Tony Gwynn

Career .163 hitter.

Over the past few years, several members of baseball royalty have passed on.  Guys like Harmon Killebrew, Ralph Kiner and Stan Musial for example.  But the passing of Tony Gwynn is different than those guys.  This is a guy I watched play.  When people talk about watching some of the old players, it’s probably the same sort of way that Gwynn played.  He was just on a different level.  Steve Trachsel is no Tony Gwynn, so the Rookie of the Year voting flashback is going to have to wait until next Tuesday.  We’re going to look at Gwynn’s early years, highlight some of his better, along with some odd, seasons, and take an overall look at where he finished.

Gwynn attended Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, CA, where along with baseball, he also excelled at basketball.  The Jackrabbits have produced a total of 18 major leaguers, including Milton Bradley, Vern Stephens and Chase Utley.  Upon graduation, he attended San Diego State University, also playing baseball and point guard for the Aztecs.  The 48 major leaguers that attended SDSU include Bud Black, Tony Clark, Mark Grace, Aaron Harang, Graig Nettles, Harold Reynolds and Stephen Strasburg.  While at the school, Gwynn set school records for assists in a game, season and career.  He was twice a WAC second team all conference basketball player.  He didn’t even play baseball his freshman year.  He hit .301 his sophomore year, .416 as a third-team All American his junior year, and .423 as a first-team All American his senior year.

On June 8^th, 1981, Tony Gwynn was drafted in the third round by San Diego.  That same day, he was also drafted in the 10^th round by San Diego.  The difference is that third round San Diego was the San Diego Padres.  Tenth round San Diego was the NBA San Diego Clippers.  Gwynn chose baseball primarily due to his size, and the physical toll that opposing players took against him in college.  Upon signing, the Padres assigned him to –A ball Walla Walla where in 42 games, he would hit .331 with 12 home runs and 17 stolen bases to go along with 23 walks and 21 strikeouts.  This earned him a promotion to AA Amarillo, where in 23 games, he would hit .462 with four home runs and five stolen bases to go along with five walks and seven strikeouts.

In 1982, Gwynn would open the season in AAA Hawaii.  His slugging percentage fell over 200 points from the previous minor league season, but power was never part of his game.  He hit .328 with five home runs and 14 stolen bases to go along with 18 walks and 18 strikeouts in 93 games.  He would make his major league debut on July 19^th, in a 7-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.  Gwynn’s first at bat that day resulted in a sac-fly RBI.  After a lineout and strikeout, he would get a double and score a run in the eighth inning off of Sid Monge, and he singled with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before Ron Reed retired Terry Kennedy.

Gwynn had five multi-hit games in his first eight major league games.  On July 27^th, in an 8-6 loss to the Braves, he was 4-5 with three runs scored and his first stolen base.  He was hitless in his second career game, and then went on a 15 game hitting streak.  The month of August was particularly brutal, as he only hit .227.  His season average dipped all the way to .267 on September 15^th, but he hit .364 with five multi hit games in his last 14 games that season, and his average finished at .289.  That would be the only season he would ever have under .300.

1983 saw Gwynn return to AAA, this time with new Padres affiliate Las Vegas.  That didn’t last long, as in just 17 games, he hit .342 with three stolen bases to go along with six walks and five strikeouts.  He would join the Padres on June 21^st, and would never return to the minors.  In his 27^th game that season, his average was all the way down to .229.  From that point forward that season, he hit .339, finishing up at .309.

1984 would put Gwynn on the map.  He played in 158 games that season.  He had at least one hit in 123 of those games.  At the end of April, he was hitting .434, and won NL Player of the Month.  He hit .261 in May, but that was the only month under .300 for him that season.  Overall, he led the league with a .351 average and 213 hits, with 21 doubles, 10 triples, five home runs, 71 RBIs and 33 stolen bases to go along with 59 walks and 23 strikeouts.  This was the first of five seasons where he had more stolen bases than strikeouts.  The last National League player with a higher average than Gwynn’s that season was the Cubs’ Bill Madlock in 1975.  Tim Raines led the majors in stolen bases that year with 78.  He struck out 83 times.  Juan Samuel was second with 72.  He struck out 168 times.

