Weekend Buzz: Handing out midseason awards

Oh, it's Evan Longoria, one of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' top prospects.

And despite the crowd, cameras and smiles, this isn't a wedding. It's the Futures Game.

Hard to imagine now, but there actually was a time when the All-Stars pretty much pulled into town in the dead of the night, played one glorious game and then, poof, disappeared again. Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, all of them.

Ah, yes, those were the days before the Home Run Derby went steroidal and began lasting three hours, before the Futures Game, the Celebrity Softball Game, Cherry Pit-Spitting Contest, Stone-Skipping Contest ...

"My first game, in 1977, we played in Yankee Stadium and all you did was practice in private," Hall of Famer and 12-time All-Star Dave Winfield was saying on Sunday at AT&T Park, just before managing one of the Futures Game squads. "There was some media there, but that was it.

"Out of that, out of nothing going on, we went to San Diego the next year and I had my Foundation (the Dave Winfield Foundation) so it was a combination of things. I talked to the club, and I said, 'I'm going to have a big party. I want to open the gates and let people come in to watch our practice.'

"So we had a party in Mission Valley, for the Foundation kids and the entire city of San Diego, and 10,000 people came to watch (the National League) practice (on Monday, the day before the All-Star Game). We had some baseballs that really jumped, so we used them for batting practice. We were going into the upper deck of old Qualcomm Stadium, and the AL guys were standing there in awe," Winfield said.

At his party, Winfield says, they had 10 stars signing autographs for free, including commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Pete Rose and Phil Niekro.

The NL spanked the AL 7-3 that summer, by the way and, according to Winfield, "that effectively was the first open practice. Major League Baseball liked it, and we went to Seattle the next year, '79, and baseball opened practices, charged a few bucks and gave the money to charity. It started to roll from there."

Now, the only things missing are a Singles Hitting Contest (Ichiro Suzuki and Richie Sexson could go head-to-head), an Arguing With the Umpires event (hello, Bobby Cox) and a decent crop of celebrities in Sunday's game (Alyssa Milano? What, she's got some spare time between dating pitchers?).

So a day or so after Eva Longoria and NBA star Tony Parker married in France, Evan Longoria and a few dozen others stepped onto what they hope will be the first of many major league fields in what essentially amounts to baseball's version of the Detroit auto show, rolling out the new models you'll become accustomed to over the next several years for a sneak peek.

The list of those who have starred over the previous eight years is impressive -- Alfonso Soriano was the MVP of the first Futures Game (Boston, 1999), and Jose Reyes, Grady Sizemore and Aaron Hill have been MVPs since. Lance Berkman, C.C. Sabathia, Justin Morneau, David Wright ... a whole lot of All-Stars attended their first All-Star event as wide-eyed kids.

On Sunday at AT&T Park, Longoria probably was the most famous name around, for reasons having to do with legs that are not even his own.

"I get it all the time," the kid says.

And is he tired of it?

"Pretty much. I like her, but I never watch her show."

But part of the charm of the Futures Game is that, like others at his level, Longoria is at the stage where he may be tired of something, yet he's early enough in his career that he remains good-natured about tolerating it. This was only the third big league stadium in which Tampa Bay's first-round pick (third overall) in 2006 has ever hit. Tropicana Field (of course) and Fenway Park are the others.

"I'm trying to soak it all in during batting practice and on the field," Longoria says. "This is a nice place to hit. A lot of history."

Truth be told, he is absolutely no relation to the famous actress -- not even a fifth-cousin -- despite sharing a unique name. She's Mexican-American, while he's ...

"A mutt," Longoria says. "I'm Spanish. At least, that's my last name. But I actually don't have any idea about my heritage."

Apparently, what a difference a letter makes. Just like climbing through the minor league system, from Class A to Double-A and on up. In 87 games at Double-A Montgomery, Evan hit .301 with 18 homers and 67 RBI this year. He's expected to be promoted to Triple-A later this summer and, at his current pace, he may land with the Devil Rays sooner rather than later.