RIP Tony Gwynn

[Gwreck]

Age 54.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Horrible! I always liked him.

[HahnSolo]

Shit. That sucks.

[Centerfield]

That's terrible. It was the cancer from the chewing tobacco right?

[Frayed Knot]

I had known for a while that he wasn't in good health, hadn't realized it was quite this bad.

Hearing about HoF-ers younger than you dying is never a good thing. Gwynn and Kirby Puckett - born just two months apart.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

whoa. Greatest 19 ever played.

[seawolf17]

Over the years, I've wanted to look back and think Gwynn was an overrated singles hitter. But the thing is, the guy hit the ball ALL THE TIME. Some guys strike out more times in two or three years than he did in twenty.

Neat stat: Gwynn was 12th all-time in IBBs (201). Every other player in the top 50, except for Boggs (25th) and Ichiro (26th), was a power hitter of some kind.

[Edgy MD]

Nobody except maybe Ted Williams seemed to think as much about hitting as Gwynn. He seemed to have it distilled down to a simple philosophy, but the amount of information and adaptations that went into it was encyclopedic. You could listen to him for hours and never hear the same thought twice.

Except, of course, for that nasal voice, which probably kept him from being a top-flight broadcaster. Can you think of any other Hall-of-Famers who've dedicated their post-playing career to building a college program? Gary Carter, I guess, but that was more of a low-profile thing, after his professional managing aspirations fizzled.

[seawolf17]

From B/R:

For the 70% of his career PA w/records, Gwynn swung & missed three times only twice: vs Jeff Fassero 7.2.97 & vs Big Unit 4.25.99

Whoa. (Comparison they gave: Ichiro did it twelve times.)

[Guest themetfairy]

RIP to a great player and a class act.

[Edgy MD]

I had a childhood friend named Mark who had incredible comic skills. With the half-Puerto Rican/half-Jewish pedigree of Juan Epstein and a cadence that made him feel like your best friend when he was ripping you to shreds, he would actually grab a mic and a PA during a party and go improv. There may have been only six people in the room, but the mic helped him work the "crowd" like a pro. We encouraged him to try his hand at being a professional comic, but he said his material was too narrowcast. That he could do twenty minutes on Tim Teufel's batting stance, but nobody in Peoria would get it.

Anyhow, he did this amazing imitation of Tony Gwynn talking about hitting, but he would spontaneously work in tangents about physics, philosophy, meteorology, pro wrestling, the Protestant reformation, Montel Williams, etc. but he'd always come back to "that's the way I like to approach the curveball." He'd do it in the form of an interview, but he'd end every extensive nasally far-flung answer to every question with "that's the way I like to approach the curveball."

Anyhow, I haven't followed Mark much since I left New York, but he posted this about an hour ago:

Really bummed out about Tony Gwynn. Twenty years ago when I was a Marketing Exec at The Sports Authority, I arranged an in-store appearance at a Chula Vista loaction. He ended up coming in the night before to talk to the store manager to go over all the details for the next day (he had the same preparation towards hitting) Then the following day he turned a 2 hour in store appearance into a 4 hour event. He stayed until every customer was able to meet him, signing countless balls, photos, batting gloves etc. I had done hundreds of athlete signings and most showed up late and left early - some not showing up at all (Alan Iverson). He was a class act.

[Gwreck]

I liked this stat:

Gywnn had more career PAs against Greg Maddux than any other pitcher (107). He had a .415 average against Maddux, plus 11 walks. And no strikeouts.

[seawolf17]

Gwreck wrote: I liked this stat: Gywnn had more career PAs against Greg Maddux than any other pitcher (107). He had a .415 average against Maddux, plus 11 walks.

And ZERO strikeouts.

[Edgy MD]

Looking over the list of some of the guys he destroyed, there's a lot of Metly victims:

1.667 OPS against Armando Benitez in 3 PA
1.235 OPS against Dennis Cook in 12 PA
1.270 OPS against Turk Wendell in 9 PA
1.227 OPS against Al Leiter in 26 PA
1.045 OPS against Ron Darling in 62 PA

Some real way-back names too: 1-1 with a double against Scott Holman. 3-6 with a double against Doug Sisk. 2-2 against Tug McGraw!

Jesse Orosco, a man grown and genetically programmed in a government lab for the single express purpose of getting Tony Gwynn out, yielded a .955 OPS to the man.

[Edgy MD]

Gwynn played 42 games at Low A, jumped up to AA for the last 23 games of his first pro season.

From there, he played 110 games at AAA, got promoted and never returned to the minors, even for rehab. In all, a ridiculously short 175 game internship. Not bad for a third-round draft choice.

Oh, and he went .347 / .391 / .520 // .910. Slugged 21 homers, too.

[G-Fafif]

If the Mets played in the same division as the Padres, we would all know the name Eric Gunderson better than we do now.

In thinking about Gwynn throttling Met pitching in the mid-'90s in particular, I vaguely recalled lefty specialist Gunderson being effective against Gwynn, if not everybody else. I looked it up: Gunderson held Gwynn to 0 hits in 4 at-bats when he faced him as a Met. Even struck him out once. No way (I'd like to think) would have we let him go if we needed to curtail the greatest lefthanded batter of his generation 19 games per year, a la Pedro Feliciano vs. Ryan Howard.

Careerwise, Tony went 2-for-9 with a walk against Eric. That alone should have made Eric a Dodger, Giant, Rockie or D-Back for the duration.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

I've always loved this MLB ad with Gwynn and Bip Roberts talking about the value of Roberts' baseball cards!

[youtube:1wjqdql2]RaQYWazDA0U[/youtube:1wjqdql2]

My efforts to post the YouTube clip here are failing miserably. Perhaps someone with greater skills can do it. It's worth watching. And the Padres should go back to those road uniforms.

