayford was traded, along with an undisclosed amount of money, from the Angels organization to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Larry Harlow. In 1980, Rayford made his major league debut for the Orioles; over the course of the season he played in 8 games for the Orioles while spending most of the year with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings. He spent the entire 1981 season with the Red Wings, during which he played on the losing side of the longest game in baseball history and caught the 31st inning of that game. In 1982, he returned to the Major League with the Orioles, but he hit only .132 in 34 games.\n', '

When Cal Ripken, Jr. began his streak of 2,632 consecutive games played in 1982, Rayford was the player who Ripken replaced in the lineup. Rayford had been given a day off in the second game of a doubleheader and Ripken started at third base in his place.\n', '

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