TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Evan Longoria will sign a one-day contract with Tampa Bay and officially retire as a Ray on June 7.
The greatest player in franchise history didn’t play last season after spending the 2023 season in Arizona but never officially retired.
Now he’ll do it with the team where he built his illustrious career.
“Evan Longoria’s place in Rays history is unmatched,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said in a statement. “Evan leaves the game as our all-time leader in nearly every major offensive category. He not only defined an era of Rays baseball — he helped put us on the map. His impact, both on and off the field, laid the foundation for our success, and it’s a privilege to celebrate his legacy.”
The third baseman was selected with the third overall pick in the 2006 draft and starred for the Rays from 2008-2017. He’s the team’s all-time leader in WAR (51.7), games played (1,435), home runs (261), RBIs (892), runs (780), extra-base hits (618) and walks (569).
He was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2008, a three-time All-Star and won Gold Glove Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2017. Longoria finished sixth in AL MVP voting in both 2010 and 2013 and won a Silver Slugger Award in 2009.
Longoria’s image was made into a statue placed outside of Gate 4 at Tropicana Field to depict his celebration of a walk-off home run in the 12th inning of the final regular-season game of 2011 that sent the Rays to the postseason.
He was traded to San Francisco in December 2017 and played five seasons for the Giants before finishing his career with the Diamondbacks.
The 39-year-old will be honored in a pregame ceremony at Steinbrenner Field before Tampa Bay’s game against the Marlins.
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FILE - Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria hits a RBI-double off Baltimore Orioles reliever Brad Brach during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Oct. 1, 2017, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius, File)
FILE - Sculptor Steven Dickey, right, and Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman, center, unveil a statue of former Rays third baseman Evan Longoria celebrating his 2011 home run that sent the Rays into the playoffs, during a ceremony outside Tropicana Field, Sept. 23, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
FILE - Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria hits a 12th-inning home run off New York Yankees relief pitcher Scott Proctor during a baseball game early Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Mourners are paying their respects to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel as his body lies in state Thursday at New York City Hall, an honor bestowed to a short list of political figures, including U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
The outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat died May 26 at a New York hospital. He was 94.
Rangel spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
His funeral takes place Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan. A wake was held Tuesday at a church in Harlem, the upper Manhattan neighborhood where Rangel, nicknamed the “Lion of Lenox Avenue,” was born and raised.
Rangel’s body arrived at City Hall on Wednesday, where there was a private evening viewing for his family in the landmark neoclassical building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan.
On Thursday morning, a small group of mourners quietly came to pay their respects in City Hall as the surrounding streets bustled with tourists and workers.
Rangel’s closed casket sat in the building’s marbled rotunda draped with an American flag. Uniformed police stood at rigid attention on either side of him, backed by the state and nation’s flags.
Mike Keogh, a 63-year-old lobbyist and former city council staffer, was among those who knew Rangel personally.
“He had the greatest voice in New York politics at the time. It was so rich and so full,” recalled Keogh. “It just made you feel really warm to be around him and to really hang on every word.”
Tina Marie grew up in Harlem and recalled Rangel as a part of the neighborhood’s famed Gang of Four— Black Harlemites who rose to the very top of city and state politics in the 1970s through the 1990s.
The others were David Dinkins, New York City’s first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state.
“I didn't get to make the other three people’s funerals so I wanted to come and pay my respects,” said Marie, who now works for the state education department steps from City Hall. “I didn’t agree with all the things they did, but they stood up for people who couldn’t stand up for themselves.”
Besides Presidents Lincoln and Grant, the others accorded the City Hall honors after death include statesman Henry Clay, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and Civil War generals Abner Doubleday and Joseph Hooker.
The last person to lie in state in City Hall was City Councilman James Davis, who was assassinated by a political opponent in the council’s chambers, located the floor above the rotunda, in 2003.
Doors opened for the public to pay their respects to Rangel at 9 a.m. Thursday.
The viewing will run until 5 p.m. and will be followed by an honor guard ceremony with pallbearers representing the 369th Regiment, an all-Black unit from World War I known as the Harlem Hellfighters.
Rangel’s funeral at St. Patrick’s on Friday will also be public and livestreamed.
The Korean War vet defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career.
Rangel went on to become the dean of the New York congressional delegation and the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2007.
He was censured in 2010 by his fellow House members -- the most serious punishment short of expulsion -- following an ethics scandal.
Rangel relinquished his post on the House’s main tax-writing committee, but continued to serve until his retirement in 2017, becoming one of the longest-serving members in the chamber’s history.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also a New York Democrat, lauded Rangel as a “patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice” when his death was announced last month.
American flag and New York State flag are lowered at half staff while the casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
People stand on the stairs to see the casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
The casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
The casket of former Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., lies in state in the rotunda of New York's City Hall, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
