Dave Winfield

From Hoopedia

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." He played for 22 seasons and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Winfield grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents divorced when he was three years old, leaving him and his older brother, Stephen, to be raised by their mom, Arline, and a huge extended family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and mentors.

The Winfield brothers honed their athletic skills in St. Paul's Oxford playground, where coach Bill Petersen was one of the first to take the young Winfield under his wing. It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Winfield grew into the formidable 6'6" tower of power he would become.

He earned a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1969, 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 Ten 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.

He led Minnesota to the College World Series in 1973 as both an outfielder and pitcher, and won World Series MVP for his pitching performance. Upon graduating from Minnesota in 1973, Winfield was drafted by the San Diego Padres (MLB), the Atlanta Hawks (NBA), the Utah Stars (ABA), and the Minnesota Vikings (NFL), even though he did not play college football. Winfield picked baseball and the Padres, and began his professional career that very same year.