R.I.P. - Tony Gwynn

I just heard of the passing of my childhood hero Tony Gwynn on the Fox5 News. I can't find a link to share right now. He was the greatest pure hitter of my lifetime. Sad day for the Padres.

Holy cow! He was one of my favorites too - both on and off the field. He had a contagious laugh.
Seems like Cal Ripken always overshadowed him as being the star from the rookie class of 1980. Ripken was great but Gwynn was elite, IMO.

I saw him on tv all the time with Ted Williams talking about hitting when I was younger. Ted couldn't say enough good things about Tony and his swing and when Ted Williams says you have the best swing in baseball....who can argue?
All professional sports players should take a cue from him. True hero's like Tony Gwynn will always be missed. R.I.P

weggie

Agree with everybody above - we lost a classy guy today.

Having been lucky enough to live in the area, I was a the game when Tony hit his 2000th hit.

My friend I was with and is a life long Padre fan ask me to remember this game as it is a special one.


I did remember that game and that Tony was a class person to his family, team and fans and to San Diego.

Our prayer and thoughts to his family........

For some strange reason, Gwynn lived in Indianapolis most of his adult life. He finally moved away when he took the coaching job at San Diego State in 2011, I believe. When I say "strange reason", I live in Indy and I'd certainly prefer to live in San Diego by the water. What a good guy and super hitter!

Tony was a pure hitter plain and simple. Kids today should use him as an example of how you play the game. One class act. He will be sorely missed.

I agree with all of the above. Unfortunately chewing tobacco is the reason he left this world much too early.

Only baseball fanatics seem to know how great a hitter he was. He is the best hitter for average since 1950. This is a cut and paste from an article on ESPN-

Since 1950, no batter has matched Gwynn's .338 career average -- not even his idol Williams, who hit .344 for his career overall but just .335 from 1950 on.
Best since 1950:
Gwynn: .338
Williams: .335
Wade Boggs: .328
Rod Carew: .328
Miguel Cabrera: .321
Stan Musial: .321
And Gwynn didn't get to play in Fenway and slap doubles off the Green Monster. (Gwynn hit .343 at home in his career, .334 on the road; Boggs, by comparison, hit .369 at Fenway in his career and .302 on the road. Maybe if Gwynn had played for Boston he would have hit .400.)
Another way to look at Gwynn's career average is he hit .338 during a time when the league average was .262 (via Baseball-Reference.com). Williams hit .344 in his career but the league average was .277. Sure, there's Ty Cobb -- .366 career versus a .273 league mark -- but if you need one base hit, one single, one dying quail to win a game, it's a short list of guys you want up there and Gwynn is on it. In situations classified as "late and close," Gwynn hit a mere .353.
Using slightly different numbers for league average, Lee Sinins calculates Gwynn has 73 points higher than his league average, trailing only Cobb (plus-94), Rogers Hornsby (plus-75) and Williams (plus-75).
How good was Gwynn? He hit .415 against Greg Maddux, .444 against John Smoltz, .469 against Doug Drabek. Those aren't small sample sizes as he faced all three at least 50 times. In fact, he faced Maddux more often than any other pitcher: 107 times. Never hit a home run off him, but drew 11 walks, hit eight doubles. Get this: Maddux never struckout Gwynn.

Well here's a fine how do you do!........ While Tuesday night's All-Star Game featured plenty of Derek Jeter, Mike Trout and the woman who sings that song from "Frozen," it was also notable for one glaring omission: Last month's death of Tony Gwynn at age 54 went unmentioned, reflecting poorly on both Major League Baseball and Fox.There was no moment of silence. No jersey hanging in the dugout. Not even a simple mention on Fox's broadcast or a highlight reel heading into the break.
Shame on MLB!! Unacceptable!!!

weggie