Tony Gwynn

1960-

American baseball player

Tony Gwynn is one of the greatest players and most prolific hitters in major league baseball history, ranking with Ted Williams and Stan Musial for batting average. Finishing his twenty-year career with the San Diego Padres at age forty-one in 2001, he recorded a .338 overall average, with 3,141 career hits, putting him in sixteenth place for the most hits in major league history. He also

won five Gold Glove Awards for his outfield skills—the most in San Diego Padres history—was voted a starter in the All-Star Game eleven times, and won eight National League batting championships and seven Silver Slugger Awards. Gwynn is known for videotaping his hits and studying them to improve his technique. Gwynn is expected to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Young Athlete

Anthony Keith "Tony" Gwynn was born May 9, 1960, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Charles (a warehouse manager) and Vendella (a postal worker) Gwynn. He grew up with his two brothers in Long Beach, California, where his dad played baseball with the boys in the backyard, using cut-up socks as balls. Young Tony also had a best friend in elementary school, Alicia Cureton, who became his sweetheart in high school and his wife in 1981.

Gwynn graduated from Long Beach Poly High School in 1977. His success in basketball and baseball won him a sports scholarship to San Diego State University (SDSU) in 1978. There he played only basketball in his freshman year but went on to play baseball with the SDSU Aztecs as well. During his sophomore year, he began using the 32-inch, 31-ounce bat that was his favorite throughout his professional career. Gwynn was named third-team All-American by Baseball News in 1980. In 1981 he batted.416 and was named National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All-American. On June 10, 1981, Gwynn was drafted by both the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Clippers basketball team. He chose the Padres.

"Mr. Padre"

Gwynn started his professional career in the Padres' farm system in Washington, Texas, Hawaii, and Nevada before being brought up to San Diego on July 19, 1982. He debuted against the Philadelphia Phillies' champion hitter Pete Rose, who was so impressed with Gwynn's hitting that he said, "What are you trying to do, catch me after one night?"

During the 1982 and 1983 seasons, Gwynn suffered the first of several injuries that would cause him to miss games during his career. In August 1982 he broke his left wrist while catching a fly ball and then broke his right wrist playing winter baseball in Puerto Rico. By mid-1983, however, he was back with the Padres and finished the season with a .309 average.

In 1984, Gwynn took the first of his National League batting championship titles, with a .351 average and 213 hits. He came in third in voting for the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP), even though the Padres lost the 1984 World Series to the Detroit Tigers.

Tony on Tape

From very early in his career, Gwynn videotaped all of his at-bats and then studied them religiously to improve his nearly perfect technique. This practice began in 1983 when he asked his wife to tape a game during a time he felt his hitting was off. After watching the tape, he saw the error he was making. He quickly corrected it and relied on the tapes for the rest of his career, accumulating a library of them. This earned him the nickname "Captain Video." He once told Ebony magazine, "I do all of my preparation before I get into the batter's box—and then it's just about seeing the ball and hitting it." Gwynn favored hitting the ball in what he calls the 5.5 Hole, the gap between the shortstop and third base.

During the early 1990s, Gwynn became close friends with the great hitter Ted Williams, who became a mentor to him and spoke of Gwynn as the finest pure hitter of his generation. Williams suggested that Gwynn, a left-handed hitter, like himself and the great Stan Musial, should be the successor to his own title as the greatest living hitter. Some sportswriters argued that Musial should inherit the title, but Williams, who died in July 2002, favored Gwynn.

Winning through the Pain

Gwynn kept up his award-winning playing after the 1984 season—his batting average never dropped below.300 between 1984 and 1994, and he continued to win batting titles—along with the love of the San Diego fans. He also won his first Gold Glove Award for defense in 1986. He had an exceptional .370 batting average in 1987, with a Padres record of 218 hits.

Gwynn enjoyed eating and developed a bit of a rotund physique, but the weight gain did not slow him up on the diamond. What did continue to plague him, however, were injuries. In 1988 he had surgery on his left hand and was injured in a fall. After getting off to a slow start, however, he finished the season batting .313 and won another National League batting title. In the 1989 season he injured his Achilles tendon and had another wrist injury but still managed to take home the Gold Glove and be named All-Star. That year was difficult in another way as well: in spite of his high salary, he had to file for bankruptcy because of what he called improper practices by his accountant. In 1990 he fractured an index finger, and in 1991 he had a conflict with some team members, who hung a figure of him in the dugout with arms and legs removed. He also had the first of four knee surgeries that would cause him to miss games through 1994. In spite of the lost time, he continued to play brilliantly and achieved his 2,000th career hit in 1993.

