When Eva Longoria sent Evan Longoria a bottle of champagne
Today, at George M. Steinbrenner Field, makeshift home of the nomadic Tampa Bay Rays, the greatest player in franchise history will retire after signing a symbolic one-day contract with the team he helped revolutionise.
Evan Longoria, the sterling third baseman who epitomised the Rays’ late-2000s ascent from chronic irrelevance to pennant-winning excellence, will be honoured in a pre-game ceremony before officially hanging up his cleats.
When I think ‘Rays,’ Longoria is the first guy who springs to mind. He debuted emphatically in 2008, during the peak of my childhood baseball infatuation, and was one of the first stars whose entire career unfurled before me.
A three-time All-Star who won three Gold Gloves and received down-ballot MVP votes in six different Tampa seasons, Longoria is the Rays’ franchise leader in games played, home runs, RBI, doubles, runs scored and WAR.
I’m pleased to see him honoured, and I hope the Rays retire his uniform number, although that may wait for a refurbished Tropicana Field next year.
Apropos Evan Longoria Day, then, I want to share my favourite Longo story: the time his Hollywood namesake, Eva Longoria, sent him a bottle of champagne as part-gift and party-apology. This, after all, is the kind of sports-pop culture arcana that gets me out of bed in the morning, so let’s dive in.
First, a contextual primer, for the uninitiated. Evan Longoria, the baseball player, was born on 7 October 1985, in California. Eva Longoria, the actress, was born on 15 March 1975, in Texas. The pair are not related, though they do share Mexican-American heritage. (1)
Building off cameos in Beverley Hills, 90210 and General Hospital, Eva Longoria received her big break playing Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives, which debuted in 2004 and crossed into mainstream ubiquity soon thereafter. Eva was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2006, and eventually became an all-around celebrity – modelling, endorsing products, and launching her own clothing line. (2)
Therefore, as Evan Longoria emerged as a top collegiate baseball prospect, he did so in the shadows of a household star with a very similar name. As early as 2004, while playing at Long Beach State, the budding baseball phenom was teased about the likeness. “I get ragged on it a lot, but I don’t mind,” Evan told reporters. “My friends and I think she’s hot.” (3)
Naturally, baseball fans were quick to adopt ‘Eva’ as a humorous taunt of derision. Indeed, even while burnishing his credentials as a consensus top choice approaching the 2006 MLB draft, Evan could not escape Wisteria Lane. “Finalist for Golden Spikes award,” wrote Marc Topkin of the St Petersburg Times. “Power bat with ability to move quickly to majors…best pure college hitter according to Baseball America…can also play second base and shortstop…not related to actor (sic) Eva Longoria.” (4)
Tampa Bay selected Longoria – Evan, not Eva – third overall and gave him a $3 million signing bonus. After torching the minors, Longoria made the Rays’ big league roster in April 2008. His first career home run came against the Yankees, and Longoria quickly distinguished himself as a frontrunner for American League Rookie of the Year honours.
Thrust into the limelight, Evan faced a deluge of questions about, well, Desperate Housewives. Eventually, he grew tired of talking about Eva, who caught wind of his emergence. (3) “In every interview he ever did, everybody was like, ‘Are you related to Eva Longoria?’” she told Justin Long on his Life is Short podcast. “And he’s like, ‘No, I’m not.’ Finally, he had all this accomplishment, and he goes, ‘If one more person asks me if I’m related to fucking Eva Longoria…’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I felt so bad, so I sent him a bottle of champagne…and I said, ‘I’m so sorry our names are so similar.’” (5)
Evan received his gift – an $800 bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal, 1997 vintage (6) – upon returning to Tropicana Field following the 2008 All-Star Game, in which he went 1-for-4 with an RBI while also participating in a Home Run Derby immortalised by Josh Hamilton destroying Yankee Stadium.
