Dave Winfield

Winfield did well with the Angels, leading the team in runs batted in and batting .290. Sporting News named him "Comeback Player of the Year." In early 1992 he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent. In Game Six of the 1992 World Series, with the score tied 2-2, men on first and second and two outs, Winfield hit a double down the third base line, bringing two men home and helping Toronto to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves, Toronto's first ever World Series championship. Winfield told Sports Illustrated that if his career had ended before Toronto, he "wouldn't have been really happy" with what baseball had dealt him. "I would have had no fulfillment, no sense of equity, no fairness," he said. "I feel a whole lot better now about the way the things have turned out."

In 1993, Winfield signed with the Minnesota Twins, returning home for a time. There he achieved his 3,000th hit. He played forty-six games for the Cleveland Indians in 1995 but retired as a player the following year.

Winfield was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, his first year of eligibility for the honor. He chose to wear the San Diego Padres cap for his likeness on the enshrinement plaque. In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the major leagues, for making a career in baseball possible for African Americans. He also had a word for young people: "Life and baseball are littered with all kinds of obstacles and problems. You have to learn how to overcome them to be successful."

Dave Winfield remained a calm, focused player throughout his career, in spite of numerous scandals and difficulties. In 1991, with the Anaheim Angels, he had the first three-home run game of his career. Surprisingly free of injuries throughout his twenty-two seasons in baseball, he was the oldest player ever to have 100 runs in a season, at age forty-one, with the Toronto Blue Jays. In addition to his record-breaking playing, Winfield has been a generous and caring member of society and one who has passed on the gift of guidance in youth through the Winfield Foundation.