[Edgy MD]

Click the [table:20u9xlux][tr:20u9xlux][td:20u9xlux]YOUTUBE[/td:20u9xlux][/tr:20u9xlux][/table:20u9xlux] button on the toolbar above you post. Paste the ten-or-so-character code from the end of the url in the middle of the youtube ezcodes.

Here, I'm editing your post above to embed the youtube video.

[Zvon]

This sucks. I had no idea he wasn't well. When I got back into baseball cards in the mid 80s ( I think Goodens 85t card re-started it all) I remember reverse collecting certain non-Met player cards. Gwynn and Boggs were at the top of the list. One of the best hitters I have ever seen.

[Guest themetfairy]

A lovely tribute from Ken Levine

[Edgy MD]

Worth remembering that before he started carrying that basketball around under his shirt --- and probably for some time after --- he was an outstanding all-round athlete. It was basketball that got him recruited to San Diego State. He ended up making third team all-America, and his mixed concentration is perhaps why he fell to the third round in the draft, despite being an obvious and polished talent once his commitment to baseball was established.

[MFS62]

The best hitter I saw since the days of Williams and Musial. He hit over .350 seven times and was hitting over .390 in a shortened year.
Yesterday, one of the radio guys noted that, over a three year stretch, Tony never went more than eight at bats without getting a hit.


RIP.
Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

From Tyler Kepner's obit:

I was a teenager when I first interviewed Gwynn, working for a small magazine I published from home. This was not Sports Illustrated or ESPN. He had no special reason to be nice. But every time the Padres came to town, Gwynn would greet me warmly. He noticed things others would not. One time we spoke, I was wearing a Vanderbilt golf shirt. Gwynn noticed the logo and asked if I went there. When I said yes, he lit up. The Padres beat writer Buster Olney, of The San Diego Union-Tribune, also went there, Gwynn said excitedly. �You�ve got to meet him!� he said. Pause for a moment to consider how rare this is. Few players would bother to notice a detail on a reporter�s shirt. Few would know which college the team�s beat writer had attended. Fewer still would then offer, with genuine enthusiasm, to play matchmaker. But that was Gwynn. When our interview ended, he went back to the clubhouse, found Olney and brought him to the dugout to meet me. A few years later Olney was writing for The New York Times, and he recommended me for a job. Gwynn had set me on my career path.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Just remembering now how much Paul E. C. hated the guy.

I actually didn't much argue with him much in the old days but did get into it once on the subject of Tony Gwynn. His point of view, I guess, was that Gwynn was the embodiment of the batting average and the weight that fools he wouldn't suffer gave to it, but it was like personal with him.

[metirish]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: From Tyler Kepner's obit: I was a teenager when I first interviewed Gwynn, working for a small magazine I published from home. This was not Sports Illustrated or ESPN. He had no special reason to be nice. But every time the Padres came to town, Gwynn would greet me warmly. He noticed things others would not. One time we spoke, I was wearing a Vanderbilt golf shirt. Gwynn noticed the logo and asked if I went there. When I said yes, he lit up. The Padres beat writer Buster Olney, of The San Diego Union-Tribune, also went there, Gwynn said excitedly. �You�ve got to meet him!� he said. Pause for a moment to consider how rare this is. Few players would bother to notice a detail on a reporter�s shirt. Few would know which college the team�s beat writer had attended. Fewer still would then offer, with genuine enthusiasm, to play matchmaker. But that was Gwynn. When our interview ended, he went back to the clubhouse, found Olney and brought him to the dugout to meet me. A few years later Olney was writing for The New York Times, and he recommended me for a job. Gwynn had set me on my career path.

Epic

[Frayed Knot]

Olbermann had similar remembrances to Kepler and did a terrific piece Monday night as well.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Just remembering now how much Paul E. C. hated the guy. I actually didn't much argue with him much in the old days but did get into it once on the subject of Tony Gwynn. His point of view, I guess, was that Gwynn was the embodiment of the batting average and the weight that fools he wouldn't suffer gave to it, but it was like personal with him.

I was just re-reading the thread from the top, and noticing MetsGuy's initial, stunned, "Horrible! I always liked him."

"Who didn't like Tony Gwynn?" I thought. The guy was the soul of decency. But there you have it. Pauly didn't like Tony Gwynn.

I'm remembering an joint interview done with late-model Tony along with Larry Walker, 1998-1999-ish, when they were both hitting north of .375 late in the season, and the interviewer asks them both if they think about allure of hitting .400. Walker gave the boilerplate Bull Durham answer, that it's just a number, that he's just trying to help his team, yaddayaddayadda, anything he can offer as long as they win.

Tony goes completely off book in a way that surprised me, saying that he honestly thought about it a LOT. That Walker's answer made perfect sense for Walker, because he was also capable of hitting 40 bombs in a season and was young and athletic enough to help his team on defense every day. "But giving my team base hits is a big part of who I am and what I do. I hustle out there, but if I'm not getting base hits, I'm frankly not helping my team. And .400 is the standard of excellence for getting base hits. So yeah, I think about it."

A refreshingly honest look into the mind of someone who, like Rickey Henderson, was able to find a mindset that was, at the same time, self-centered and team-oriented.

[Edgy MD]

That damned idol-smashing Deadspin site has turned into a... complete Tony Gwynn lovefest the last two days.

[Edgy MD]

This speaks for itself.



So, I'm guessing those plaques mean

• 19 seasons
  
• 15 All-Star games
  
• 5 Gold Gloves
  
• 8 Silver Sluggers
  
• 3141 hits
  
• 338 stolen bases
  
• 2007 um....

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: 2007 um....

The year he was elected to the HOF.