Anthony Keith Gwynn Sr. (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), nicknamed "Mr. Padre", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 20 seasons (1982–2001) in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres. The left-handed hitting Gwynn won eight batting titles in his career, which is tied for the most in National League (NL) history. He was a 15-time All-Star and won seven Silver Slugger Awards and five Gold Glove Awards. Gwynn stayed with the Padres his entire career and played in the only two World Series appearances in San Diego franchise history. Having hit over .300 for 19 straight seasons, Gwynn retired with a .338 career batting average, the highest mark since Ted Williams retired in 1960; Gwynn also holds the highest adjusted batting average of all time at .342. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007 in his first year of eligibility, and is widely considered the best pure hitter of his generation.
Gwynn attended San Diego State University (SDSU), where he played both college baseball and basketball for the Aztecs. He was an all-conference player in both sports in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), and was also honored as an All-American in baseball. Gwynn was selected by the Padres in the third round of the 1981 MLB draft as the 58th overall pick. He made his major-league debut the next year and won his first batting title in 1984, when San Diego advanced to its first-ever World Series. Gwynn was a poor fielder in college and the minor leagues, but improved over time and received his first Gold Glove in 1986. The next year, he won the first of three consecutive batting titles. From 1990 to 1994, Gwynn endured four injury-shortened seasons, then had four straight batting titles starting in 1994, when he batted a career-high .394 in a strike-shortened season. Gwynn played in his second World Series in 1998 and reached the 3,000-hit milestone the following year. He played two more seasons, hampered by injuries in both, and retired after the 2001 season with 3,141 career hits.
A contact hitter, Gwynn frequently hit the ball to the opposite field. After first meeting Hall of Famer Ted Williams in 1992, Gwynn modified his hitting approach and became more adept at pulling the ball and using the entire field, as well as hitting for more power. In his early career years, he was also a threat to steal bases. In an era before MLB teams used video for scouting, Gwynn pioneered the practice of recording and studying video to improve his hitting, for which he received the nickname "Captain Video". Widely considered the greatest player in Padres history, Gwynn regularly accepted less money to remain with the small-market team; he became a civic icon for the city of San Diego.
During his later playing years and throughout retirement, Gwynn was an outspoken critic of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. After he retired from playing, the Padres retired his No. 19 in 2004. Gwynn became the head baseball coach at his alma mater university and also spent time as a baseball analyst. Gwynn developed a decades-long addiction to smokeless tobacco as a young adult, and was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer in 2010; Gwynn died of the cancer in 2014 at the age of 54. His death increased awareness regarding tobacco usage in MLB, leading to the 2016 league-wide ban on the substance for new players.
Early life and family
Family background
Gwynn was born in Los Angeles, California, to Charles and Vendella Gwynn, who originated from Gallatin, Tennessee. Charles excelled at sports, preferring football and baseball which he played in high school, and was also very passionate about history and politics; he spent the majority of his young adulthood in the 1950s serving in the U.S. Army. Vendella grew up in a large family and house upon several acres of land that functioned as a small farm; she was also athletically inclined, particularly in basketball and volleyball. The pair met and married in the mid-1950s. In 1958, Gwynn's older brother Charles Jr. was born and sometime thereafter, Charles was discharged from the Army. In 1959, Charles decided to move the family west from Tennessee under the belief that doing so would provide additional economic opportunity for a young black family. Shortly after younger brother Chris was born in late 1964, the family moved to a larger apartment, a second-floor duplex that included a small grass backyard unlike the previous apartment. In the yard, Gwynn and Charles Jr. frequently played basketball games such as "Twenty-one" and "H-O-R-S-E" using a trash can against the building's back wall as the basket. Gwynn's "big thrill" was regularly going to the store to get RC Cola for his father using the latter's borrowed money. On one of these occasions when Gwynn returned from the store with the cola, he was also chewing a wad of gum; his father noticed this and asked Gwynn where the gum came from, and he confessed to shoplifting the gum. His father responded by taking Gwynn downstairs to a bush out in front of the apartment building, and pulling a switch from it to punish him with.
