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David Mark Winfield (born October 3, 1951, in St. Paul, Minnesota) is a former Major League Baseball player. He was born on the day Bobby Thomson hit his pennant-winning home run for the New York Giants, known as "the shot heard 'round the world. more...

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" He played 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.

Youth and collegiate career

Winfield grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, earning a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota, where he starred in basketball and baseball for the Golden Gophers. His college basketball coach was a young Bill Musselman, who went on to serve as a head coach in the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association and would later refer to Winfield as the best rebounder he ever had. Winfield's 1972 Minnesota team won a Big 10 basketball championship, the school's first in 53 years. During the 1972 season, he also was involved in a brawl when Minnesota played Ohio State.

After hitting and pitching the Gophers to the College World Series in 1973, where as a pitcher he was named MVP, he was drafted by the San Diego Padres, the Minnesota Vikings as a tight end 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 (the other being Dave Logan) and the only man to be drafted by four leagues. In 1974, as a publicity stunt, the World Hockey Association assigned Winfield's rights to the Minnesota Fighting Saints, based out of St. Paul.

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. He proved up to the task, batting .277 in 56 games.

For the next several years, he was an All-Star 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.

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.

Read more at Wikipedia.org