Tampa’s rich high school baseball history on full display at the Tampa Baseball Museum

Eighty-nine Major League Baseball players have come from the city’s high school diamonds

TAMPA, FL – Imagine Dwight Gooden pitching to Fred McGriff. Or how about Luis Gonzalez and Tino Martinez hitting back to back?

Those may seem like events straight out of a Major League Baseball All-Star game. They are not.

In Tampa, scenes like that have been, still are and probably always will be routine events. From Al Lopez to Wade Boggs to Pete Alonso, Tampa may may have the most prolific pipeline of sending high school players to the major leagues in the United States. Statistics of every major leaguer from all cities are not available.

But one thing is certain: According to the Tampa Baseball Museum, which is located in Lopez’s childhood home, Hillsborough County (which includes Tampa, Plant City and the unincorporated suburb of Brandon) has produced 89 players who have reached the major leagues. That number can increase at any time because there are dozens of players with Tampa ties floating around the minor leagues.

Eighty-nine former Tampa high school baseball players have gone on to play in the major leagues. The Tampa Baseball Museum proudly displays a signed baseball from all 89 of them / Photo courtesy of the Tampa Baseball Museum

"I remember going to conventions for the coaches and having coaches from elsewhere asking where we were getting all these kids from,'' said Jim Macluso, who has been the coach at Tampa's King High since 1976 and is the dean of Hillsborough County baseball coaches.

Saying it's something in the water would be cliche. Saying it's weather that allows baseball to be played year-round wouldn't be much better. There are other cities in Florida, Texas and Califorrnia that have similar climates but are not baseball factories.

To get to the root of why Tampa is such a big baseball hub, you need to speak with people that have been part of the game here for a long time.

“Baseball really is part of Tampa’s culture,’’ said John Crumbley, a 1978 Leto High graduate who played for the University of Tampa and has gone on to coach Jesuit High to two mythical national championships and three state championships and Steinbrenner High (named after former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner) to one state title just six years after starting the program.

Macaluso took his answer a few steps further.

“When I was growing up, baseball was THE thing,’’ Macaluso said. “I mean THE thing. We didn’t have the Buccaneers, Lightning, Rays or the University of South Florida. “All anybody talked about was high school baseball. If people talked about anything else, they talked about Little League and where those kids were going to end up going to high school. If you were born in Tampa, it was almost like somebody threw a baseball into your crib.’’

Macaluso and Crumbley are the latest on a list of Tampa baseball coaches that includes icons like of Billy Reed (Hillsborough High), Frank Permuy (Gaither) and Pop Cuesta (Jefferson).

When asked about his resume, Crumbley precedes the number of state championships with “the kids won’’ and the "I lost for the years his teams finished second in the state, years where his team was runner—up with “I lost.’’ In a similar fashion, Macaluso can’t tell you how many career wins he has, but he instantly can tick off the major leaguers – Tim Crews, Derek Bell and Calvin Pickering – he has coached.

Crumbley and Maculos have a point. Although Lopez, Lou Piniella, Tony La Russa and Kevin Cash have come out of Tampa high schools and gone on to become major league managers, the list of players from the Tampa area is far more impressive.

Tampa started off as a small town with a few cigar factories that were staffed by Cuban immigrants, who brought a passion for baseball.

Locals still can recite the accomplishments of Lopez because the man nicknamed “El Senor’’ remains the opening act in Tampa’s baseball history. He was born in the Ybor City section of Tampa in 1908 to parents who had immigrated from Spain.

It’s only fitting that Lopez started his high school career at Sacred Heart College, which later became Jesuit – one of Tampa’s traditional powerhouses. But Lopez didn’t graduate. Instead, he signed with the Class—D Tampa Smokers of the Florida State League and started on a path that led him to catching and managing in the major leagues and being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

While Lopez was playing in Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburgh and Cleveland and managing what used to be the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, high school baseball in Tampa prospered and it wasn’t just a Jesuit thing.

It all started with Al Lopez, a.k.a "El Senor," who matriculated from Tampa's Sacred Heart College High School (now Jesuit High School) to professional baseball. He would go on to a Hall of Fame playing career in the big leagues before managing for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. The Tampa Baseball Museum resides in Lopez's childhood home

Macaluso’s teams have been very good at times and Plant High, where Boggs played, has had some great years. It was the same story at Hillsborough (Gooden and Gary Sheffield) and Jefferson (Martinez, Gonzales and McGriff). In the 1970s and early ‘80s, Tampa Catholic had a dynasty, but Jesuit took over with Crumbley coaching the likes of future major-league outfielder Jason Michaels.

The number of public high schools has grown from 10 when Crumbley was in high school to 29. The annual Tony Saladino Tournament, which started off at one site with only the public schools invited, is now spread over four sites and includes the private schools. It is considered one of the nation’s top high school tournaments and draws scouts from every major league team.

High school football in Florida has grown through the decades and, with Tom Brady, the Buccaneers are a big deal far away from Tampa. But high school baseball always will have a place in Tampa’s culture.

“I go to lunch in Ybor City and West Tampa a lot,’’ Macaluso said. “You see and hear all the old-timers, guys in their 80s or 90s. They’re still talking about baseball.’’