Gwynn's favorite time of year was the annual summer family vacation to go visit his grandparents in Tennessee for six days, traveling in the family car. He personally liked his paternal grandparents more, but preferred to stay with his maternal grandparents because their residence (where his mother grew up) had acres of open land and a farm, which Gwynn said was "like a paradise". He gathered eggs from the chicken coop every morning and cooked breakfast with them, and also played baseball using black walnuts that had fallen. Through these visits, Gwynn grew an affinity for his grandmother Callie's Southern cooking.
At age nine, Gwynn received a Sting-Ray bike with a banana seat from his parents coupled with the expectation that he was to use it to fetch groceries from the store. Gwynn refused to have a bicycle basket installed, insisting that it was only for "sissies", so he hauled groceries home using his arms. He was also allowed to use the bike for play; one time while doing so near the family's parked car, he crashed the bike into Chris who appeared out of nowhere. Chris bled from his face from hitting the cement, and had to be hospitalized with five stitches. Gwynn's parents initially threatened to whip Gwynn upon learning about the incident, but later changed their minds after discussing it with Chris, believing it was impossible for the boys to see each other before the crash.
A few weeks after the bike crash, his parents decided they would move from their apartment and buy a house in nearby Long Beach, a location they chose because of its schools, parks, and youth sports options throughout the year. Gwynn joined a Little League team in Long Beach at the age of nine. When the coach asked him which position he wished to play, Gwynn indicated that he wanted to be the first baseman since he was left-handed, but the coach said that spot was occupied by a returning left-handed player, and instead offered the center fielder position to Gwynn. Gwynn's parents were civil servants and tag-team parents. Gwynn's father worked at a warehouse from 7:30a.m. to 5:00p.m., and he also coached Pop Warner football and Little League Baseball; his mother worked at the post office from 5:30p.m. to 3:00a.m. His mother and father instilled in him the value of being prepared. He played mostly basketball, then his favorite sport. Gwynn seldom played tennis, but readily defeated his older brother Charles Jr. (who regularly practiced the sport) when challenged.
Gwynn's father encouraged his sons to play ball in the makeshift baseball field that he assembled in their backyard. Once the brothers' supply of wiffle balls was out, they resorted to using a sock rolled in rubber bands, a wad of tape, or a hardened fig from a neighbor's tree. Unlike other kids who tracked home run hitters, Gwynn checked the box scores in the newspaper every morning to follow high-average hitters like Pete Rose, George Brett, and Rod Carew. By age thirteen, Gwynn had joined an adult baseball league.
High school years
Gwynn attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, a high-profile sports school. Gwynn worked during the summers. One year, he got a job as a softball coach at Silverado Park after his name was chosen in a lottery drawing for the position; some of his responsibilities included managing the field, painting the foul lines, and picking up trash from the field. Another year, he was on a crew that painted athletic facilities in Long Beach public schools. Gwynn also played summer baseball for the Long Beach Jets (coached by 1964 Olympic high jumper John Rambo) in the Joe DiMaggio Summer League at Blair Field. One year, Gwynn and the Jets won the local league and advanced to the state tournament in San Rafael of Northern California; they were defeated in the championship game.
He was a two-sport star in basketball and baseball. In his final two years, his Jackrabbits baseball team was a combined 3–25–2 in the league, while his basketball team went a combined 53–6 and twice reached the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)'s Southern Section 4A championship game. Gwynn had considered quitting baseball as a senior to concentrate on basketball, but his mother talked him out of it. "She said it might be something down the road and that I might be sorry later if I didn't play," recalled Gwynn.
thumb|upright|left|Gwynn was a standout basketball player in both high school (pictured) and college.
