Dave Winfield

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David Mark Winfield (born October 3, 1951 in St. Paul, Minnesota) was a Major League Baseball player for 22 seasons and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He played for the San Diego Padres, the New York Yankees, the California Angels, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Minnesota Twins, and the Cleveland Indians.

Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Dave Winfield

"-"

Inducted as a member of the San Diego Padres (31)

Year Inducted: 2001

First Year Elligible: 2001

Contents 1 Youth and collegiate career 2 San Diego Padres 3 New York Yankees 4 Later career and retirement 4.1 Toronto Blue Jays 4.2 1993-95 4.3 Hall of Fame 4.4 Other Awards 5 Additional information 6 Quotes 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Youth and collegiate career

Winfield grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, earning a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota, where he starred in both basketball and baseball for the Golden Gophers. His college basketball coach was a young Bill Musselman, who would go on to serve as a head coach in the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association. Winfield's 1972 Minnesota team won a Big 10 basketball championship, the school's first in 53 years.

After hitting and pitching the Gophers to the College World Series in 1973, he was drafted by the San Diego Padres, the Minnesota Vikings despite not playing college football, the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, and the Utah Stars of the ABA. He is one of only two men ever drafted in three different pro sports, and the only man to be drafted by four leagues.

[edit] San Diego Padres

Winfield chose baseball, and gained another distinction when the Padres promoted him directly to the majors. This is a rare move in modern baseball, making him one of a select few players since the origins of the amateur draft in 1965 to make the leap straight to Major League Baseball without playing in the minor leagues first. [1] But he proved up to the task, batting .277 in 56 games.

For the next several years, he was a good, but not great player in San Diego, gradually increasing his power and hits totals. He burst into stardom in 1979, when he batted .308 with 34 home runs and 118 RBI, then played one more season with the Padres before becoming a free agent.

[edit] New York Yankees

In 1981, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made headlines by signing Winfield to a 10-year, $23 million contract, making him the game's highest-paid player. Winfield was one of the best players in the game throughout the life of the contract, but soon had a falling out with Steinbrenner.

He helped the Yankees to the 1981 American League pennant, but then had a poor World Series, and the Yankees lost in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. A bitter Steinbrenner derided Winfield by saying "I got rid of Mr. October (Reggie Jackson) and got Mr. May." The Mr. May sobriquet lived with him for the rest of his career.

He went on to hit 37 home runs in a spectacular 1982 season and batted .340, second in the league to teammate Don Mattingly, in 1984. He drove in 744 runs between 1982 and 1988, won five Gold Glove Awards for his stellar outfield play and was named to the All-Star Game every season. On one occasion, Winfield hit a ball so hard that it carried out of Anaheim Stadium for a home run despite that fact that it was hit so low that California Angels shortstop Dick Schofield reportedly actually leaped up in an attempt to catch it.[2]

On August 4, 1983, Winfield, while warming up before the 5th inning of a game at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium, accidentally killed a seagull with a thrown ball. He doffed his cap in mock sorrow. Fans responded by hurling obscenties and improvised missiles. After the game, he was brought to the Ontario Provincial Police station on charges of cruelty to animals and was forced to post a $500 bond before being released. Quipped Yankees manager Billy Martin, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man." The charges were dropped the following day. For years afterward Winfield's appearances in Toronto were greeted with loud choruses of boos, but he later became a fan favorite. (A similar accident involving a bird happened to Randy Johnson during spring training in March 2001.)

In 1990, Steinbrenner was suspended from running the Yankees for two years because of his connections to a man named Howie Spira (a known gambler with mafia connections [3]), and a former personal assistant of Winfield's whom he'd paid $40,000 to find embarrassing information on Winfield. The year was no better than the year before for Winfield, who had sat out 1989 with a back injury. The next year, he was traded mid-season to the California Angels.

[edit] Later career and retirement

[edit] Toronto Blue Jays

Winfield was still a productive hitter after his 40th birthday. On December 19, 1991, he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as their designated hitter, and batted .290 with 26 homers and 108 RBI, during the 1992 season.

Winfield proved to be a lightning rod for the Blue Jays, providing leadership and experience as well as his potent bat. Winfield was a fan favourite, but also demanded fan participation. In August 1992 he made an impassioned plea to the fans during an interview for more crowd noise. The phrase "Winfield Wants Noise" became a popular slogan for the rest of the season, appearing on t-shirts, dolls, and signs.

The Blue Jays won the pennant, giving Winfield a shot at redemption for his previous late-season and post-season futility. In Game 6 of the World Series, he delivered with a game-winning two-run double in the 11th inning off Atlanta's Charlie Leibrandt to win the World Championship for Toronto.

[edit] 1993-95

[edit] Hall of Fame

Winfield retired in 1995 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, in his first year of eligibility. He chose to become the first player to choose to go into Cooperstown as a Padre -- a move that reportedly irked Steinbrenner so much, he tried to get the Hall of Fame to disallow Winfield's choice and induct him as a Yankee. Nonetheless, when he was inducted Winfield sounded a conciliatory note toward Steinbrenner:

He’s said he regrets a lot of things that happened. We’re fine now. Things have changed.

In 1999, Winfield ranked number 94 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

On July 4, 2006, Winfield was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in its inaugural class.

[edit] Other Awards

1977 - All Star

1978 - All Star

1978 - NL MVP (Voting Rank: # 10)

1979 - NL MVP (Voting Rank: # 3)

1979 - All-Star

1979 - NL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1980 - All-Star

1980 - NL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1981 - AL MVP (Voting Rank: # 7)

1981 - AL Silver Slugger Award (OF)

1981 - All Star

1982 - All Star

1982 - AL Silver Slugger Award (OF)

1982 - AL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1983 - All Star

1983 - AL MVP (Voting Rank: # 7)

1983 - AL Silver Slugger Award (OF)

1983 - AL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1984 - AL MVP (Voting Rank: # 8)

1984 - All Star

1984 - AL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1984 - AL Silver Slugger Award (OF)

1985 - AL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1985 - AL Silver Slugger Award (OF)

1985 - All Star

1986 - All Star

1987 - AL Golden Glove Award (OF)

1987 - All Star

1988 - All Star

1988 - AL MVP (Voting Rank: # 4)

1990 - Sporting News AL Comeback Player of the Year

1992 - Branch Rickey Award

1992 - AL Silver Slugger Award (DH)

1992 - AL MVP (Voting Rank: # 5)

1994 - Roberto Clemente Award

2001 - Elected to Hall of Fame (435 votes - 84.47%)

2006 - Elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame

[edit] Additional information

Winfield and his wife Tonya have 2 children, twins David and Arielle. He has an adult daughter, Shanel, by former flight attendant Sandra Renfro.

Winfield was born on the same day New York Giant outfielder Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" off Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca.

[edit] Quotes

• Now it's on to May, and you know about me and May. —after setting an American League record for RBI in April, 1988.

• I am truly sorry that a fowl of Canada is no longer with us. —to the press after being released following the 1983 bird-killing incident.

[edit] See also

• Players Never to Play Minor League Baseball

[edit] References

• Gross, Jane. (August 6, 1983). "Winfield Charges Will be Dropped". New York Times, p. 29.

[edit] External links

• Dave Winfield at the Internet Movie Database
• Dave Winfield at TV.com
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• David Winfield's Baseball Hall of Fame biography

Preceded by Jack Clark	National League Player of the Month June, 1978	Succeeded by Pete Rose
Preceded by Bert Blyleven	AL Comeback Player of the Year 1990	Succeeded by José Guzmán
Preceded by Jack Morris	Babe Ruth Award 1992	Succeeded by Paul Molitor