Dee Strange-Gordon

Raised in Avon Park

Devaris Strange-Gordon was born April 22, 1988 in Windermere, Florida, to Devona Strange and major league pitcher Tom Gordon. When his mother died in 1995, seven-year-old Dee came to Avon Park to live with his grandmother Annie Gordon. While his father pitched through grueling big league seasons around the country, Annie Gordon and a network of local aunts and cousins raised him in town. In 2020, after playing ten major league seasons under the name Dee Gordon, he legally added Strange to his surname to honor his mother’s memory on the back of his uniform.

At Avon Park High School, Strange-Gordon was first known as a basketball standout. At five feet ten inches tall, he ran point guard for the Red Devils, breaking presses with lateral quickness and great court vision. He did not play high school baseball until the spring of his senior year. When he finally stepped onto the diamond at Head Field, his track-star acceleration caught everyone off guard. Scouts clocked him from home plate to first base in less than four seconds, a speed that immediately put him on professional draft boards.

Batting titles and stolen bases

The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Strange-Gordon in the fourth round of the 2008 amateur draft out of Southeastern University in Lakeland. He reached Los Angeles in 2011, using slap hits, bunts, and relentless baserunning to carve out a starting role. In 2014, he led all of Major League Baseball with 64 stolen bases and earned his first National League All-Star nod.

An offseason trade sent him across the country to the Miami Marlins for the 2015 season, sparking the finest year of his career. Strange-Gordon captured the National League batting championship with a .333 batting average, collected 205 hits, and stole 64 bases. In doing so, he became the first National League hitter since Jackie Robinson in 1949 to win both the batting title and the stolen-base crown in the same year. The league awarded him both a Gold Glove for his defense at second base and a Silver Slugger.

Across eleven seasons with the Dodgers, Marlins, Mariners, and Nationals, Strange-Gordon played in 1,024 games, recording 1,118 hits, 336 stolen bases, and a career .286 batting average.

Community leadership in the Heartland

While many professional athletes relocate permanently to large metropolitan centers, Strange-Gordon kept his roots planted in Avon Park. He maintains an offseason home in town, spends winters with his family, and regularly attends local church services.

Every December, he hosts the Dee Gordon Boys & Girls Club Christmas Basketball Tournament in Avon Park, delivering hot meals, athletic competition, and holiday gifts to hundreds of area children. In early 2026, when Charles R. Head Field faced maintenance and ownership questions, Strange-Gordon approached the Highlands County School Board to discuss purchasing the historic ballpark to guarantee its preservation for local youth sports. Along with his father, he stands as one of only two Avon Park High School graduates to reach the major leagues, continuing an athletic tradition that began on neighborhood sandlots.

Photographs

Dee Strange-Gordon’s Mariners jersey in the museum uniform installation. Photograph: Avon Park Depot Museum.

Head Field, where Strange-Gordon played for Avon Park High. Photograph: Franc Branca / Branca Media.

The historic clubhouse at Head Field. Photograph: Franc Branca / Branca Media.

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