As a junior, he was the starting point guard on Poly's basketball team, which went 30–1 and won the Southern Section 4A title that year. The final was played for more than 10,000 fans at the Long Beach Arena, where Gwynn scored 10 points in the 69–50 victory over Buena of Ventura. In Gwynn's senior year, Poly was 23–7, and again advanced to the championship round, despite finishing third in the Moore League. Their bid for a second straight title ended with a 57–50 loss to Pasadena. After the season, he switched to baseball, which was already well underway for the year. Despite his shortened season, he earned first-team All-Southern Section honors after batting .563. Poly's baseball team's struggles taught him to remain focused, continue executing, and stay productive. He also went unselected in the 1977 MLB draft, which Gwynn attributed to his limited playing time.
College career
thumb|upright|Gwynn set school records for [[assist (basketball)|assists playing basketball at San Diego State.]]
Gwynn was a two-sport star with San Diego State, playing three seasons of baseball and four of basketball.
By the following season in 1979, Gwynn still had not heard from Aztecs baseball coach Jim Dietz about joining the team after the basketball season. However, an opportunity arose after two outfielders riding bicycles were struck by an automobile and injured, leaving Dietz in need of replacements. Freshman shortstop Bobby Meacham, who played against Gwynn in high school, convinced the coach to give Gwynn a chance. In 1980, Gwynn hit .423 with six home runs and 29 runs batted in (RBI), and was named third-team All-American by Baseball News. The following season, he was a first-team All-American after batting .416 with 11 home runs and 62 RBI. He also was named a first-team All-WAC outfielder. He was twice named to the All-WAC Second Team, and he averaged 8.8 points per game his senior year. He could dunk a basketball, He had a quick first step in either sport and was able to run in 6.7 seconds.
Gwynn indirectly received exposure from scouts who were interested in Meacham, who would become a first-round pick in 1981. Gwynn had started the baseball season late in 1981, as the basketball team was still competing, and some scouts had already seen enough of Meacham and stopped following SDSU. Also on the Aztecs baseball team was Casey McKeon, son of Jack McKeon, who was the San Diego Padres general manager at the time. Given his son's involvement, McKeon often went to Aztec games. Gwynn had re-joined the baseball team five days earlier. The Houston Astros had also scouted Gwynn and wanted to select him, but since the team had no picks in the first two rounds, their first possible chance was in the third round after the Padres' third-round pick when Gwynn was taken. He had attended Padres games while he was at San Diego State and thought they had the "ugliest uniforms I've ever seen in my life." Those uniforms again came to his mind after he was drafted. McKeon had wanted to take Gwynn with the Padres' first pick, but they chose two other players in the first round and another in the second. McKeon threatened to walk out of the draft room had San Diego not selected him in the third. but his concerns were allayed once he found a bat comparable to the size he had used with the Aztecs. He led the Northwest League with a .331 batting average, and added 12 homers and 17 stolen bases in just 42 games for the Walla Walla Padres, San Diego's Class A minor league affiliate, earning him the league's most valuable player (MVP) award in 1981. In the summer of 1981, Gwynn was promoted to the Padres' Reno affiliate but was unable to travel there due to the ongoing air traffic controller strike, so he got sent to Amarillo instead. He finished the season in Class AA with the Amarillo Gold Sox for 23 games, while batting .462. He was batting .328 in 93 games with the Islanders when he was promoted and debuted for the Padres on July 19, 1982. He started in center field against the Philadelphia Phillies in place of a slumping Jones. In his fourth at-bat, Gwynn got his first major league hit—a double—against reliever Sid Monge. Pete Rose, the Phillies' first baseman who later became the major-league all-time hit leader, told Gwynn, "Congratulations. Don't catch me in one night." Five weeks later against Pittsburgh, Gwynn injured his left wrist after diving for a ball and hitting the hard artificial turf at Three Rivers Stadium, and missed three weeks while on the disabled list (DL). He finished his rookie season batting .289 in 54 games, the only season he hit below .300. He asked his wife to record the games before a road trip, and he began using video recording to review his at-bats. After looking at the tapes and correcting his swing during batting practice, Gwynn became a believer in using video. He heated up to a .309 average for his shortened season, and his 25-game hitting streak set a Padres record. For the second straight season, San Diego finished with a .500 record. He had 213 hits, breaking the Padres record of 194 set by Gene Richards in 1980. Wiggins' speed also disrupted the defense and opened up holes that Gwynn was able to exploit for hits. He hit above .400 when Wiggins was on base ahead of him. "Anybody can hit a fastball", said Gwynn. The duo was one of the biggest reasons behind San Diego's success. They could score fast with Wiggins getting on first, stealing second, and Gwynn singling him home. Gwynn batted .410 with runners in scoring position, and manager Dick Williams said his records indicated that Gwynn had the best "RBI percentage" on the team. and flied out to Tigers left fielder Larry Herndon for the final out of the fall classic. During the offseason, Gwynn took less money to stay in San Diego by signing a six-year, $4.6 million contract with the Padres. Still, his new salary of more than $500,000 salary for 1985 represented a sizable raise over the $180,000 he would have received, or the $100,000 he had received in 1984. His average was under .300 into June when he got hot but then sprained his wrist on June 27 in a collision with Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia. Still, Gwynn was named with seven other Padres to the 1985 All-Star Game. San Diego then led the NL West but finished the season in third place. After Gwynn's wrist healed, he hit .339 after the start of August and finished the season with the fourth-highest average in the NL (.317). Without an adequate replacement for Wiggins batting leadoff, his RBIs fell to 46.
