Tony Gwynn was the ultimate Punch-and-Judy hitter. Sprayed the ball to all fields, hit a home run only once in a blue moon, but won eight batting titles and ...
Will be inducted into the Hall of Fame today.
Amazing.
When you think of Hall of Famers, singles hitters don't come to mind. In fact, check the all-time list of batting average leaders and there are only a handful of pure contact hitters.
Gwynn approached hitting as a science, a tireless methodical pursuit to getting an edge on any pitcher. That work ethic produced a .338 average, 20th best, and 3,141 hits; all but 763 of them were singles.
Gwynn says Mike Schmidt told him years ago you can teach a batter to hit .300, but you can't teach him how to hit the ball out of the park.
Gwynn was at first annoyed by Schmidt's comment but later agreed with him and was never lured to become a home-run hitter. He was content to drive a Chevy while others yearned for Cadillacs.
Now, both Gwynn, the singles hitter, and Schmidt, the home-run hitter, will be sitting on the Cooperstown stage today.
"Growing up, the guys I gravitated to were contact-type hitters," says Gwynn, now the San Diego State baseball coach. "Guys like Rod Carew, George Brett, Paul Molitor, Pete Rose. Those were the guys every morning when I picked up the paper I wanted to see what they did. They were racking up two, three hits a game.
"So when I got to the big leagues I thought that was the type of hitter I was supposed to be. I had never had a whole lot of success trying to hit balls out of ballparks, trying to be a run producer."
One day early in Gwynn's career, he had a long talk with Ted Williams, arguably the best hitter the game has produced.
"It wasn't until I got the chance to talk with Ted that I thought I could do it," he says. "That changed things because I learned I could still do the things I had always done but be more aggressive with the inside pitch without sacrificing average. In today's game, the majority of the guys want to be that complete guy. Getting a single, stealing a base and scoring a run is kind of a lost art."
Gwynn joins Iron Man Cal Ripken in Cooperstown, N.Y., with what is expected to be an adoring crowd of more than 50,000. The induction ceremonies will be the highlight of a weekend that will pump fresh air into baseball, a contrast to the suffocating atmosphere a continent away in California where Barry Bonds continues his controversial chase of the game's most cherished record.
Jeff Idelson, Hall of Fame vice president, puts it best: "Ripken and Gwynn are both recent retirees who are revered in Baltimore and San Diego, but also have tremendous national appeal because they connected with and were accessible to, the fans in every city in which they played. Those same fans now want to say thank you to Tony and Cal by supporting their induction."
Years ago I arranged to meet Gwynn one morning in the clubhouse for an interview. When I arrived he had already been there an hour, his VCR machine playing at-bat after at-bat of himself. Perfection of the swing was his passion.
"I take this on the road with me and when I'm not on the field I spend most of my time watching tapes," he said. "I'm looking for the perfect mechanics when I get a base hit. The hardest thing about hitting a baseball is understanding yourself and what you need to do."
There hasn't been a player to hit .400 since Williams batted .406 in 1941. Gwynn had his sights set on the coveted mark in 1994, but his assault was snuffed by the players' strike that began on Aug. 12. He ended at .394.
"I don't feel deprived because we were all in the same boat," he says. "In my mind I thought I could and sure wanted the chance because (my average) was going up. I was hitting everybody, lefties and righties. I know I could have given it a run. I think I had the kind of personality that could have handled it. No regrets."
Last weekend outside San Diego's Petco Park, a 9-foot statue of Gwynn in mid-swing was unveiled. A plaque on the front has the inscription, "Tony Gwynn, Mr. Padre."
On the back of the base there's a quote from his late father, Charles: "If you work hard, good things will happen."
Even for Punch-and-Judy hitters.
Tony Gwynn file
Name: Anthony Keith Gwynn
Born: May 9, 1960
MLB career: 20 seasons
Position: Outfielder
Team: San Diego Padres (1982-2001)
Career highlights
Elected in first year of eligibility, receiving 97 percent of the vote by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, seventh-highest percentage in Hall of Fame history
Batted .338 in 2,440 games, with 3,141 hits, 135 HR and 1,138 RBI
15 All-Star teams
Eight-time National League batting champion, matching Honus Wagner for most in NL history
Finished in top 10 of MVP voting seven times, highest was third in 1984
Seven-time Silver Slugger Award winner; five-time Gold Glove winner
Ranks 20th on all-time batting average list with .338
Hit .394 in 1994, highest NL average since Bill Terry's .401 in 1930
Hit .306 in 27 postseason games and .371 in nine World Series Games
Source: USA Today research