Tony Gwynn Dies of Cancer

[Biernutz]

HOF Tony Gwynn has died of cancer at 54 years. The former Padres outfielder had been fighting
cancer for since 2010. He has been baseball coach of San Diego State....

[Trill Clinton]

http://i58.tinypic.com/28b4lub.jpg

[Darth_Pelican]

One of my favorite players to watch growing up. RIP

[baseline bum]

Damn, Welch and Gwynn in the same week. :(

Two guys I fucking loved from the pre-steroid era back when baseball was by far my #1 sport

[Biernutz]

Tony was such a pure hitter..that swing......

[Aztecfan03]

:depressed. My elation over the Spurs championship and Kawhi's FMVP was brought down quickly.

[Clipper Nation]

Sad to hear.... he was always one of my favorites growing up....

Interesting fact about Gwynn: he also played basketball at SDSU and the Clippers actually drafted him in the 10th round (the draft went for longer than two rounds) in 1981....

[The Gemini Method]

He was awesome to watch when he came up to Dodger Stadium. Just a great all around dude and it is sad that he is gone that young.

[DD]

Covered his and Cal's HOF induction in 2007 back when i was a reporter...one of the nicest people I've ever met.

[FromWayDowntown]

A very sad day. Tony Gwynn seemed a consummate professional -- insanely good at his craft, revered in his community, respected by his peers, and regarded as a good man all the way around. 54 is too young for anyone. Surely, a reminder to make every one of your days count.

[Dick Jones]

Great for his era, but guys like Gwynn and Boggs who made a living banging out singles are pretty overrated imho.

[Biernutz]

Great for his era, but guys like Gwynn and Boggs who made a living banging out singles are pretty overrated imho.

Yeah banging singles over and over getting on base is overrated compared to these big swingers and their hundreds
of strikeouts per season.......

[Aztecfan03]

Yeah banging singles over and over getting on base is overrated compared to these big swingers and their hundreds
of strikeouts per season.......

It is crazy that Tony's highest strikeouts in one season was 40 or less and some mlb players have had that in one month.

[IrisHockey]

Adam Dunn vs Tony Gwynn

[SupremeGuy]

RIP Mr. Padre.

[Dick Jones]

Yeah banging singles over and over getting on base is overrated compared to these big swingers and their hundreds
of strikeouts per season.......

The point of the game is to get people across home plate, not step on 1st.

[JoeTait75]

The point of the game is to get people across home plate, not step on 1st.

Depends. If you're Tony Gwynn and you have the ability to make contact on every at-bat, if you have great speed (which he did early in his career), if you play in a big park like Jack Murphy where it isn't necessarily easy to hit a home run and if you play in a league that puts a premium on station-to-station baseball (which the NL did during the '80s), you help your team more by consistently getting your bat on the ball and getting on base than you would by swinging from the heels and striking out 100 times a year.

YMMV, of course. Guys with speed that strike out a lot drive me crazy. That's why I never really liked Grady Sizemore when he played for the Indians.

[Blake]

Chewing tobacco is a hell of a drug

[Biernutz]

The point of the game is to get people across home plate, not step on 1st.

Steeping on first means more to a team than stepping back to the bench and taking a seat.....You can't get to
home plate without touching first base......

[Robz4000]

RIP Tony. One of my favorite baseball players ever.

[Infinite_limit]

5 x Gold Glove Winner
Led the Padres to 2 World Series appearances, running into two juggernauts


http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/1997/0728_large.jpg

[Dick Jones]

rofl best hitter since ted williams.

ted williams did alot more than hit infield singles.

[The Gemini Method]

Since not better--man, you're a mess. The dude was the closest to .400 since The Splendid Splinter. Hit in a pitcher's park and struck out <500 times in his total career. Too much emphasis is put on the long ball and not enough on the skill of the hitter. It is unanimous in how great he was so you're opinion fails to really matter.

