Tuesday, July 07

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ST. PETERSBURG -- R.J. Harrison was on the treadmill at the gym inside the Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown St. Petersburg on the morning of June 6, 2006, when he received a phone call that would alter the course of Tampa Bay baseball history.

On the other line was Bill Schmidt, the Rockies’ scouting director at the time. He was calling to tell Harrison, in his first year running the Draft for the then-Devil Rays, that Colorado had come to an agreement with Stanford right-hander Greg Reynolds.

Reynolds would be the second overall pick. Everyone knew the Royals were taking pitcher Luke Hochevar first. That meant Evan Longoria would be available to Tampa Bay at No. 3.

“It was one of my favorite phone calls I’ve ever gotten,” Harrison recalled. “We were in a pretty jovial mood when we went over to The Trop on Draft day in 2006.”

It should be a jovial scene at Tropicana Field this weekend, too. With the upper deck open for the first time in years, Longoria will be inducted into the Rays Hall of Fame on Saturday and have his No. 3 jersey officially retired on Sunday, part of the “Longo Legacy Weekend” festivities celebrating the franchise icon.

Both represent fitting final destinations for the greatest player in team history, who signed a ceremonial one-day contract to retire with the Rays last year. None of it would have been possible if not for the decision to select Longoria that momentous day 20 years ago.

It was an easy decision, in hindsight, but a lot went into it.

For starters, it was the club’s first Draft under the ownership of Stuart Sternberg. It was also the first Draft with a young Andrew Friedman running the baseball operations department. It was Harrison’s first year as Tampa Bay’s scouting director and Mitch Lukevics’ first as the team’s farm director.

And they all went into that Draft focused on pitching.

“There was really good pitching at the top half of the first round, and we were dead set we were going to add an arm to our young position player mix,” Friedman said during the Rays’ trip to Dodger Stadium last month. “As the spring went on, Longo just kept climbing the board.”

Longoria took an unusual path to stardom. Undrafted out of high school, he spent a year at Rio Hondo Community College before transferring to Long Beach State. He quickly became a top prospect, starring in the Cape Cod League in 2005, then continuing to shine during his junior season.

After scouting a tournament featuring Longoria’s Long Beach State squad, Harrison met with club officials and vouched for Longoria. He remained a priority for the scouting staff, which eventually narrowed down its list of targets for the third overall pick to four college pitchers and Longoria.

Harrison met with all of them, including Longoria. He and area scout Fred Repke -- who developed a close relationship with Longoria through the scouting process -- picked up the third baseman to meet over lunch. When they got to the restaurant, Harrison said, “I felt like I had known him for a long time.”

“It was just that easy. He was just that engaging,” added Harrison, who is now a senior adviser in scouting and baseball operations for the Rays. “We felt pretty comfortable with him, and I think he felt pretty comfortable with us.”

By the time the front office put together its Draft board, Longoria was firmly atop the list.

“A couple weeks before the Draft, we were all Longo,” Friedman said. “What are the chances he gets to [No.] 3?”

They knew the Royals were taking a pitcher, and it wound up being Hochevar. The question was Colorado.

At the time, the Rockies appeared to have their left side of the infield set for the foreseeable future. Third baseman Ian Stewart was the 10th overall pick in 2003, and they selected shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, Longoria’s Long Beach State teammate, seventh overall in ’05. Harrison got the sense from Schmidt that they were trying to lock down a college pitcher, but their success developing position players made Longoria a possibility.

“We were kind of on the edge of our seat, waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Harrison said.

A few nights before the Draft, Friedman said, he heard from Longoria’s agent, Paul Cohen, who noted Longoria was going to work out for the Rockies … at second base. If he looked good there, the thinking went, they might have taken him.

“‘Please, please don't be a good second baseman,’” Friedman recalled thinking, laughing. “Fortunately, he wasn't a good second baseman. They took Greg Reynolds, and we got Longo.” 

Longoria immediately agreed to a $3 million bonus and flew across the country to Tropicana Field. The day he signed, he dressed out with the Devil Rays and took pregame batting practice with the team.

As first impressions go, well …

“It wasn’t very good,” Harrison said, laughing. “He wasn’t ever a good BP guy.”

“All he did was just soft-serve balls over the second baseman's head. Now looking back, it was such a professional way to go about it,” added Friedman, who had different expectations at the time. “I'm like, 'Oh my God, did we get a lemon? That's what you do here?!'

“I was expecting him to back-leg stuff, try to climb up the back wall of the Trop -- and he's just serving balls over second base. So, in that moment, I was terrified.”

Of course, Longoria immediately and permanently assuaged any fears. He dominated the low Minors and reached Double-A in his professional debut season. He was a force in his first full season. And he arrived to stay in the Majors in 2008, winning American League Rookie of the Year as the cellar-dwelling Devil Rays transformed into the consistently contending Rays.

• Evan Longoria's top 10 moments

“We had a lot of other good players at that time,” Harrison said. “But his arrival and our ascension into being the organization that we've become over the last 20 years is no accident.”

He was the face of the franchise. A true professional. The author of the “Game 162” home run in 2011, the most unforgettable moment of one of the greatest days in baseball history. A leader, in every way.

No Ray will ever wear his number again, and what higher honor could there be for No. 3?

“The impact that he had on the field is pretty obvious,” Friedman said. “The impact he had on our culture, I think, is still paying dividends today.”

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