Gwynn’s teammate Alan Wiggins was third with 70.  He only struck out 57 times.  Maybe there was something in the water in San Diego that season.  Gwynn would help lead the Padres to the World Series where they would lose in five games to the Detroit Tigers.  Gwynn would make his first All Star game, win his first Silver Slugger award and finish third in the NL MVP voting behind Ryne Sandberg and Keith Hernandez.

In 1985 and 1986, Gwynn would hit a combined .323 with 62 doubles, 12 triples, 20 home runs, 105 RBIs and 51 stolen bases, with 97 walks and 68 strikeouts.  In 1986, he would lead the league with 642 at bats, 107 runs and 211 hits.  He would again have more steals (37) than strikeouts (35), and he won a Silver Slugger award and his first Gold Glove.  Both years saw All Star selections.  He finished 23^rd in the MVP voting in ’85, and ninth in ’86.

In a career full of great seasons, 1987 would be one of his finest.  He would lead the league with a .370 average and 218 hits.  He was second in the league with 13 triples and 56 stolen bases.  He set a career high with 119 runs scored.  He would again win a Silver Slugger award and Gold Glove.  He would finish eighth in the MVP race.  He would be player of the month in June when he hit .473.  In addition to the above stats, he had 36 doubles, seven home runs and 54 RBIs with a career high 82 walks and 35 strikeouts.

1988 would be the only season of his career where he played in over 100 games and didn’t make an All Star appearance.  He had a stint on the disabled list in the middle of May.  His batting average was a season low on June 13^th at .237, and it was still at .246 on July 1^st.  After that, Tony Gwynn did Tony Gwynn things, hitting .364 between July 2^nd and October 1^st, including .406 in July when he was NL Player of the Month.  Overall that season, he hit .313 with 22 doubles, five triples, seven home runs, 70 RBIs and 26 stolen bases, with 51 walks and a career high 40 strikeouts.  CAREER HIGH 40 STRIKEOUTS.  He also finished 11^th in the NL MVP voting.

Between 1989 and 1993, Gwynn would make the All Star Game each year.  He won Gold Gloves between 1989 and 1991, and added a Silver Slugger in 1989.  He finished eighth in the NL MVP voting in 1989, 16^th in 1991, and 21^st in 1993.  Over those five seasons, he hit .327 with 151 doubles, 34 triples, 25 home runs, 296 RBIs and 82 stolen bases, with 216 walks and 107 strikeouts.  For the fourth time in his career in 1989, he had more steals (40) than strikeouts (30).  That would be the last season he would ever strikeout 30 or more times.  In July 1993, he would again be NL Player of the Month, where he hit .381.

The strike-shortened 1994 season would be the closest anyone would come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams last did it in 1941.  In 110 games, he had a hit in 91 of them.  In four of those games, he only had one at bat.  In April, he hit .395, and in May it was .392.  June was .387, and July was .370.  He was closing in on .400 at a furious pace, hitting .475 (19-40) in 10 games in August before the season was shut down.  He just needed another four hits that season and he would have had it (technically; it would have been .399527, which would have rounded up, but we all know there would have almost certainly been an asterisk there).  For the season, he led the league with a .394 average and 165 hits.  He also added 35 doubles, a triple, 12 home runs, 64 RBIs and five stolen bases, with 48 walks and 19 strikeouts.  He would again make the All Star roster, win a Silver Slugger award, and he finished seventh in the NL MVP voting.

He had six after 1995.  He
would add two more titles.

In 1995, at age 35, Gwynn showed no signs of slowing down.  He again led the league with a .368 averageand 197 hits.  To add to those totals, he had 33 doubles, a triple, nine home runs, 90 RBIs and 17 stolen bases, with 35 walks and 15 strikeouts.  It was the last time that he had more steals than strikeouts.  Those 15 strikeouts were in 577 plate appearances.  He made the All Star roster, won a Silver Slugger award, and finished ninth in the MVP voting.

Aw, man!

