Today's his birthday; he would have been 58. Here's one stat that boggles my mind. The guy played for the Padres for 20 years and only struck out 434 times, an average of (does math) 21.7 strikeouts per season. We're into the second week of May, and how many players reached that number last month? Go ahead and Google it. I'll bet there's a few.
Something else: the pitcher he faced the most? Greg Maddux; 107 at-bats. My old roommate used to say that Maddux wasn't a pitcher, he was a "goddamn surgeon". 8th on the all-time career wins list. The only pitcher to ever notch over 300 wins AND over 3,000 strikeouts AND give up less than 1,000 walks over a career. Tony owned him. He batted .415 against Maddux. Maddux never struck him out.
Something else: after his rookie year, his batting average never dipped below .300. His last two seasons, he hit .323 and .324 respectively. (The lifetime average, of course, is what defines him. .338, the best since Ted Williams.)
Something else: 5 Gold Gloves.
Something else: Tony was always a Padre, but before he was a Padre, he was an Aztec - played hoops as well as baseball for San Diego State - and then after he was a Padre he went back to being an Aztec, as head coach of the SDSU baseball team. This mattered, I think. Back in the very late 80's, when I was at San Diego State, living in the old red brick dorms on the west side of campus, the ones with the parking that backed up against Smith Field's outfield wall, you'd be walking back home from class and during the offseason you'd frequently see him there, heading to the field for some BP. "Hey Tony!", you'd say, and every time - every single time - you'd get a wave and a "Hey fellas! How's it goin'?" back, in that Urkel-y voice that didn't really fit the man, but somehow absolutely did.
Something else: he was never "Gwynn" to us. When you said 'Tony' back in the day everyone knew who you were talking about.
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