Denard Span

Keiunta Denard Span (born February 27, 1984) is an American former professional baseball center fielder.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners.

Span batted and threw left-handed and at the height of his career was known as one of the premier leadoff hitters in baseball due to his exceptional on-base percentage.

Span was raised by his single mother, Wanda Wilson, in Tampa.

Wilson, a Federal City College graduate, supported Span and his brother, Ray, by working variously as a claims adjuster and day care operator.

Their father had very little presence in their lives.

As a teenager, he attended Tampa Bay Devil Rays games at Tropicana Field.

He attended Tampa Catholic High School where he played football and baseball.

Span won a state baseball championship with Tampa Catholic as a junior in 2001.

As a senior, he hit .490.

He committed to play college baseball at Florida.

According to Baseball America, he could have played college football as a wide receiver if he had not focused on baseball.

Span was selected by the Twins with the 20th overall pick 2002 Major League Baseball draft from Tampa Catholic.

Span turned down just over $2 million from the Colorado Rockies in a predraft deal (who instead drafted Jeff Francis with the eighth pick) and his fall to the 20th pick cost him around $800,000.

Following his selection, Span signed with the Twins on August 15, 2002 which caused him to miss all of the 2002 minor league season.

He became the 29th player since 1900 to accomplish this feat, the second Minnesota Twin (after Ken Landreaux in 1980), and the first player since Rafael Furcal performed the feat on April 21, 2002.

His night also included a single and five runs batted in.

Overall, Span hit .284/.357/.389 in his Minnesota career, with 254 walks and 321 strikeouts in 2354 at-bats and stole 90 bases in 118 attempts.

Adding his strong defense gives him an overall wins above replacement of 15.9.

He started his minor league career in 2003 at Elizabethton, the Twins rookie-league affiliate.

In 2004, Span was promoted first to the Gulf Coast League Twins in Fort Myers, Florida and, after only appearing in 5 games, for the Quad Cities of the Low Single A Midwest League.

In 2005, he was promoted to Fort Myers Miracle, the Twins Advanced A affiliate, and then to the New Britain Rock Cats, the Twins Double-A affiliate.

In 2006, Span returned to the Rock Cats, but was promoted Triple-A Rochester Red Wings in 2007.

Throughout the 2008 spring training, Span was competing with Carlos Gómez to be the Twins' starting center fielder, but ultimately lost out to Gomez and was outrighted to AAA.

However, on April 6, Michael Cuddyer was placed on the 15-day disabled list and Span was called up to make his Major League debut against the Kansas City Royals.

Span failed to impress the Twins (hitting .258/.324/.258) and was sent back down to AAA.

However, he got hot over the next 40 games in AAA (.340/.434/.481) and was recalled to the Twins where he spent the rest of 2008 season.

Span's 2008 season totals were .294/.387/.432 with 6 home runs, 47 RBI, and 7 triples in 93 games.

Span was chosen to play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics but because he had been promoted, he was forced to skip the Olympics.

In 2009, Span got the nod to start as a left fielder.

He also played center field and right field throughout the season.

His 2009 stats showed some improvement from 2008, hitting .311/.392/.415 with 8 home runs, 68 RBI, and 10 triples in 145 games.

He also stole bases 23 times while getting caught 10 times.

Span earned the odd distinction of becoming the player to hit both the first regular and post season hits at Yankee Stadium in 2009.

On March 13, 2010, Span made public a five-year deal worth $16.5 million with the Minnesota Twins that included an option for the 2015 season worth $9 million with a $500,000 buyout.

This contract effectively bought out all of Span's arbitration years but did not go beyond his available free agency.

On March 31, he unintentionally hit his mother, who was sitting in the stands, with a foul ball.

On April 2, Span collected the first hit (a triple) and the first home run in the Twins' new ballpark Target Field in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

On June 29, Span tied the modern-day Major League Baseball record by hitting three triples in one game against the Detroit Tigers in an 11-4 victory.

He also became the first ever player on the 7-Day Disabled List in 2012.