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DAVE WINFIELD
2001 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
During a 22-year major league career, Dave Winfield established himself as one of the finest all-around athletes to play the game. A ferocious right-handed line-drive hitter and run producer, the 6-foot 6-inch, 220-pound Winfield was sometimes known to intimidate opposing pitchers by swinging a sledgehammer in the on-deck circle. Yet, in his prime with the San Diego Padres and New York Yankees, he roamed the outfield with consummate skill and earned a reputation as one of the smartest, fiercest baserunners of his generation.
David Mark Winfield was born on October 3, 1951, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The younger of two boys, Winfield grew up in one of the poorer neighborhoods of St. Paul, learning to play baseball on local playgrounds. Winfield was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 amateur draft, but elected to attend the University of Minnesota on a baseball scholarship.
By his junior year, Winfield was a two-sport star, the best pitcher on the Gophers baseball team and a power forward for its Big Ten Champion basketball team. An injury to his pitching shoulder forced Winfield to work on his hitting. His senior year, Winfield starred as both pitcher and outfielder, batting .385 with 8 home runs and 33 RBI in 43 games. He led Minnesota to the semifinals of the College World Series and won the Series MVP award.
Following his four-year college career, Winfield was among the most highly regarded athletes in the country, with four teams in three different sports drafting him. The San Diego Padres selected him as an outfielder with the fourth overall pick in the June amateur draft (David Clyde, John Stearns, and Hall of Famer Robin Yount were drafted ahead of him), the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA and the Utah Stars of the ABA each drafted him, and even though he never played a down of college football, the Minnesota Vikings selected Winfield in the 17th round of the NFL draft. He remains the only athlete to be drafted in all three sports.
Winfield chose baseball. On June 19, 1973, just two weeks after being drafted, he was playing for the Padres, having made the rare jump from amateur baseball directly to the major leagues. Winfield quickly proved he could play at the big league level, finishing with 20 home runs and 75 RBI in 1974, his first full season with the Padres. Throughout the rest of the 1970s Winfield’s offensive production steadily improved, culminating in his 1979 season, when he batted .308 with 34 home runs and led the National League with 118 RBI. Other aspects of his game began to attract notice as well. His spectacular running catches and rocket arm in right field garnered him the first of his seven Gold Glove awards in 1979. Combining phenomenal instincts with surprising speed on the base paths, Winfield stole 20 or more bases five times during his first eight seasons. In 1977 he was selected to the first of 12 consecutive All-Star teams. But the moribund Padres franchise obscured Winfield’s achievements. In seven of his eight seasons with San Diego, the team finished with a losing record. In 1980 Winfield opted for free agency, signing a record-setting 10 year, $23 million contract with George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees.
Though the Yankees reached the post-season just once (1981) during his tenure with the club, Winfield’s accomplishments on the field were outstanding. He became the first Yankee to drive in 100 or more runs in five consecutive seasons (1982-1986) since Joe DiMaggio. In seven full seasons with the Bronx Bombers, Winfield averaged over 27 home runs per season, twice topping the 30-home run mark, and narrowly lost the 1984 American League batting title to teammate Don Mattingly (.343 to .340). His stellar play in left field also earned him four straight Gold Gloves (1982-1985).
In 1990, after he missed the entire 1989 season with a herniated disk, the Yankees traded Winfield to the California Angels. Two years later, playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, he enjoyed one of the best seasons by a 40-year-old in baseball history, batting .290 with 26 home runs and 108 RBI. Winfield got his second crack at the World Series that fall, and in the decisive sixth game delivered an 11th inning, two-out, two-run double off the Braves’ Charlie Leibrandt to bring Toronto its first championship.
Following the 1992 championship season Winfield signed with the Minnesota Twins, and on September 16, 1993, joined the 3,000 hit club by singling off Dennis Eckersley in front of his hometown fans. In 1995, following two years with the Twins, Winfield closed out his career with the Cleveland Indians. At his retirement ceremony, and in the wake of the 1994 strike, Winfield issued a stern warning to baseball. “You can’t trash the components of the game and disrespect the people who come to watch us play,” he said. “I want people to look at the game like I did, like my brother did, when we were kids. Every chance we got, we had a baseball in our hand ?
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