Perhaps no draftee has ever had as much leverage as Dave Winfield when the Padres made the University of Minnesota two-way star the fourth overall pick in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft on this date — June 5 — in 1973.
The Atlanta Hawks had already selected him in the fifth round of the NBA’s draft and the Utah Stars of the ABA also made him a fifth-round pick.
Even the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings had drafted Winfield in the 17th round that January on a flier.
Chief among his requests of the Padres?
“I wanted to, first of all, go right to the major leagues,” the 68-year-old Winfield recalled this week.