Eva sent the champagne – part-apology, part-All-Star nod – to Evan’s locker, where found it on 18th July 2008, before a Tampa Bay game against Toronto. (7) According to legend, Eva also offered Evan a cameo appearance in Desperate Housewives, though the existence of such an invitation has never been corroborated. (6)
Regardless, pleasantly surprised, Evan signed three Rays jerseys and sent them to Eva, thanking her for the kind words and thoughtful gesture. (3) He also joked about trying to snag tickets to one of Eva’s forthcoming movie premieres – a more reserved endorsement than his promiscuous college fawning. (8)
Incidentally, Eva Longoria was married to a former professional athlete at the time – four-time NBA champion Tony Parker, who she married in 2007 and divorced three years later. (2) For his part, Evan entered a relationship with Jaime Edmondson in 2011, and the pair have been married since 2015. (9)
Nevertheless, platonic links between Eva and Evan emerged throughout the ballplayer’s career. When Tampa Bay won the 2008 American League pennant, for example, Yahoo! asked Eva for comment. Her publicist replied with the following statement:
“I hope Evan gets Rookie of the Year, and congratulations to them making it to the World Series!!! I thought it was funny when someone first told me that there was an Evan Longoria playing for the Tampa Bay Rays, but I kept hearing his name being mentioned after another Rays win. It’s good to see that he is representing the Longorias well and keeping the name proud.” (10)
Similarly, when Evan was named Rookie of the Year, despite the Rays’ Fall Classic defeat to Philadelphia, Dennis Maffezzoli of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune trailed a congratulatory quote from Eva:
“I wanted to congratulate Evan on winning the 2008 Rookie of the Year in the American League. His passion for the game, coupled with his ability to achieve team goals, have helped provide an inspiration to everyone, not only in the Tampa Bay area, but across the country as well.” (11)
That sure does read like a hastily drafted press release by a staffer with minimal baseball knowledge – the kind of sterilised copy we would today accuse of being AI-generated – but still, it is the thought that counts, I guess. No harm came of such innocent warmth, though a contemporary corollary would probably be ridiculed.
Still, I hope Eva sent Evan another bottle of champagne ahead of his big day. Failing that, perhaps we should all raise a toast to the Longorias this afternoon, as Evan is feted by the organisation with which he remains synonymous. The housewives would certainly be proud. We all are, in fact, so here’s to Longo. Nobody did it better in Tampa Bay.
Sources
1. MacRae, Sloan. Evan Longoria. 2012.
2. Wikipedia. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Longoria.
3. Treacy, Dan. The Sporting News. [Online] October 9, 2023. https://www.sportingnews.com/uk/mlb/news/evan-longoria-eva-longoria-related-diamondbacks-actress/d201c374492aaf4fa4325ce7.
4. Topkin, Marc. St Petersburg Times. [Online] June 6, 2006. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8NsOAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA24&dq=%22evan+longoria%22+%2B+%22eva+longoria%22&article_id=3422,208780&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx0bCcndONAxUUQUEAHX0jFXkQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22evan%20longoria%22%20%2B%20%22eva%20longoria%22&f=fals.
5. Life is Short with Justin Long. [Online] February 22, 2022. https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/eva-longoria/id1459899327?i=1000551104343.
6. Heller, Jane. Confessions of a She Fan. [Online] November 9, 2008. https://mlblogsjaneheller.wordpress.com/tag/eva-longoria/.
7. Shea, John. CT Insider. [Online] July 27, 2008. https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/article/Baker-hides-out-in-police-car-to-protect-innocent-3275766.php.
8. Oneindia. [Online] September 25, 2008. https://www.oneindia.com/2008/09/25/eva-longoria-parkers-latest-pal-evan-longoria-1222340700.html.
9. Times of India. [Online] March 12, 2025. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/mlb/news/who-is-evan-longorias-wife-jaime-edmondson-all-about-diamondbacks-fan-adored-couple/articleshow/118902029.cms.
10. Friedell, Nick. Yahoo! Sports. [Online] October 21, 2008. https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-nick-friedell/eva-longorias-publicist-sends-her-warm-wishes-evan--mlb.html.
11. Maffezzoli, Dennis. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. [Online] November 11, 2008. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aKclAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA44&dq=%22evan+longoria%22+%2B+%22eva+longoria%22&article_id=2150,407278&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx0bCcndONAxUUQUEAHX0jFXkQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=snippet&q=%22evan%20longoria%22&f=false.