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This is probably going to come off a bit rambling and disjointed, and I apologize for that, I'm having a lot of trouble writing pretty much anything, for work or otherwise today. Tony Gwynn is without question my favorite athlete of all time, and is the one person who definitively holds the position of childhood hero for me. I've had other favorite players, in multiple sports. Dan Fouts is probably the one I remember earliest, he was the best player for my beloved Chargers, the team was good, and he had the added benefit of being a Duck as well as a Charger. But when Fouts and the Chargers were really good I was just a little too young to really connect with the game and the players, and at the time I was old enough to make that connection the team of mine that was good, that had energy around them, was the San Diego Padres.

I'm from a small town in Oregon, but, because my parents were teachers, I would spend most of the summer every year at my grandmother's house in San Diego. When I was seven years old, a young player came up for the Padres, who were just starting to get good.  Tony Gwynn was skinny (hard to believe for some given his later day playing weight), fast, hit absolutely everything in sight, and never struck out. In 1984 I was 8/9 years old, the team really took off, and Tony Gwynn had a breakout year, hitting .351 and leading the league, stealing bases, and leading a veteran Padres team (also featuring Goose Gossage, Steve Garvey and Greg Nettles) to an NL West championship, and then to an improbable comeback win over the Cubs in the NLCS. I was completely hooked. I went to as many games as I could. The first thing I did every single morning was open up the sports page and read the Padres' box score. I had marked out a strike zone on wall in my grandmother's back yard in Point Loma, and when I couldn't attend the game I'd listen on the radio while pitching along with the game. I have earlier sports memories (Chargers losing to the Raiders, ugh), but those from these seasons are the strongest, and Tony Gwynn was at the heart of all of them.

This was the beginning of a superstar career. He led the NL in batting average eight times. I still believe he would have hit .400 had the strike not happened in 1994. He hit .372 in 1997 when he was 37 years old. And he was still a good player when the Padres made it back to the World Series in 1998 (only to again run into an absolute juggernaut when they got there). He delivered against the best pitchers in baseball (notably against Greg Maddux, who he faced more than anybody, and who never struck him out). And he had fun while playing. He always had a smile on his face, he never seemed to act petulant, or arrogant, or anything other than happy to be playing baseball every day.

I was fortunate enough to meet Tony Gwynn a few times, the first when I was probably 13 or 14 years old. Sometimes when you meet a celebrity you wish you hadn't, because the person they were, at least at the moment you met them, clashed too strongly with the person who existed in your mind. Tony Gwynn was the opposite of that, he could not have been nicer, particularly to a starstruck and tongue tied kid.

In 2001, Tony's last season, we flew out to San Diego to watch four games at the Murph, and he fortunately was healthy enough to play in three of them. And when he was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2007 I was happy to drive up to Cooperstown for the ceremony. There's still a Tony Gwynn poster (in the brown uniform) on the wall in my childhood bedroom in Silverton.

He had been battling cancer for the past four years or so, so in the abstract his passing isn't that much of a surprise, even though he was quite young at 54. For me, however, this is an absolute thunderbolt, and has hit me extremely hard. I feel fortunate to have seen him play as many baseball games as I did, although I wish I'd seen him play even more. But I'm happy to have had him in my life, and to have been a part of so many wonderful memories from my childhood. Thanks for everything Tony.

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Mark, I love your recollections of Tony Gwynn.  As a life-long Atlanta Braves fan, I always enjoyed watching him play, for all the reasons you mentioned, but also because he was one of the only guys who could consistently hit against our powerhouse pitching staff.  His stats (from Mark Bowman) against some of our best arms are staggering: Smoltz .462 (30-for-65) 1K, Maddux .429 (39-for-91) 0 K, and Glavine .312 (29 for 93) 2 K.  Insane.

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Greg Maddux on Tony Gwynn:
 

Maddux was convinced no hitter could tell the speed of a pitch with any meaningful accuracy. To demonstrate, he pointed at a road a quarter-mile away and said it was impossible to tell if a car was going 55, 65 or 75 mph unless there was another car nearby to offer a point of reference.

"You just can't do it," he said. Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different releases points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher's hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision.

"Except," Maddux said, "for that [expletive] Tony Gwynn."
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Greg Maddux on Tony Gwynn:

Mark, your opening post was one of the greatest ever written in the Sports Forum. It didn't come across as rambling or disjoint in the least; just totally respectful and very upset because you've (we've) lost such a worthy hero. Tony Gwynn was an absolute superstar in any sense of the word, both on and off the field, and was universally idolized by fans and rivals alike. I added the tags to this thread, and began getting worried that I was going to run out of room. Mighty impressive, aren't they? (Incidentally, Wikipedia says he was an 18-time All-Star which I believe is in error, although I'm not sure.)

In 1994, he batted .394 - the highest since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941!

Amazingly, the great Greg Maddux never once struck out Tony Gwynn.

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15 time All Star. Five Golden Gloves. Seven Silver Sluggers.

Many remember him from the latter part of his career, when he was some sort of hitting machine with the physique of bowling pin, but earlier in his career he was also a menace on the basepaths. This can really be seen during his best season, in 1987, where he hit .370 (of course) but also stole 56 bases.

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earlier in his career he was also a menace on the basepaths. This can really be seen during his best season, in 1987, where he hit .370 (of course) but also stole 56 bases. 

So, like Ichiro, if he hit a single, he essentially hit a double.

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Didn't grow up a Padres fan but have always been a Chargers fan, a baseball fan and a huge fan of great players who are also great people, especially when the cameras aren't rolling. Tony Gwynn was that in spades.

And that's why I was thrilled when Mike Rizzo signed Tony Jr, who's now in Viera. Great piece about him, so linked to his dad, in today's WaPo here:

"Tony Gwynn, Jr. Reports to Washington Nationals, Eager To Get Back to Baseball" by Chelsea Janes on washingtonpost.com

He has a tough hill to climb, competing with former Red Sox hero Mike Carp and a very talented and motivated Tyler Moore for one bench spot. But, how cool would it be if Tony Jr gets his (aka his dad's) swing back and comes north with the team in a month?

I'd LOVE to see that happen. Guessing Mark might also. Maybe that could even get you reading daily box scores and going to lots of games again, if you aren't anyway.

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