Dave Winfield (1951-), Major-League Baseball Hall of Famer (1973-1995), and One Of The Greatest Athletes In History

[Al Dente]

If we're going to start including people like Deion Sanders, then we need to include people like:

1) The only person ever drafted by 4 teams in 3 sports: MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the ABA.

2) College World Series Champion and College World Series MVP as a pitcher

3) Drafted as the #4 pick in the 1st Round by MLB

4) 12-Time MLB All-Star, 7-Time Gold Glove Award, and MLB Hall of Fame

5) The #17 pick by the NFL even though he didn't play college football

6) Big 10 Basketball Champion whom his coach called "the best rebounder he ever coached"

7) Drafted in the 5th Round of the NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks

8) Drafted in the 4th Round of the ABA Draft by the Utah Stars

Name that athlete!

Moses Malone?

[DonRocks]

Moses Malone?

I remember when I was in seventh grade, my *DAD*! (who was our Junior High School principal, much to my chagrin (PS - please sign the petition to rename White Oak's gym after Clayton Powell (Mr. Powell was the last person my father ever saw, other than my mother - the two couples (the Rockwells and the Powells) ran into each other having lunch at Bob's Big Boy, my dad had something of a medical "event" during lunch, and Mr. Powell drove him home after urging him to go to the ER and having my dad refuse ("I'm not going back to the hospital any more," my father said, after several years of going back-and-forth (he was a chain smoker who, remarkably, managed to quit several years before (and I'll always respect him for that), but the damage had been done)) - he passed away in his sleep later that night)) got John Lucas - who, incidentally, was an All-American *tennis player* and ACC Champion at #1 Singles, and who partnered with 1976 French Open Doubles Champion Fred McNair, who, incidentally, I played in our club championships in the mid 1990s, and was *beating*, before subsequently losing 7-5, 6-3 because I got nervous and was broken at 3-3 in the second set ("He who has a French Open Championship, is the one who does not fold," I said to his knowing chuckle after the match, although I did make him hurl his racket once after an ace). In the Bizarro, Parallel Universe, the 1976 French Open Singles Runner-Up, Harold Solomon, was a graduate of Springbrook High School. Lucas was not only the first pick in the 1976 NBA draft, but one of the best college tennis players in the country ANYWAY, I remember Danny Boses, a friend of mine, asked him (during the Q&A after his speech), "Do you think Maryland will get Moses Malone?" (I guess at this point it should be added that Pam Driesell graduated with me, and Lefty's family lived right across the street from Springbrook High School (a block away from Harold Solomon's house), so maybe it wasn't entirely my dad), and Lucas replied, after a little hedging, "Yes, I'm pretty confident we'll be getting Moses."

Moses Malone was one of only a handful of high school basketball players that generated buzz comparable to LeBron James (well, maybe not comparable - Bill Walton said on a *nationally televised game* that LeBron James "is the best high school player I've ever seen."). Moses Malone committed to attending the University of Maryland, but then decided to become one of the first players ever to jump straight to the pros. So, it was a great guess, but it wasn't Moses (preg_match(): Compilation failed: unmatched parentheses).

[Rovers2000]

As a Yankee's fan growing up in the 80's, it's someone I'm quite familiar with: Dave Winfield

[dgreen]

David Winfield.

---

Argh, Rovers2000 beat me by a few seconds.

[DonRocks]

Argh, Rovers2000 beat me by a few seconds.

You both get equal credit.

Dave Winfield, needless to say, is a very underrated athlete. You know what? I'm going to give him his own thread right now.

ESPN left him out in their "Sports Science" program, but they still included him in "The Best All-Around Athletes" as #3 behind Jim Brown and Jim Thorpe (nothing to be ashamed of there).

[darkstar965]

You both get equal credit.

Dave Winfield, needless to say, is a very underrated athlete. You know what? I'm going to give him his own thread right now.

I recognized the answer as Winfield as well but no credit for 2nd or 3rd here in this game.

Winfield was and is very underrated in my view also. Likely because his greatest years were with the Yankess when they didn't win. He was over shadowed some by other stars on the team and had a tense relationship with George Steinbrenner at times. He only finally got his World Championship later, in '92, with Toronto.

[The Hersch]

I saw Dave Winfield break his bat on a checked swing in a game at Memorial Stadium some time in the second half of the 1980s. No contact with the ball or anything else. The thing just snapped when he cut his swing short. I thought it was awesome.

[DonRocks]

I saw Dave Winfield break his bat on a checked swing in a game at Memorial Stadium some time in the second half of the 1980s. No contact with the ball or anything else. The thing just snapped when he cut his swing short. I thought it was awesome.

He accidentally killed a bird in mid-flight one day during warm-ups by throwing a ball.

[Kibbee Nayee]

He was dubbed "Mr. May" by George Steinbrenner, a not-so-subtle jab at his post-season performance, which was not as good as Reggie Jackson's (Mr. October).

Next question -- who was Howie Spira? The real answer is that he was the man who contributed greatly to the Yankees run of four out of six World Series titles from 1996 - 2001. Because of Steinbrenner's antics, using Howie Spira to gather dirt on Dave Winfield, Steinbrenner was banned from baseball for enough time to allow Gene Michael and company to assemble a champoinship team -- trade Roberto Kelly for Paul O'Neill, and allow Posada-Jeter-Rivera-Pettitte-Bernie to develop instead of trading them away for over-the-hill talent.

[darkstar965]

He accidentally killed a bird in mid-flight one day during warm-ups by throwing a ball.

I heard one of his taters once took down a small plane. Luckily noone was hurt.

[DaveO]

I heard one of his taters once took down a small plane. Luckily noone was hurt.

The real honest to goodness true story was that it was a home game and the plane was actually a very "early stage drone".  In those days the experimental drones were not pilotless but piloted by monkeys.

This particular monkey, Balthazar, by name, was brilliant and talented.  After absorbing the devastating Winfield shot to the wing and pint sized cockpit Balthazar managed to turn west, fly over the Hudson River and was able to put down the severely damaged test vehicle on an empty high school football field in Fort Lee, NJ.  As heroic a landing it was our courageous monkey was severely injured, along with being insanely aggravated at both Winfield and the Yankees.  Before passing the monkey, Balthazar, became a rabid Mets fan and a venal Yankee hater.

Hence the phrase:  Mets fans are monkeys.