Gwynn played a career-high 160 games in 1986, when he led NL position players in Wins Above Replacement (WAR). He scored 100 runs for the first time and tied for the NL lead (107). He set then-career highs for doubles (33), homers (14), and steals (37). He finished third in hitting (.329) after leading for most of the season. He hit only .296 in September, and he regretted paying too much attention to Tim Raines and Steve Sax, who were previously trailing him. Gwynn won his first Gold Glove after leading the league in total chances and putouts (337). In June, he had 44 hits in 93 at-bats for a .473 average, the best month in his career.|group=lower-alpha He led the league in WAR, His average, hits, runs, and triples were all Padre records. Fox Sports baseball writer Rob Neyer believes that Gwynn may have been MLB's best player during his 1987 season,
During the last three months of the 1987 season, a finger on Gwynn's left hand would lock when he gripped a bat. It would open barely enough for the bat to slip out of his grip. He had surgery on the hand during spring training the following season. Early in 1988, Gwynn was on the DL for 21 days after spraining his thumb after tripping rounding first base in Pittsburgh. He hit .246 as late as July 2, 1988, but won the batting title with a .313 average. while his .313 average was the lowest to win a title in NL history. For the 25 years ending in 1988, batting leaders averaged .343. Gwynn hit 119 points higher with runners on base (.382) than with the bases empty (.263), the largest differential in the NL that season. During the season, McKeon replaced Bowa as Padres manager and moved Gwynn from right to center field. Gwynn also reached 1,000 career hits on April 22 with a single off Nolan Ryan of the Astros.
In the 1989 season, he was hurting in September while in the race for another batting title. His right toe made it hard for him to put a shoe on, and his left Achilles tendon was sore, preventing him from pushing off properly when swinging. His batting average dropped, but he insisted on playing until his manager forced him to sit out for two games. "I lost to the best", Clark said. Gwynn became the first NL player to win three consecutive batting titles since Musial (1950–1952). In December 1989, Gwynn fell to being the seventh-highest-paid Padre at $1 million a year and questioned the team's salary structure. Gwynn's request for a contract renegotiation was denied.
