David Winfield

David Mark Winfield (born October 3, 1951) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder. He is the special assistant to the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Over his 22-year career, he played for six teams: the San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, and Cleveland Indians. He had the winning h...

David Mark Winfield (born October 3, 1951) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder. He is the special assistant to the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Over his 22-year career, he played for six teams: the San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Minnesota Twins, and Cleveland Indians. He had the winning hit in the 1992 World Series with the Blue Jays over the Atlanta Braves. Winfield is a 12-time MLB All-Star, a seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, and a six-time Silver Slugger Award winner. The Padres retired Winfield's No. 31 in his honor. He also wore No. 31 while playing for the Yankees and Indians and wore No. 32 with the Angels, Blue Jays and Twins. In 2004, ESPN named him the third-best all-around athlete of all time in any sport. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility, and was an inaugural inductee into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Early life 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 of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. The Winfield brothers honed their athletic skills in Saint Paul's Oxford Field, where coach Bill Peterson was one of the first to notice Winfield. Winfield did not reach his full height of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) until his senior year at Saint Paul Central High School. College career Winfield earned a full baseball scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1969, where he starred in baseball and basketball for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Winfield's 1971–72 Minnesota team won a Big Ten Conference basketball championship, the school's first outright championship in 53 years. 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. Professional career San Diego Padres (1973–1980) 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, where he could still use his powerful arm. 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). Over the next several years, he developed into an All-Star player in San Diego, gradually increasing his ability to hit for both power and average. In 1977, he had his first All-Star season, doing so while 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. New York Yankees (1981–1990) In December 1980, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner made Winfield the game's highest-paid player by signing him to a ten-year, $23 million contract (equivalent to $89.9 million in 2025). Steinbrenner mistakenly thought he was signing Winfield for $16 million, unaware of the meaning of a cost-of-living clause in the contract, a misunderstanding that led to an infamous public feud. The $2.3 million annual average value of the contract set a record. He more than doubled the previous record set when Nolan Ryan signed with the Houston Astros in 1979. Winfield was among the highest-rated players in the game throughout his Yankee contract. He was a key factor in leading the Yankees to the 1981 American League pennant. In the 1981 American League Division Series, Winfield batted .350 with two doubles and a triple and made some important defensive plays helping the Yankees to victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately, Winfield had a sub-par World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. After getting his only series hit, Winfield jokingly asked for the ball. Steinbrenner did not find this humorous, and criticized Winfield at the end of the series. Many commentators have since noted that Winfield's postseason doldrums were somewhat overstated when compared to those of his teammates. Four of his seven hits came in games won by the Yankees. The team's offense for the most part was inconsistent, and they were also set back by key injuries to Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles, who each only played three games with one combined RBI (the same as Winfield). Winfield did not let Steinbrenner's comments affect his play. He hit 37 home runs during the 1982 season. On August 4, 1983, Winfield killed a seagull by throwing a ball while warming up before the fifth inning of a game at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. Fans responded by hurling obscenities and objects onto the field. After the game, he was brought to a nearby Metropolitan Toronto Police station and charged with cruelty to animals. He was released after posting a $500 bond. Yankee manager Billy Martin quipped, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man all season." Charges were dropped the following day. As Winfield missed the Yankees team bus to Hamilton that night to catch their flight home, he was driven to Hamilton personally by Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick. In the offseason, Winfield returned to Toronto and donated two paintings for an Easter Seals auction, which raised over $60,000. For years afterward, Winfield's appearances in Toronto were greeted by fans standing and flapping their arms. From 1981 through 1984, Winfield was the most effective run producer in MLB. In 1984, he and teammate Don Mattingly were in a race for the batting title in which Mattingly won out by .003 points on the last day of the season; Winfield finished with a .340 average. In the last few weeks of the race, it became obvious to most observers that the fans were partial to Mattingly. Winfield took this in stride, noting that a similar thing happened in 1961 when Mantle and Maris competed for the single season home run record. In 1985, Steinbrenner derided Winfield by saying to The New York Times writer Murray Chass, "Where is Reggie Jackson? We need a Mr. October or a Mr. September. Winfield is Mr. May." This criticism has become somewhat of an anachronism as many cite the statement to Steinbrenner after the 1981 World Series. Winfield was struggling while the Yankees eventually lost the division title to Toronto on the second to last day of the season. The "Mr. May" sobriquet lived with Winfield until he won the 1992 World Series with Toronto. Throughout the late 1980s, Steinbrenner regularly leaked derogatory and fictitious stories about Winfield to the press. He also forced Yankee managers to move him down in the batting order and bench him. Steinbrenner frequently tried to trade him, but Winfield's status as a 10-and-5 player (10 years in the majors, five years with a single team) meant he could not be traded without his consent. Winfield continued to put up excellent numbers with the Yankees, driving in 744 runs between 1982 and 1988, and was selected to play in the All-Star Game every season. Winfield won five (of his seven) Gold Glove Awards for his stellar outfield play as a Yankee. In 1989, Winfield missed the entire season due to a back injury. 1990 was the last year of his contract with the Yankees, but the troubles with Steinbrenner in his feud with Winfield continued to escalate. He had a rusty spring training before being relegated from the field to being the designated hitter. Further troubles led to being just the DH against left-handed pitchers. On May 11, manager Bucky Dent and general manager Pete Peterson met in a room with the intent of stating a trade of Winfield for Mike Witt of the California Angels. Winfield stepped in the room and stated his refusal to be traded; the argument over whether his 10-and-5 rights overrode his list of having the Angels on his trade list failed to meet at an impasse when Angels owner Gene Autry came in with a three-year extension. He proceeded to hit 19 home runs in 112 games for the Angels in the remainder of the 1990 season. As for Steinbrenner, he attempted to curry favor by stating to Winfield that he would welcome back Winfield openly if he had won the arbitration case; by this point in the month of May, he was already under investigation by commissioner Fay Vincent for his apparent connections to Howard Spira, a known gambler with supposed Mafia connections, whom he had paid $40,000 for embarrassing information on Winfield. A month later, the team received a fine that required them to pay money to the league and the Angels for tampering and Steinbrenner soon received a lifetime ban. However, the suspension lasted only two years. California Angels (1990–1991) Winfield was traded for Mike Witt during the 1990 season and won The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award. He hit for the cycle in June 1991 against the Kansas City Royals, hitting 5-for-5 in the game. He also recorded his 400th home run against the Twins in his hometown. Toronto Blue Jays (1992) 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 also made "Winfieldian" plays when he periodically took his familiar position in right field. He batted .290 with 26 home runs 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 favorite and also demanded fan participation. In August, he made an impassioned plea to the reserved 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, buttons, and signs. The Blue Jays won the pennant, giving Winfield a chance at redemption for his previous post-season futility. In Game 6 of the World Series, he became "Mr. Jay" as he delivered the game-winning two-run double in the 11th inning off Atlanta's Charlie Leibrandt to win the World Series Championship for Toronto. At 41 years of age, Winfield became the third-oldest player to hit an extra base hit in the World Series,