Comments on: Card Corner: Dave Winfield

By: The Mick536

The Mick536 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:36:37 +0000

[9] I loved him and still do. He always played hard. Me, too, for the ring with Toronto. Bird killing and all. One hit in the Series and one seagull. Hard to top that stat.

He hated Steiney. “There are only two kinds of moves on the Yankees. The ones made because George is displeased and the ones made because he soon will be.” Steiney hated him, worse. As Dave said about the abuse he took from Steiney, “if you can’t trade him, slime him.”

By: vockins

vockins — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:07:54 +0000

Not clutch? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’re not Canadian, Bruce.

By: joejoejoe

joejoejoe — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:31:37 +0000

I think my first memory of Dave Winfield is from the 1979 All-Star game. I was ten years old. I was a Yankee fan and rarely saw NL games and didn’t know NL players outside the boxscores. I knew Dave Parker of the Pirates was a beast and here was Dave Winfield of the Padres (a joke of a team to me at the time) who was even bigger. And Winfield was playing center field in that game. Seeing such a huge guy cover so much ground made me really happy when the Yankees got him a few years later. Maybe Lupica wasn’t impressed by Winfield’s stats but I’ll always remember him scaling the wall in highlights and denting the blue cushions with line drives because he was hitting the ball so hard. In a lot of ways hitting the wall with a line drive that never goes higher than 30 feet is more impressive than a home run. Winfield was a great player and I was very happy to see him get a ring with Toronto.

By: The 13th

The 13th — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:25:34 +0000

I always liked him. I didn’t read the papers back then, so all I needed to know was that he was good and he was a Yankee.

The year that Jack Clark was a Yankee, I went to a baseball camp in NJ. Each week, they had someone from the Yankees or Mets come in to give pointers, etc, and the week I went we were supposed to get Al Leiter. On the first day of camp, the director told us that Al Leiter had just been sent back down to the minors so he wasn’t going to be coming in. Sighs of disappointment went around the room. Then the director continued… he was able to get for us, as Al Leiter’s replacement, Dave Winfield. You can only imagine the surprised jubilation which followed.

I now forget the details of what he talked to us about, but I did change the way I gripped the ball after he showed us how he did it. He also put on a hitting demonstration and almost took the head off of the counselor who was pitching to him. Then, at the end, we each got autographs and a picture in the dugout with him.

[6] He’s also right up there with Donnie and Rickey as my favorites from that time.

By: weeping for brunnhilde

weeping for brunnhilde — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:29:48 +0000

I loved Winfield. I even got a personalized recording from him once. My dad worked in the media and Winfield was in the office one day doing something about his foundation and my dad had him call me up to say hi. I wasn’t home(!) but he recorded a message for me: “This is Dave Winfield, why don’t you come on out and sit in left field and cheer us on, take care.”

I was probably 8 or 9 at the time so you can imagine my delight.

Also, what I still love about him to this day is that he hit .340 one year, hitting only 19 home runs, which to me indicates that changing one’s approach is not really so hard as it looks to see players today who don’t know how to cut down their swing with two strikes.

Winfield proved that talented athletes can, in fact, hit a baseball in more than one way.

By: knuckles

knuckles — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:28:04 +0000

Winfield, Donnie, and Rickey are still my 3 favorites ever. My neighbor was from Minnesota and his mom had gone to UM with Winfield. After hearing about him being drafted by 4 sports leagues, that was it. He was, to my eyes, the best athlete in the world, ever.
Plus, he killed a seagull in Toronto.

Heyward on the Braves reminds me a little of him, buildwise. Mayberry on the Phils, too, if he puts on a few pounds.

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:11:52 +0000

I agree with all of you; Winfield was not only my favorite Yankee, but my favorite player in the eighties, and I copied his style when I played ball (even throwing the bat!)

Perhaps the media gave him a hard time because he was, by Bruce’s description of the writers, a little, umm, “uppity”?

By: Jon DeRosa

Jon DeRosa — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:03:26 +0000

Winfield had some boring Topps cards. But 1983, 1986, and 1987 were also winners. The 87 one captures his height well. The 86 one has a nice shot if his swing finish.

Winfield’s Yankeedom coincided with my self-imposed ban on the Yankees, so I never warmed up to him either. Not his fault, just bad timing.

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:40:59 +0000

I loved Reggie and also Mattingly. At first, I didn’t warm up to Winfield because he was the new stud and so NOT Reggie. But eventually, I grew to really love him. That windmill swing, the vicious line drives, watching him run the bases, and mostly, mostly, playing the outfield, especially when he climbed the walls and robbed guys of homers.

By: rbj

rbj — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:11:22 +0000

I liked Winfield too. Never thought he was the problem with the 1980s Yankees. It was all the crappy players on the roster.

I liked Lupica in the 70s & 80s when he was writing for the Daily News. Then I saw him, years later, on the ESPN show The Sports Reporter. What an over-weening self important prick. I can’t remember anything he wrote back in the day, was he really bad then, too and I simply didn’t notice?

By: Just Fair

Just Fair — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:56:38 +0000

I liked Winfield. Can anyone think of someone today who has a similar look? He was so Modamn tall and thin. Man. And even though I did not pay a lick of attention to the 92 Serious, I was happy he played a role in helping the Jays win. Even though his numbers left a lot to be desired. And in my mind’s eye he threw a bat into the stands at least every game throughout the mid-80′s. : )