All-Star trip caps a happy return
Tampa Catholic's Denard Span gets a chance to shine again in front of family and friends tonight.
By BOB PUTNAM
Published June 18, 2005
There's a difference between loyalty to the home team - athletes imported to play for minor-league clubs - and the deep emotional bond fans share with the local legends they knew back when.
Denard Span is one of those players.
Aficionados of high school baseball in Hillsborough County watched him grow up and make play after play as an outfielder on Tampa Catholic's Class 3A state title team in 2002.
That year, Span was drafted in the first round, 20th overall, by the Minnesota Twins. Tonight he returns to the area where he first showed flashes of greatness.
Span, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound outfielder for the high Class A Fort Myers Miracle, was selected to play in the Florida State League All-Star Game at 7:35 at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater.
Span is one of two familiar faces who will be playing. The other is former Mitchell High star Tyler Clippard, a right-hander with the Tampa Yankees.
"It's great to be able to play in front of friends and family," said Span, 21, who leads the FSL with a .337 average and has 12 steals. "My parents were on vacation in Tennessee and cut the trip short so they can come back here for the game. I requested a lot of tickets, and I'm sure we'll have a big celebration afterward."
This is Span's second All-Star appearance. He represented the Twins' low Class A affiliate, Quad Cities of Davenport, Iowa, last season.
Quad Cities is a special place for minor-league baseball. Fans take joy in tracking a player's progress as if he were their own child and they were marking his height on the wall.
But that didn't stop Span from being homesick.
"I never played baseball in weather that cold," Span said of the first half of last season. "I'd wear a few sweaters and a few pairs of socks just to keep warm. I'd call home every day. My family's my biggest support group."
Span looked forward to last year's All-Star Game. His mother, Wanda Wilson, was going to make the trip to watch him play.
But Span's season was cut short before the game. He severly sprained his right hand and needed surgery. He was out six weeks, then came back to play in the rookie Gulf Coast League.
"My mom made the trip (to Iowa)," Span said. "But she was here to nurse me. She never got to see me play."
During his time away from the game, Span wondered if he made the right decision to turn pro.
Span, a talented high school receiver who planned to play football and baseball at the University of Florida, weighed money, education, preferences and more in deciding his future. He concluded a four-year scholarship paled in comparison with the six-figure carrot dangled in front of him.
He signed with the Twins.
"I think it's natural to wonder if you made the right decision," Span said. "I always think of what it might have been like if I decided to go to college. But I think I made the correct choice. I think being back home, playing in the All-Star Game, definitely helps."