The year 1994 was perhaps the most painful of all for Gwynn, however. He had lost his father in the winter of 1993, and it was difficult for him to go on without the man on whom he had so depended for advice and support. Another knee surgery and the loss of a former teammate, Eric Show, to a drug overdose, brought Gwynn down even further. He stopped training and canceled public appearances. He soon pulled himself together, though, and concentrated on his game. In August, as Gwynn was hitting .475, the Players Association went on strike and called a halt to the games.

Back on the playing field in 1995, Gwynn had another great year, winning the league batting title and his eleventh All-Star Game designation, as well as being named Padres MVP for the sixth time. He played most of the 1996 season with a torn Achilles tendon but still batted .353, logged his 2,500th hit, and made the play that put the Padres into the playoffs. After the season ended, he had surgery to repair the torn tendon.

Fully recovered in 1997, at age 37, with a little gray in his beard, Gwynn had probably his best season with the Padres. He hit his personal best in home runs, seventeen, had 119 RBIs, batted .372, and won his eighth league batting title. The Padres renewed his contract through 2000.

In 1998 the Padres went to the World Series for the second time in Gwynn's career. They lost to the New York Yankees even though Gwynn had eight hits and a home run in sixteen times at bat. On August 6, 1999, he collected his 3,000th hit. Only Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie achieved the milestone in fewer games than Gwynn had.

Retirement from Professional Baseball

Although he became a free agent in 2001, Gwynn stayed on with the Padres to finish out his career. After 3,141 hits and finishing with a batting average of .338, he retired from the Padres at the end of the 2001 season. His teammates presented him with a motorcycle during a ceremony at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, as some 60,000 fans cheered him goodbye. After his twenty years with the Padres, he said, "I feel I've done all I can do as a baseball player."

Tony Gwynn is a student of baseball, a hitter who never stopped trying to perfect his swing, to know his pitchers, and to help his team win. He holds five of the top eleven batting averages for a single season compiled since the end of World War II and tied with Honus Wagner for the most National League batting titles (eight). He is also an affable, easygoing person, always attentive to the media and the fans. Tony and Alicia Gwynn are famous for their charitable work with young people. Tim Kurkijan of Sports Illustrated once called Gwynn "probably the most popular and successful player in San Diego sports history" and "one of baseball's most good-natured people."

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: c/o San Diego State University Department of Athletics, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, California 92182-4313. Online: http://www.goaztecs.ocsn.com.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY GWYNN:

(With Jim Geschke) Tony!, Contemporary Books, 1986.

(With Jim Rosenthal) Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player, St. Martin's Press, 1992.

(With Roger Vaughan; foreword by Ted Williams) The Art of Hitting, GT Pub., 1998.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 18. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 1998.

Newsmakers, Issue 4. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 1995.

Who's Who Among African Americans, 14th edition. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.

Periodicals

"Coaching at His Alma Mater." Jet (October 15, 2001): 50.

"Community Champions." Sporting News (August 2, 1999): 17.

Elfin, David. "Hometown Hero." Insight on the News (October 1, 2001): 28.

"A Final Goodbye." Jet (October 22, 2001): 55.

Hocker, Cliff. "Gwynn up to Bat at Church's Plate." Black Enterprise (November 2000): 30.

Other

Baseball-Reference.com "Tony Gwynn." http://www.baseball-reference.com/ (November 27, 2002).

Dutton, Bob. "Who Takes Position as Greatest Living Hitter after Williams?" Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. (July 7, 2002).

Eckhouse, Morris A., and James G. Robinson. "Tony Gwynn." Baseball Library.com. http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary/ (November 27, 2002).

Kawakami, Tim. "Ten Good Minutes with Tony Gwynn." Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. (July 28, 2002.)

San Diego State University Athletic Department. "Aztecs Name Tony Gwynn Head Baseball Coach: Former SDSU Baseball and Basketball Star Returning to The Mesa." http://goaztecs.ocsn.com/ (September 20, 2001.)

The SportsCoach.com. "Tony Gwynn." http://www.baseballinstruction.com/ (December 12, 2002).

World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. "Tony Gwynn." http://www.sportshumanitarian.com/ (December 12, 2002).

Sketch by Ann H. Shurgin