1990–1992
Gwynn in 1990 was accused by some teammates of being selfish and caring more about his batting average than winning. First baseman Jack Clark, most notably, stated that Gwynn should be swinging with runners in scoring position instead of bunting and protecting his batting average. Gwynn said he resorted to bunting to advance the runners because he was not a good pull hitter. "No one bothers Tony Gwynn because he wins batting titles, but the Padres finish fourth or fifth every year", said Clark, who also stirred controversy on his prior teams. Teammates Mike Pagliarulo and Garry Templeton sided with Clark,
Stung by the criticism, Gwynn was miserable the rest of the season and became withdrawn and distrustful among his teammates. Conscious of being perceived as selfish, he altered his hitting style by attempting to pull the ball to move runners in situations where he would normally hit to the opposite field. Rumors that he might be traded affected his play. The Padres said a groundskeeper was responsible, but Gwynn believed it was a cover-up. Clark denied any involvement. He was further upset that neither management nor other teammates came to his defense at the time. He later regretted saying he wanted to avoid his teammates in general instead of being more specific which ones he was referring to. Gwynn countered, "I've been doing the same things my whole career, playing the same way. Now, why is it an issue? Because Jack Clark says it is." Gwynn finished the season batting .309, ranking sixth in the league but the lowest average of any full season in his career; Gwynn's preferred bat material was wide-grain ash wood. He wanted his wooden bats light like his aluminum ones in college. Instead of having the barrel of his bats shaved, as many batters do, he had them "cupped", with the end of the barrel hollowed out like the bottom of a wine bottle. His small hands required that he use thin-handled bats. although some former teammates complained he would swing for a hit even when a player was trying to steal, depriving his teammate of a stolen base.
Gwynn was able to hit the ball to all fields, but liked to hit balls the opposite way to the left, between third base and shortstop. He dubbed it the "5.5 hole", since baseball scorekeeping designates third base using a 5 and shortstop with a 6. Gwynn preferred an outside pitch, waiting as long as possible and using his strong wrists to quickly hit the ball. He was not considered a home run hitter, reaching double-figures just five times, but he was a gap hitter with power to drive hits between outfielders. Opposing outfielders typically played him deep. Gwynn became a complete hitter after following Ted Willams' advice to drive inside pitches instead of finessing them, Forty-three of his 135 career home runs were in his final three full seasons (1997–1999). He and Williams became friends, and they often talked for hours about hitting.
Physique
Gwynn's physical appearance belied his athleticism. He stood , thick around the middle and thighs. and when he was in the minor leagues in 1981. Even at his athletic prime when he could really run, he weighed around and was considered pudgy. His roly-poly frame was a self-described "body by Betty Crocker", a reference to the food product brand. Towards the end of his breakout season in 1984, he conceded that his "extra weight hasn't helped me. My bat's slower than it has been all year." At the time, he attributed his weight gain to soft drinks: "It's killing me. It's always been a weakness. I've gotta cut down on the soda pop."
Gwynn was sensitive about his weight, His knee injuries over his career prompted the Padres organization, media, and fans to question his weight, conditioning, and eating habits. However, he rejected the notion that his weight led to his injuries. He also believed that the criticism stemmed mainly from his not fitting people's profile of what an athlete should look like. He said he had "a football player's body", with his father, grandfather and brothers also being big. Citing discussions with people in the sports medical community, San Diego sportswriter Tom Krasovic believed that the health problems on Gwynn's legs caused by the heavy bodyweight load were an obstacle to greater success; Krasovic posited that if Gwynn had sustained his lower early career weight, he would've challenged Pete Rose's career hits record. Limited by injuries, he played over 135 games just once in his final 11 seasons. Gwynn used to run a great deal to keep in shape, but his last five years were mostly limited to working out in the gym.