In 1996, Gwynn would miss almost all of July and a handful of games in April, May, and August.  He would still be voted as an All Star, but had to miss because of injury.  He led the league with a .353 average.  He only had 498 plate appearances, which was four short of qualifying, thus the “Tony Gwynn rule” was born.  It allows hitless plate appearances to be added onto the end of a season in order for a player to then officially qualify.  In doing that, he still would have beat second place Ellis Burks by five points.  Despite the injuries, Gwynn still added 27 doubles, two triples, three home runs, 50 RBIs and 11 stolen bases, with 39 walks and 17 strikeouts.  The Padres would make the playoffs, but were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.

One could argue that 1997 was Gwynn’s finest season.  He led the league with a .372 average.  His 220 hits were a career high, as were his 49 doubles, 17 home runs and 119 RBIs.  In addition, he had two triples, 12 stolen bases, 43 walks and 28 strikeouts.  He was an All Star, a Silver Slugger, and he finished sixth in the NL MVP voting.  He was NL Player of the Month in May where he hit .447.

1998 was the beginning of the end for Gwynn.  He hit .321 with 35 doubles, 16 home runs, 69 RBIs and three stolen bases, with 35 walks and 18 strikeouts.  Again an All Star, he finished in NL MVP voting for the last time, placing 15^th overall.  He would also make his third and final post season appearance, making it all the way to the World Series as the New York Yankees would sweep the Padres.  Gwynn would hit .500 in the series.

Gwynn was again limited in 1999 by injuries.  On Opening Day, he went 1-4.  That was the only day of the season where he was under .300.  When Gwynn initially went on the DL, he was hitting .333.  Eighteen games later, he came back for seven games, hit .368 to raise his season average to .338.  He would miss another 24 games, hit .228 in his first 14 games back, and then hit .371 the rest of the way.  That got him right back to .338.  He added 27 doubles, 10 home runs, 62 RBIs and seven stolen bases, with 29 home runs and 14 strikeouts.

Gwynn would play only parts of two more seasons, hitting a combined .323 with 21 doubles, a triple, two home runs, 34 RBIs and a stolen base, with 19 walks and 13 strikeouts in 107 games.  His final game was on October 7^th, 2001.  He grounded out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning in a Padres’ 14-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

For his career, Gwynn hit .338 with 1383 runs, 3141 hits, 543 doubles, 85 triples, 135 home runs, 1138 RBIs, 319 stolen bases, with 790 walks and 434 strikeouts.  Curiously, in 10232 plate appearances, he was only hit by a pitch on 24 occasions.  All of these are video game numbers.  No player can actually be this good, can they?

Injuries certainly didn’t help Gwynn.  Had he shifted from the outfield to first base, as many aging stars do, he could have extended his career.  But he never played one game in the infield.  In 4700+ career chances, he only made 62 errors in 20 seasons.  Yet another facet of his game that was lost playing in San Diego.

He should have hit for more power.
I've never played, but I can criticize.

When it came time to vote for Hall of Fame induction in 2007, 2.4% of voters showed themselves as true jackasses.  What sort of beef could you possibly have with Tony Gwynn to NOT vote for him?  But even Cal Ripken was left off of 1.5% of ballots.  That I can see.  One could argue that going out and playing every single day may not have been in the best interest of the team, or even the player, especially if he had a nagging injury.  But 13 voters left off Tony Gwynn.

SPEED ROUND

Gwynn’s career average of .338 ranks 20^th of all time.  Of the 19 players ranked above him, the closest one to a “modern” player that’s on the list is Ted Williams at .344.  Gwynn’s first game was 22 years after Williams’ last.

His 3141 hits rank 19^th all time.

He had 203 career intentional walks, good for 12^th all time.  Of the 11 guys with more, only Vladimir Guerrero (449) and George Brett (317) have fewer than 500 career home runs.

Only Roberto Clemente, Paul Waner, Hank Aaron and Mel Ott played more games in right field.  His .987 fielding percent in right field is 20^th best all time.

The world is worse off without Tony Gwynn in it.  The dangers of tobacco, whether cigarettes or smokeless, is real.  Hopefully his death may prove as a wakeup call to someone out there.  Rest in peace, Mr. Gwynn.