MLB's Tony Gwynn, once and always a San Diego Padre and a 15 time all-star is dead at the young age of only *54*. The mega-friendly guy with the sweet swing could not survive years of a chewing tobacco habit. Say it ain't so...

A must read... http://sports.yahoo.com/news/thank-you- ... 20800.html

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8 ... Tony+Gwynn

I was lucky enough to see Tony get his 2,500 hit against the Red's in Cincinnati during a big Midwest road trip dad and I were making. We had no idea he had reached the milestone until the Red's put it on the video board. Hard to believe Tony (as well as Riverfront Stadium) is now gone. One of the best on and off the field.

I didn't even realize he was so sick - great, great hitter - I heard some ridiculous stat late in his playing career - it went something like this --- Tony Gwynn could play 2 more full seasons, play every game and not get one hit either year and he would still finish his career with a career batting average of over .300 --- Heard him speak at a coaches convention in San Diego years ago - afterward he stayed until there was no one left to ask him any more questions ---

He was such a rarity in MLB spending his whole career in one place. Sorry to see him go...

His career .302 batting average with two strikes may be the most untouchable record in the modern game.

Sad to hear but its just another example of why we need to get kids to stop using tobacco during high school so hopefully they don't continue this bad habit. This is a serious matter in football and baseball more so than other sports. Coaches need to be talking to their kids and enforcing a no tolerance policy. All too often I see players on teams openly dipping at practices.


When I really got to see Gwynn in the 90's he had already switched to that tiny bat he used. One of the purest contact hitters ever. Had Ichiro not come along Id say Gwynn was the best of the last 30 years no contest.

StumpyCulbreath wrote:His career .302 batting average with two strikes may be the most untouchable record in the modern game.

http://www.baseballspast.com/samplepage ... itting.pdf

A PDF to back your statement.

Really good guy... Sad.

WVAPPeer wrote:I didn't even realize he was so sick - great, great hitter - I heard some ridiculous stat late in his playing career - it went something like this --- Tony Gwynn could play 2 more full seasons, play every game and not get one hit either year and he would still finish his career with a career batting average of over .300 --- Heard him speak at a coaches convention in San Diego years ago - afterward he stayed until there was no one left to ask him any more questions ---

The best stat I ever heard for Tony: in his ENTIRE career, he had only ONE 3K game.

havefunkc wrote:

WVAPPeer wrote:I didn't even realize he was so sick - great, great hitter - I heard some ridiculous stat late in his playing career - it went something like this --- Tony Gwynn could play 2 more full seasons, play every game and not get one hit either year and he would still finish his career with a career batting average of over .300 --- Heard him speak at a coaches convention in San Diego years ago - afterward he stayed until there was no one left to ask him any more questions ---

The best stat I ever heard for Tony: in his ENTIRE career, he had only ONE 3K game.

I was going to post the same thing. Here is another. Over his career, ha averaged just 25 strikeouts a year. Never struck out more than 40 times in a single year. Absolutely amazing.

AppSt94 wrote:

havefunkc wrote:

WVAPPeer wrote:I didn't even realize he was so sick - great, great hitter - I heard some ridiculous stat late in his playing career - it went something like this --- Tony Gwynn could play 2 more full seasons, play every game and not get one hit either year and he would still finish his career with a career batting average of over .300 --- Heard him speak at a coaches convention in San Diego years ago - afterward he stayed until there was no one left to ask him any more questions ---

The best stat I ever heard for Tony: in his ENTIRE career, he had only ONE 3K game.

I was going to post the same thing. Here is another. Over his career, ha averaged just 25 strikeouts a year. Never struck out more than 40 times in a single year. Absolutely amazing.

Someone on ESPN pointed out yesterday that Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a SEASON during his 20 year career, while there were a couple of players this season who struck out more than 40 times in the month of May.

Gwynn was an amazing hitter, the likes of which we may not see again.

What a legend. His stats are ridiculous. Craziest to me was, he would have to go 0 for his next 1,183 at bats for his career batting average to dip below .300. Going 0 for 1,183 would drop his career average to a meager .29997. I-N-S-A-N-E.