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...first team All-State, an honor of which the prestigious Long Beach State baseball program took notice. They offered the native of Downey, California a baseball scholarship.
Longoria grew as a baseball player under the tutelage of Long Beach State manager Mike Weathers, whom he credits, after his father and mother, as being one of the three most influential people on his baseball career.
“He taught me so much about the game of baseball that you just can’t learn from some coaches.”
During his first college season an opportunity arose. Standout shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (MLN FAB50 Baseball 2006 No. 32) suffered a hamate injury in his left hand. Longoria subbed 18 games at shortstop en route to an all-conference season in which he batted .320.
That led to a Cape Cod League invitation where he went on to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award after leading the circuit in home runs and RBI. His success in the summer league, where they play with wood bats, led to preseason draft hype prior to his junior season.
The buzz turned to a positively glowing hum when Longoria validated his growing stature in college ball by leading the Big West with a .603 slugging percentage and a .468 on-base percentage. Evan shared the 2006 Big West Player of the Year honors with Justin Turner.
Longoria felt fortunate to play in close proximity to his family and friends during the Visalia Oaks leg of his first season of professional baseball.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better first place to start playing and for this organization, too. It’s a great experience to have my family to be able to come out and watch me. My dad is here now. It’s good to have that because some of these guys, who come from the Midwest or the East Coast, don’t get that kind of treatment.”
He terrorized the California League with a 1.105 on-base plus slugging (OPS). Yet even with those killer numbers, Longoria hit the same wall in the daily grind that most college athletes meet when then join the professional ranks.
“The most challenging thing is making adjustments everyday because there are so many good players here.”
Later that day, Visalia manager Joe Szekely gave Longoria a much-
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