Base stealing and fielding
Gwynn was a leading base stealer in the first half of his career. As he became slower in later years while his body grew and his injuries mounted, Gwynn would anticipate pitchers' moves and would sometimes steal bases by breaking for second base before the pitcher started delivering the ball to the hitter. Defensively, he improved considerably and was among the best right fielders at quickly going to the line, cutting the ball off, and throwing to second base. He worked on his defense, constantly checking right field walls in ballparks to study how balls bounced off them. His running ability also helped him on defense. For a long time, he worked on his defense harder than he did his hitting. Pitching coach Tom House taught Gwynn the proper grip and throwing motion, and Rob Picciolo hit several ground balls and fly balls to Gwynn. While with the Padres, Gwynn returned to SDSU in the fall every offseason to work on his fielding with an emphasis on foot positioning; he had the assistant coaches hit fly balls to him in the outfield, and he also fielded from the outfield during the team's live batting practice. He was most proud of his five Gold Gloves,
Work ethic
Gwynn was hard-working and known for his work ethic and devotion to extra batting practice; on the day of a night game, Gwynn would commence batting practice at the ballpark in the early afternoon between twelve and two o'clock, and also do batting practice in the batting cage after the game. On the road, he stayed in his hotel room, studying video of his at-bats or playing video games. In an era before laptops and tablets, Gwynn bought his own video equipment and lugged it from town to town along with tapes of his games. His wife traveled with a Betamax video cassette recorder that was the size of a suitcase to tape his at-bats. Few hitters were as meticulous as Gwynn with his detailed notebooks and videotape, which he spent hours studying. Gwynn also used video to scout umpires, studying the size and shape of each individual umpire's strike zone. "Tony taught me more about hitting than I ever taught him", said Merv Rettenmund, his hitting coach for nine years with the Padres. similarly, after Gwynn's former teammate John Kruk was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, when the Padres and Phillies faced each other and Gwynn reached base with the opportunity to chat with Kruk (who was the first baseman), Gwynn offered Kruk verbal scouting reports for new pitchers on Kruk's NL East divisional opponents. Gwynn was also involved in the Padres' front office affairs as a player; general manager Kevin Towers usually consulted Gwynn for input on potential trades, particularly regarding whether the incoming players' character would be a good fit for the team. In this capacity, Gwynn researched and interviewed people as necessary.
Personality
Gwynn was friendly and accessible to both the media and fans. Gwynn possessed a cheerful personality, being friendly towards others while being critical of himself. Gwynn disliked arrogant people, and was uncomfortable with receiving praise and flattery. Gwynn was unimpressed by other people's social standing, wealth, or fame; he received offers to appear on Jay Leno's talk show on several occasions and declined all of them. Another time, he was invited to a White House dinner with the President and personally didn't care to attend, only obliging at his wife Alicia's insistence because she really wanted to go. After his father died in 1993, Gwynn followed his advice and became more outspoken and more of a team leader.
|author = Tony Gwynn
|source = San Diego Magazine, December 2006, p. 136
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In 1989, Gwynn first expressed his concerns regarding the increasing usage of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in baseball with Bob Nightengale, the Padres reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 1995 when very few in the baseball world were outspoken about the matter, Gwynn went public with his opposition to PEDs, and consequently received pushback for doing so from veteran players, including his own teammates. Gwynn however, supported Mark McGwire's inclusion into the Hall of Fame, defending his stance with the rationale that the league had "no rules" regarding the use of PEDs throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s; he also said that McGwire "dominated an era" from an on-field standpoint.
Legacy
Gwynn was a 15-time All-Star, voted 11 times by fans to be a starter, the most by an NL outfielder, and tied with Reggie Jackson for the most among MLB outfielders. Gwynn accumulated 3,141 hits and a career batting average of .338, and hit .371 in two World Series. Jason Quick recalled that in an interview with Gwynn about hitting, the latter was "describing art in the most passionate and beautiful way possible…It was like hearing Picasso talk about art...And Maya Angelou about poetry." Tim Kurkjian referred to Gwynn as an artist and said "his bats were his magic brushes". David Jones stated Gwynn had "unmatched hitting prowess,” comparing it to the artistry of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Claude Monet; Troy Renck said that when he encountered Gwynn practicing, "it was as if I had stumbled into the recording studio to find Mozart."
Gwynn has the highest adjusted batting average of all-time with .342. Barry Bonds, MLB's all-time home run leader, called Gwynn "the best hitter of my generation"; similar sentiments were echoed by Jayson Stark, The Oklahoman sportswriter Berry Tramel, The Holland Sentinel sportswriter Dan D'Addona, and Esquire news editor Ben Collins. The Associated Press called him "arguably the best pure hitter of his generation". Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, against whom Gwynn had more hits than any other pitcher, called him "the best pure hitter...Easily". and the highest of anyone who was born after 1900. Playing in an era when around 75 batters struck out 100 times in a season, Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times a year. Since 1975, Gwynn is one of only two players that batted .300 in a season while striking out at most once every 25 at-bats.