On Saturday, Dave Winfield, who resides in Los Angeles, was in hometown St. Paul being honored with a life-size bronze statue at Toni Stone Field at the Dunning Sports Complex, where he played baseball as a youngster.

“An incredible honor, something I couldn’t have imagined growing up playing a game that I loved,” Winfield told the Pioneer Press on Friday.

“This represents not only what I’ve done in the past, but may be an inspiration for people going forward, that they can do it, too.”

It’s important to Winfield, 74, that his legacy is more than baseball success, but that he has been able to use it to help others.

“I was able to use my career in service,” he said.

Winfield’s service to others is referenced on a plaque on the statue.

“And,” he said, “that’s what it’s all about.”

On Sunday afternoon at the St. Paul InterContinental Hotel, Winfield will host his Winfield Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebration by honoring 20 student-athletes.

>> Winfield, the National Baseball Hall of Famer, is the first of five St. Paul baseball legends — fellow Hall of Famers Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Joe Mauer and Stone, the pioneering women’s baseball great — that will be honored with similar statues in coming years at the complex that will be named “Hall of Fame Plaza.”

Molitor, Morris and Mauer, representing the Twins, will be honored in the order of their elections to the hall, followed by Stone.

>>Saturday’s event wasn’t the first time Winfield has been honored with a statue. There is an eight-foot bronze sculpture of the former Gopher from St. Paul Central in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he starred in the nation’s top summer collegiate league. Playing for the Alaska Goldpanners in a championship season, Winfield blasted a home run measured at 500 feet.

It remains a legendary Grand Slam called the “Midnight Sun Moonshot.”

“Because up there the sun doesn’t go down,” Winfield said.

In his collegiate days, Winfield was primarily known for his pitching prowess. On Friday, he recalled the famous home run.

“I came in to pinch hit, bases loaded, the pitcher falls behind 3-0 in the count, and the other team’s manager walks halfway to the mound and yells to his pitcher, ‘Just throw the ball over the plate, he’s just a pitcher!’ ”

Winfield couldn’t help but overhear it.

“The next pitch, he laid it in there, and I hit the ball out of the stadium, across the street toward the curling club,” he said.

“I tell people the pitch came in high, and it left the stadium high,” Winfield said with a laugh. “After my experience in Alaska, the Gophers let me hit.”

>> The idea to honor Winfield with a statue in his hometown unfolded eight years ago with St. Paul’s Joe Gallagher, whose Doodle Productions produced the highly successful 2016 Ryder Cup opening ceremonies at Hazeltine National. When Dave St. Peter, the former Twins president and now team advisor, heard about the Winfield idea, he suggested statues for the five St. Paul icons would be appropriate for a Hall of Fame Plaza.

The statues are produced by a Provo, Utah, company at a cost of about $80,000 apiece and financed by Twin Cities businesses and admirers of the St. Paul luminaries. When Winfield played for the Twins (1993-94), he only wore a batting glove on his left hand and kept the other in a back pocket, which is among details included on his sculpture.

>> Saturday’s statue unveiling was also the filmed completion of a Winfield documentary produced over two years by former Yankees captain Derek Jeter’s entertainment company. And there’s a revealing biography for preorder called “Touching All the Bases, The Untold American Story of Dave Winfield.”

>> Molitor, a first-ballot Hall of Fame electee in 2004, went on to become the American League Manager of the Year with the Twins in 2017.

Last week, I suggested to Molitor that first-year Twins manager Derek Shelton, considering the player roster he inherited, at this juncture could be considered among candidates for American League manager of the year.

The season is long, but the Twins, after their historic player selloff last July, are 27-31 and have flirted for a time with a wild card playoff spot. Minnesota’s payroll ranks 26th of 30 major league teams.

“I’m a big Derek Shelton fan. I think he has done an incredible job given primarily that the bullpen actually has done a really good job without a lot of big names or one particular guy at the back end, and he has found a way to get it done,” Molitor said.

“The manager of the year award itself is a little bit fickle in that it usually tends to favor teams that surpass expectations. So far, the Twins are doing that.”

Molitor is a periodic Twins broadcast analyst.

“If the Twins turn into a potential playoff spot, even if it’s a wild card, Shelty absolutely would be a consideration.”

>> Shelton has a special fan in Twins limited partner Bob Pohlad, who one day in the manager’s office gifted him a bottle of Old Weller 107, a sought-after wheated bourbon that can be valued as much as $3,000 a bottle. Shelton is a collector of exotic bourbon whiskeys.

>> Bill Guerin didn’t hesitate when the Wild general manager was asked by the Pioneer Press after elimination in the playoffs if he, in his heart, feels he’ll be able to sign superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes to a contract extension this summer, despite the exorbitant cost.

“I’m confident we’ll be bringing him back,” Guerin said. “We have a great relationship. We trust each other. The biggest thing is he believes in what we’re doing.”

Wild star wing Kirill Kaprizov, 29, begins a $136 million, eight-year NHL-high $17 million per-year contract next season. It could cost the Wild nearly that much per season over seven years for Hughes, 26. A case can be made that Hughes is as valuable to the Wild as is Kaprizov at $17 million a year, which could make for an interesting negotiation.

Next season’s NHL salary cap is a record $104 million. Can Guerin afford both Kaprizov and Hughes?“Yeah,” he said. “You have to.”

>> By the way, people who know say that while negotiating his mega contract, Kaprizov rejected a $16 million per season offer.

>> Ex-Viking Sam Darnold of the Seattle Seahawks is the 14th-best quarterback in the NFL, while new Viking Kyle Murray is 30th and returning Viking J.J. McCarthy No. 37, according to new rankings from ex-QB Chris Simms’ “Unbuttoned.” Green Bay’s Jordan Love is No. 15, Pittsburgh’s Aaron Rodgers No. 26 and Las Vegas’ Kirk Cousins No. 34.

>> Guy to watch: Smooth fielding Cretin-Derham Hall third baseman Mason Lewandoski, who this spring was the first freshman in history to start for the school. Even Joe Mauer didn’t start for the Raiders as a freshman.

>> Monroe High Hall of Fame electees for June 28 inductions at DeGidios: Dave Bannie, Dave Cossetta, Vince Gillespie, Joe Maki, Bob Hughes, Dave Olsen and Wayne Splittstoesser.

>> Former Woodbury High basketball player and golfer Tim Bomgren, 38, is starting his 17th season as a Pro Beach Volleyball player.