Everything S.F. fans should know about new 3-time All-Star
Evan Longoria, early in his career, was as well known for his “Desperate Housewives”-sounding name as his play.
The three-time All-Star third baseman is not related to Eva Longoria, but was heckled a lot about the nomenclature similarities; after his first All-Star appearance, the actress sent him a bottle of Champagne for doing the name proud and he responded by sending her several signed jerseys.
By now, Longoria is better known for his baseball exploits, which include three Gold Gloves, including this past season, and he’s regarded throughout the sport as an excellent leader and clubhouse presence.
“He’s one of my favorite all-time teammates,” longtime Rays reliever J.P. Howell said by phone
from Sacramento on Wednesday. “He’s one of the main reasons for that turnaround in 2008 in Tampa. Any team that has him will automatically be better. And he’s just a bluecollar guy, hits with his gloves off, great work ethic. The Giants just got dangerous.”
Longoria was not recruited by major college programs after graduating from St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower (Los Angeles County), and he played at Rio Hondo College for a year. After earning allstate notice there, he was offered a spot at baseball powerhouse Long Beach State and shifted to third base because the team’s incumbent shortstop was Troy Tulowitzki, a fivetime All-Star with Colorado and who now plays for Toronto. Longoria was the Big West Player of the Year in 2006 and the Rays made him the third overall pick in the draft that June. Just two years later, he made his big-league debut, made the All-Star Game that season and was named the American League Rookie of the Year, the sixth player ever to win the award unanimously.
In the postseason that year — the first ever for the Rays — Longoria became the first rookie to hit homers in his first two postseason at-bats. He also set the mark for the most homers by a rookie in a postseason series, with four.
He signed the first of his contracts that same season, a six-year deal worth $44 million that took him through arbitration. In 2012, Longoria signed a $100 million extension through 2022 with a team option for 2023.
This past season, Longoria became the second Tampa Bay player ever to hit for the cycle; he also has two three-homer games to his credit, the most in Rays history.
Former A’s catcher Stephen Vogt came up through the Rays’ minor-league system and played with Longoria in 2012.
“Everyone there looked up to him,” Vogt said. “He’s a model pro. We all wanted to be like Evan. I was fortunate enough to be his teammate in 2012 and able to watch him every day. I really learned how to play the game the right way. Adding a guy like Evan Longoria, they’re getting a Gold Glove-, MVP-caliber player who will really give them a lift, and give the guys in the middle of the order a lot of protection.”
Former Giants third baseman Matt Duffy has known Longoria since they took groundballs together at Long Beach State when Duffy was still in high school. They were teammates in Tampa Bay for 1½ seasons after the mid-2016 deal that brought Matt Moore to San Francisco.
“He’s right up there with Buster (Posey) as one of the most professional players I’ve played with,” Duffy said. “He’s a total-package player who’s going to fit in just fine over there once he gets his bearings and becomes comfortable in the new atmosphere.”
Longoria married former Playmate of the Month Jaime Edmondson in 2015; the couple have one daughter, Elle, who is 4, and a son, Nash, who is 3; Longoria watched Nash’s birth via FaceTime while playing in the Japan Series at the Tokyo Dome.
Longoria was the Rays’ 2014 and 2017 nominee for the Roberto Clemente award for community involvement, baseball achievement and character. Longoria and his wife work with numerous charities, including making donations of more than $1 million to the Rays Baseball Foundation, which supports education.
For the past five years, Longoria has been the spokesperson for Suncoast Credit Union’s “Reading with the Rays — Read Your Way to the Ballpark” program, an initiative to encourage students to continue reading during the summer. Since 2010, he has been an ambassador for Moffitt Cancer Center, the leading cancer-research and treatment facility in Florida. In addition, Longoria and his wife work with Pet Pal Animal Shelter in St. Petersburg, raising more than $100,000 for the no-kill, nonprofit organization. The family includes two rescue dogs, Tatum and Lucy.
In January, the Longorias donated $100,000 for renovations to Long Beach State’s baseball field, and in April, they provided $500,000 for a 26-foot-tall, aquatic-themed climbing exhibit at St. Petersburg’s Great Explorations Children’s Museum.