When Coleman was discharged from service at the end of 1945, he joined the San Antonio Missions of the Class AA Texas League. It took him a little while to get back into the swing of things but he finished the season with a .287 batting average and 51 RBIs. The 25-year-old outfielder joined the St. Louis Browns for 1947, masking his major league debut on April 22.
Coleman played 110 games that year and batted .259. He got off to a slow start in 1948 (batting just .172 in 17 games) and was traded by the Browns to the Philadelphia Athletics on June 4, where he hit .243 in 68 games.
Coleman returned to the minors for 1949, but after batting .295 with 23 home runs and 113 RBIs for the Buffalo Bisons of the Class AAA International League, he returned to the major leagues when he was dealt back to the Browns by the Athletics in December 1949. Coleman played 117 games with St. Louis in 1950 and batted .271 with eight home runs and 55 RBIs.
In 1951, Coleman was having his best season, batting .282 with 55 RBIs in 91 games when he was selected off waivers by the Chicago White Sox in July. Appearing in a further 51 games, Coleman hit .280 for the year and drove in a career-high 76 runs.
In 1952, aged 30, he failed to hit consistently for the White Sox (he batted .215 in 85 games) and found himself back with the Browns for the third time in his career, appearing in 20 games and batting just .196.
That marked the end of Coleman’s major league career although he continued to play in the minor leagues for a further four seasons with St. Paul, Fort Worth, Havana, Mayfield, Mobile, Birmingham and Omaha.
Ray Coleman, a retired bookkeeper, passed away in Norman, Oklahoma on September 19, 2010. He was 88 years old.
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