The Circle Is Broken : Dave Winfield Looked Forward to Returning to San Diego as an All-Star, but, Denied That, He Relishes the Idea of Redemption in a World Series

TORONTO —  Each time he thought of playing in Tuesday’s All-Star game at San Diego, Dave Winfield smiled at the symmetry, the rightness. In returning to the city where he made his debut 20 seasons ago, his career would have come full circle without having come to a stop.

Then his fall from third place to fourth in the final week of voting--and Manager Tom Kelly’s decision to pick fellow Toronto outfielder Joe Carter instead--denied Winfield his sentimental journey to the city he called “my springboard to the rest of this career.”

Although undeniably disappointed, saying, “I earned a spot and I deserved to be there,” Winfield still is on course for another trip he has long sought--back to the World Series.

Long haunted by his one-for-22 performance in the only World Series he played in during 10 turbulent seasons with the New York Yankees, Winfield aches to get there again with the Blue Jays. Three months short of 41, he is helping carry them to a possible World Series berth that would be their first and probably his last.

Batting cleanup, Winfield is hitting .303 with 14 home runs--for a total of 420, 21st all-time--and 47 runs batted in. He has started 84 of Toronto’s 85 games, playing right field in 18 and designated hitter in 66, and has yet to go two games in a row without a hit.

“I’m probably having more fun than I’ve had at any time in my career because it’s like I can do what I want on the field, and I can say what needs to be said and guys will listen,” Winfield said.

“What I mean by doing what I want is that some guys come up and play the game by the book, and they don’t deviate and take chances. I’ll take a chance, and if I don’t succeed, I’m not worried about it because I’ve demonstrated that I’m trying to make things happen. You have to convey to the young guys not to be afraid to make a mistake. . . .

“You could always improve in a couple of places, but that’s why you take nothing for granted. You want people to stay healthy, and you want them to be motivated and you want them to know that in their career, whether their career is one more year or another decade, you’ve got to give it your all because you don’t know if you’re going to be around, and you don’t know what kind of team you’re going to play for. And if you have the desire to be a champion in this game, you don’t take any at-bat, any day, anything for granted. You don’t look back and say, ‘I would have, could have, should have.’ ”

His resurgence has the Angels wondering whether they did the right thing in buying out the last two years of his contract last October.

“I’d like to have him on our ballclub right now,” said Whitey Herzog, Angel senior vice president who believed he could either re-sign Winfield at $2 million per year for two years or sign free agent Bobby Bonilla.

Both options were missed, leaving the Angels punchless. Unwilling to sign for less to be the designated hitter, as Angel Manager Buck Rodgers envisioned him, Winfield signed a one-year, $2.3-million contract with Toronto in December.

“They were not really discussing it,” Winfield said of his dealings with the Angels. “I’ve been around a long time, and I’m a substantial player. There was no communication that something might be up.

“(Eventually) I looked at it as a positive. It allowed me to be a free agent again, and I can pick where I want to go. . . .

“I just looked at which teams had a chance of winning and me being able to do just what I’m doing here--play some days and DH some days--which allows me to play a lot of games. There aren’t a lot of guys who play 150 games. There aren’t too many young guys who do it, and I was doing it in the outfield at 38 and 39. I still feel I can contribute offensively and defensively. I grew up that way. I appreciate defense.”

The Angels were less sure he could be a productive right fielder.

“Buck thought he should DH and thought that was the reason he had such a poor second half,” Herzog said of Winfield, who hit .280 with 18 homers and 57 RBIs in the first half of the 1991 season but finished at .262 with a team-leading 28 homers and 86 RBIs.

“A lot of things help him here: The indoor stadium, being the DH and playing on a winning team. Buck said to me last year (Winfield) was only trying to hit home runs, that he was going for Hall of Fame numbers. Here, he’s back to being Dave Winfield, a team player. He’s a good player.

“I’ve seen him play for a long time, and he’s 40 years old and I’ve never seen him loaf. From first to third he could go as fast as anybody on our ballclub. I think he’s going to be all right. DHing, he won’t be as tired as last year.”