[Aztecfan03]

Since not better--man, you're a mess. The dude was the closest to .400 since The Splendid Splinter. Hit in a pitcher's park and struck out <500 times in his total career. Too much emphasis is put on the long ball and not enough on the skill of the hitter. It is unanimous in how great he was so you're opinion fails to really matter.

ANd he was on a hot streak when the '94 season ended because of the strike. He had a good chance of hitting over .400 if the season wasn't cut short.

[Infinite_limit]

Tony's 1997 season @ 37 years old

.372 BA
.957 OPS
17 HRs
119 RBIs
220 Hits
49 Doubles
12 SBs
592 AB / 28 SOs

[Dick Jones]

:lmao so many people asshurt that i tell the truth about this overrated cancer-ridden dead singles slapper.

[IrisHockey]

Mono's right imo, Gwynn is overrated once you look past the elementary stats and dig into advanced metrics..

[IrisHockey]

I don't know how you win multiple GG's with a career negative dWAR ..

[ducks]

Mono's right imo, Gwynn is overrated once you look past the elementary stats and dig into advanced metrics..

BULLSHIT

[Infinite_limit]

Mono's right imo, Gwynn is overrated once you look past the elementary stats and dig into advanced metrics..
If you put together a batting order of 9 Tony's, it would be unstoppable.

[Clipper Nation]

Gwynn was awesome, but the fact that he's in the Hall of Fame and Tim Raines isn't is a joke....

[DMC]

Chewing tobacco is a hell of a drug

So is black semen just ask your ex wife.

[Infinite_limit]

Gwynn was awesome, but the fact that he's in the Hall of Fame and Tim Raines isn't is a joke....
They are on different levels. Comparing Garrett Anderson to Manny Ramirez

[Clipper Nation]

They are on different levels. Comparing Garrett Anderson to Manny Ramirez

During his time with the Expos, Raines was routinely among the best (or even the best) in the NL at drawing walks, getting steals, OBP, runs scored, getting doubles and triples... from 1981-1990, he led the National League in WAR.... he scored more runs and got on base more often in his career than Gwynn....

The only thing keeping Raines out is the old-fashioned (and dumb) idea that hitting a bunch of singles is somehow better than drawing walks....

Granted, as an Expos fan, I'm biased, but your analogy is poor....

[Infinite_limit]

During his time with the Expos, Raines was routinely among the best (or even the best) in the NL at drawing walks, getting steals, OBP, runs scored, getting doubles and triples... from 1981-1990, he led the National League in WAR.... he scored more runs and got on base more often in his career than Gwynn....

The only thing keeping Raines out is the old-fashioned (and dumb) idea that hitting a bunch of singles is somehow better than drawing walks....

Granted, as an Expos fan, I'm biased, but your analogy is poor....
I agree but he played 23 seasons and you only referenced 9 of them. As a quick comparison Tim made 7 All Star teams, none after 1987. Tony made the All Star game 15 outta 20 seasons.

Baseball-Reference compares him to Kenny Loften

AVG 162 game season
Raines: .294 BA, .810 OPS, 52 SBs, 169 H's, 63 RBI's, 102 R's
Loften: .299 BA, .794 OPS, 48 SBs, 187 H's, 60 RBI's, 118 R's

Kenny also has 4 Gold Gloves

[Aztecfan03]

During his time with the Expos, Raines was routinely among the best (or even the best) in the NL at drawing walks, getting steals, OBP, runs scored, getting doubles and triples... from 1981-1990, he led the National League in WAR.... he scored more runs and got on base more often in his career than Gwynn....

The only thing keeping Raines out is the old-fashioned (and dumb) idea that hitting a bunch of singles is somehow better than drawing walks....

Granted, as an Expos fan, I'm biased, but your analogy is poor....

Gwynn had better batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

Gwynn had more singles and less walks. (Also had half the strikeouts)

If Raines not being in is a joke, it has nothing to do with Gwynn.