RIP Tony Gwynn
 

Great Padre and HOF'er Tony Gwynn has passed away. Only one month older than me and he broke in to the majors shortly after I moved to San Diego. A long time fixture in and around SD and San Diego State (where my wife went to school) I felt like I knew him. He will be missed.

Very sad day. Taken way too young.

Horrible news I heard this morning too. On top of being one of the greatest hitters of all time (he's like a modern Ty Cobb in my opinion), he was a really great guy. The two times that I met him in person, he was very appreciative of fans (he kept walking around saying "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you" to everyone) and he was very talkative. Nice guy who passed way too young. RIP.

Sad loss of a class act.

I saw him in Cooperstown HOF weekend last year. One of the few guys I saw that was gladly signing on the street.

Probably would've hit .400 in '94 if not for the strike shortened season. Truly, one of the greatest.

RIP, Mr. Gwynn.

What hurts is that his death / cancer was from him admittedly using smokeless tobacco from high school through his playing career. As a dentist I preach to all of my patients the dangers of its use, especially the baseball players who seem to begin the habit earlier than most . The sad thing is that now I have an example with a recognizable name to put to the face of this dangerous habit. As he said when diagnosed he hopes he can be a model to also stop its use. Not trying to preach but Gwynn was a great baseball ambassador, and truly died too young.

RIP Tony
 

I had the pleasure, as a teenager, to meet Tony in 1985. He attended a card show run by my father and his partner. He told us it was his first time at a card show. He was, arguably, the nicest player I ever met. I think both he and Musial were about on the same level. Truly a throwback type of player. He was hard working, humble, and generous. He was also a damn fine player. He will be missed by all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...5-10150925.jpg

For those on the East coast they really didn't get to see Tony play too much, let me tell you a story to help illustrate how great he was. My boss, who's family had Dodger season tickets from the time the stadium opened, gave me her 4 tickets for a day game against the Padres. These tickets were about 6 rows up and about 3 feet up the first base line. Yeah, they were that good. Anyway, Tony comes up the first time and promptly slaps a base hit in the 5.5 hole. Next time up, the 3B cheats a bit over to his left, but tony slaps another base hit in the 5.5 hole. Third time up, 3b cheats just a little more and the SS cheats over to his right...boom, another slap right through the same hole. Last time up, the 3b waits till the last minute and starts moving over and boom Tony hits it over the 3b bag for extra bases. He didn't use a bat, he used a wand. What a great hitter.

Gwynn came into the league about the time I was winding down getting autographs IP. Though part of it was me getting older, it was getting harder and harder to get autographs, and the players were getting less and less accomodating as their salaries started climbing.

I had the great pleasure of meeting players like Bobby Hull, Brooks Robinson, and Al Kaline this way, great men and ambassadors all for their games, always friendly, always smiling, and usually accommodating if they weren't in a hurry.

Gwynn was like these guys in every way. Loved to meet the fans, usually a very good signer and if you got him talking baseball he'd hang out a bit and tell you stories.

They don't make them like that any more.

Tony Gwynn RIP
 

The timing and content regarding Tony Gwynn of an e-mail conversation that I had last Friday with net54 good guy member Mike Knapp is truly amazing. I thought that I would share it because Mike really captured the very essence of Tony Gwynn's talent:

"Carew's bat control was extraordinary. Tony Gwynn's was equally impressive. I saw him alone on a practice field in Peoria Arizona during spring training around 1994. Tim Flannery was throwing him BP. I wandered up to watch. No one else was around. I was holding my son who was three or four at the time. He was crying and wouldn't settle down. After a few moments Gwynn turned around and asked my son what his problem was. Aaron stopped crying and Gwynn actually stepped off the field and talked with us for a few moments. Then he told Flannery to get the buckets and stepped into the dugout. I thought they were done and began to leave. Flannery asked if I was a big fan and I acknowledged that was a bit of an understatement. He suggested I stick around. He then walked out to the area between short and third. He placed three five gallon buckets there. He did the same in shallow left center field. He then returned to the mound and waited for Gwynn. I watched in amazement as Gwynn used line drives to bounce all of those buckets around the field like an old west gun fighter. You can hit all day and you wont be Tony Gwynn, you can dribble all day and you wont be Michael Jordan, you can doodle all day and not become Botticelli. Witnessing talent like that is always amazing and humbling."

JimStinson
 

++++++++++++, Great story ! Thank you for sharing it. If Tony Gwynn was not the all time NICEST guy I ever met signing at a card show I can't think of another. He was doing a card show in Florida during his playing days and was at a mall ...attendance had slowed and no one was in line. I went over got my stuff signed and we started chatting , after a few minutes he said "why don't you sit down" and motioned to a chair on his side of the table. He was just an all around NICE GUY and I had to keep reminding myself he was (at that time) probably the best hitter in baseball.
___________________
jim@stinsonsports.com

Vintage autographs for Sale on my Web site
stinsonsports.com

Rip