With enough time in right field to keep him feeling involved but not fatigued, Winfield is exceeding the Blue Jays’ expectations. Toronto’s designated hitters last season produced five homers and 56 RBIs, the lowest in the league.

“Looking at the year he had last year, we were just hoping he could repeat what he did,” said Cito Gaston, once Winfield’s Padre teammate and now his manager. “Even if he didn’t, he’d still be better than what we had. You don’t know what someone will lose from one year to the next as far as bat speed or overall speed, but we haven’t seen any of that.”

His success in Toronto couldn’t have happened without his two seasons with the Angels, seasons of physical and emotion regeneration.

Battered by his long feud with Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and weakened by a herniated disk in his back, Winfield welcomed the trade that sent him to the Angels for pitcher Mike Witt on May 11, 1990.

To the end, he and Steinbrenner were linked in a bizarre dance. After long deriding Winfield as “Mr. May” for his inability to carry the Yankees to the World Series, Steinbrenner tried to block the deal that parted them and offered the Angels their choice of other players.

While Winfield awaited the outcome, Steinbrenner was fined $200,000 by Commissioner Fay Vincent for tampering with the deal. It went through when the Angels extended Winfield’s contract, agreeing to pay him $3.2 million in 1991.

“California was the start of things changing for me, and here, it’s even better,” Winfield said. “The biggest thing is it was the first time I was released from a lot of nonsense and aggravation that was a trademark in New York. It’s only been the past three years that I’ve been able to come to the ballpark and play ball with a good bunch of guys. It’s helped my perspective of the game.

“The first, I guess 16, 17 years of this game weren’t really marked by what it could be like. Had I left (baseball) before I had the chance to play in California and here, I would have left the game with a different perspective, and it wouldn’t be all nice, because it was tough.

“There were good times and there were tough times in San Diego because the team didn’t play well. In New York, there were more of those tough times, also. Baseball’s kind of lightened up. You can just be open and enjoy coming to the park, and that’s happened for me just in the last couple of years.”

His recovery from the back operation was slow, but not emotionally painful.

“Early in my comeback, there were a couple of days when I didn’t play to (the level) where I knew I could and should have,” he said. “I really took it out on myself. I’m my worst critic, my harshest critic.

“Doug (Rader, then the Angels’ manager) caught me getting down on myself, criticizing myself, and told me, ‘Don’t do that. You’re a very, very good ballplayer’--things that helped. I remember I went home and told my wife that had never happened before, in my whole career, that a manager would do that. I really appreciated a lot of that . . . kind of support.”

It helped him accelerate to a 21-homer, 78-RBI season in 1990 that brought him the league’s comeback-player-of-the-year award.

“I know they’re struggling now, but the Angels were good to me,” Winfield said. “I was glad for the opportunity, the way they treated me. It was less aggravation (than New York) and a difference in intensity. Sometimes you need a change for a moment. All of it was healthy. They were saying, ‘We want you and we support you.’ I hadn’t heard that in a long time. It was a real shock to my system, I can tell you.”

Life with the Angels had its trade-offs, though. Winfield got a respite from the New York tabloids, but he never liked the sprawl of Orange County and missed the tempo of the urban life of the East Coast. Uncomfortable with the casual California style, he has rebuilt his wardrobe with silks and business suits.

“I’m even dressing better now,” he said, pointing to his locker.

Toronto is a good fit for Winfield at a good time in his life, a time when he can solidify his Hall of Fame hopes with a World Series title.

“I’m glad I’m in an environment where they like team play,” he said. “I’ve done it before but never talked much about how good it is. I haven’t had the chance in a long, long time. I’m glad I’m in an environment where they enjoy it, they appreciate it and they comment on it. That didn’t happen before.

“As for milestones, well, I’d like to play a few more years. Then we’ll see. We haven’t talked about next year, but I’m sure it will come up a little later. We’ll see if they want to keep the big man. . . .

“I’d like to win this thing and I’d like to do the team thing here. Individually, things just happen. We can win it all. This is an important part of my career, a fun part, because so much can happen. So much is happening.”