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.