On August 20th, 1986, Dave Winfield hit his 300th homer in a losing cause as the Yanks fell to Seattle, 5 – 2. 

It is difficult to imagine that there is any other small city in America that has turned out as many great baseball players as St. Paul, Minnesota. There are four St. Paul, Minnesota, natives in the Baseball Hall of Fame:

• Dave Winfield
• Paul Molitor
• Jack Morris
• Joe Mauer

Winfield is arguably the best of the bunch. He is definitely the best athlete. The 6-6, all-sport athlete was so good at the University of Minnesota that he was actually drafted by four different professional leagues: MLB, the NBA, the ABA, and the NFL.

Looking at Dave Winfield’s Baseball Reference page, you see why he is a Hall of Fame:

• 3,110 career base hits
• 465 career homers
• 12 All-Star Games

One of the things I have grown to appreciate about the Minnesota Twins Organization is that they always seem to find a way to bring hometown heroes home, at least for a season. Winfield (like Paul Molitor and Jack Morris) was brought to the Twins later in his career so he could play in front of the hometown crowd. Joe Mauer, of course, played his entire career for the Twins.

The current Twins have a big Minnesotan on their roster. Matt Wallner, who is 6-4, is not quite as big as Dave Winfield, but close. Wallner was born just a few miles north of St. Paul in Forest Lake, Minnesota.

If Wallner is able to have even half as good a career as Dave Winfield, he is going to make a lot of Twins fans very happy.