go longo

tomorrow, the tampa bay rays will retire number 3 in honor of evan longoria. that means i get to add a card to my retired numbers collection, and i've chosen longoria's 2018 topps card for the honors

longoria was the 2008 american league rookie of the year - the first roy in devil rays/rays history - and helped the club reach the postseason and the world series for the first time in their history that season. overall, in his 10 seasons with the club he won three gold gloves, two silver sluggers, and was a three-time all-star. he is all over the top of their offensive category franchise leader board, and was one of the first home-grown stars that the team developed and held on to for a lengthy period of time.

the club recognized his retirement last year with one of those "one day" contracts, but i believe that since they weren't playing games in their home stadium, they postponed the number retirement (and team hall of fame induction) to this year.

when i think of longoria, i think of the advertisement for new era hats that ran early in his career. it's probably one of my favorite baseball product commercials, right up there with "bo knows", "chicks dig the long ball", and some of those early sportscenter promos (in the immortal words of charlie steiner, "follow me....follow me to freedom!").