Dave Winfield

Lore & Background

David Mark Winfield was born on October 3, 1951, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the city's Rondo neighborhood. His parents divorced when he was three years old, leaving him and his older brother Stephen to be raised by their mother, Arline, and a large extended family. Winfield earned a full baseball scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1969, where he starred in baseball and basketball. His 1971–72 Minnesota team won a Big Ten Conference basketball championship.

During the 1972–73 basketball season, he was involved in a brawl when Ohio State played at Minnesota. Winfield also played college summer baseball for the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks for two seasons (1971–72) and was the MVP in 1972. In 1973, he was named All-American and voted MVP of the College World Series, as a pitcher. Following college, Winfield was drafted by four teams in three different sports in 1973.

The San Diego Padres selected him as a pitcher with the fourth overall pick in the MLB draft. Winfield was also drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 5th round of the NBA draft and by the Utah Stars in the 6th round of the ABA Draft. Though he never played college football, the Minnesota Vikings selected Winfield in the 17th round of the NFL draft. He is one of five players ever to be drafted by three professional sports (the others being George Carter, Noel Jenke, Mickey McCarty and Dave Logan) and one of three athletes, along with Carter and McCarty, to be drafted by four leagues.

Reader's Guide

Winfield chose baseball; the San Diego Padres selected him in the first round, with the fourth overall selection, of the 1973 MLB draft. Winfield signed with the Padres, who promoted him directly to the major leagues. Although he was a pitcher, the Padres wanted his powerful bat in the lineup and put him in right field. He batted .277 in 56 games for his first season.

The next three seasons saw gradual improvement: he had his first 20-HR season in 1974 while batting .265 in 145 games that had him play mostly in left field. The following year saw him shifted to right field, where he would play most of the next six seasons. By the time of his fourth season being over, his best average in the majors was .283 (1976). In 1977, he had his first All-Star season, batting .275 in 157 games with 25 home runs.

He would be an All-Star every year until 1988. In 1978, he was named team captain. That year, he finished 10th in MVP voting and had his first .300 season with a .308 year in 158 games. He had his first 100-RBI season the following year while batting .308 with a league-leading 118 RBIs to go with 24 intentional walks; he had his first season with more walks (85) than strikeouts (71).

He won a Gold Glove and finished 3rd in the MVP voting. In his final season with the Padres in 1980, he played in all 162 games for the only time and batted .276 to go with 20 home runs and a Gold Glove victory.