Milestone Will Complete Gwynn
Tony Gwynn wouldn’t look right hitting No. 3,000 in anything but a San Diego Padres uniform. It’s the only one he’s ever worn in the majors.
He came to the city in 1977 to play point guard for the San Diego State basketball team and never left, except for the 1-1/2 seasons he spent in the minors.
Gwynn might have joined the NBA’s woeful Clippers, who were in San Diego back in June 1981 when they made him a 10th-round draft pick on the day the Padres took him in the third round of baseball’s draft.
Choosing baseball over basketball was a great career choice, of course. Gwynn is only a few of his sweet left-handed swings away from reaching the definitive milestone for hitters.
“To get them all in one uniform, to get them all in one league, those things are important to me,” said Gwynn, 15 hits short going into the weekend. “That’s why I’m still here.”
Gwynn hoped to have the ball from his 3,000th hit in his trophy case by late May or early June. But getting there has been painfully slow because of a strained left calf muscle that sidelined him for 41 games.
The injury created a race between Gwynn and Wade Boggs to become the 22nd member of the 3,000-hit club, similar to the one in 1992, when Robin Yount got his 3,000th hit three weeks before George Brett.
Boggs, who was well behind Gwynn at the start of the season, was 14 hits short of the mark going into the weekend. Cal Ripken needs 47.
Gwynn wants to be the first to get there.
“I’ve chased those guys for I don’t know how many years,” he said. “I just hope we all get there this year, to be honest. We’ve got a chance to go down in the record books. I mean, I’m pulling for those guys; I’m not pulling against them.”
Gwynn, a pioneer in using video replays to study his swing, is arguably the best hitter of his era, an expert at putting the ball in play. He loves going the opposite way, and his ideal scenario for his 3,000th hit would be a grounder between shortstop and third base, or the “5.5 hole,” as he calls it. He even has a little patch with “5.5 hole” sewn on the tounge of his shoes. Two of Gwynn’s former teammates from the 1980s, third base coach Tim Flannery and manager Bruce Bochy, will get to share in the milestone hit.
Flannery estimates he’s seen 2,000 of Gwynn’s hits, and from every angle - on base, the bench, the coaching box.
“I’ve been through, like, four careers, and I come back, and he’s still doing the same thing he did when I left,” said Flannery, who retired in 1989 and joined the coaching staff in 1996. “The loyalty he has to this organization, this city and this team, I think that’s a tribute to him.”
Bochy knows how rare it is to see players like Gwynn and Baltimore’s Ripken spend their entire careers with one team.
“I’m going to be awfully proud for Tony because I know what he’s put into this game and how much passion he has for the game,” Bochy said. “It’s going to be a special moment.”
Gwynn’s injured calf had kept him on the disabled list until last Monday. He said he was as nervous as a rookie when he returned to the field.
“My first at bat was like the first game I ever played in,” Gwynn said. “I couldn’t calm myself down.”
That first game, on July 19, 1982, produced Gwynn’s first two hits. Since then, he’s become as quintessentially San Diego as the zoo, the beaches and aircraft carriers.
He still holds San Diego State’s basketball assists records, and the Aztecs baseball team plays in Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The Padres have never seen such a homegrown talent as Gwynn, who was born in Los Angeles.
The franchise developed a knack for losing stars like Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith and Sandy and Roberto Alomar. Gwynn was different, and in 18 seasons, he’s gone on to play in nearly twice as many games as anyone else in the club’s 31-year history. The 39-year-old outfielder was the only player to survive the team’s 14-year span between World Series appearances. He’s played for three different owners, watched embarrassing moments like Roseanne Barr screeching through the national anthem and had far too few seasons stretch into October.
But he’s never wanted to play anywhere else, even after the fire sale of 1993 reduced the Padres to a 101-loss laughingstock.
“This is a great place,” Gwynn said. “It’s a great place to hit, the people are very friendly, the weather’s great, the grass is fair, the dimensions are fair, the family’s happy. I ended up wanting to stay.”
Clearly, it’s never been about the money for the eight-time N.L. batting champion and career .339 hitter. Gwynn has repeatedly taken the so-called San Diego discount in exchange for security for himself and his family.
He wasn’t the highest-paid player when the Padres went to the World Series last year, and he’s not the highest-paid this year. At $4.3 million per season, he’s a big bargain.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably do it the exact same way, because I’d have peace of mind,” he said. “And that’s something all the money in the world sometimes can’t give you.”
After making the last out of the 1984 World Series, Gwynn thought the Padres would soon return. He couldn’t imagine how low he’d have felt if he were somewhere else when the Padres finally made it back to the World Series last fall.
“I knew that if I left and they went, and I wasn’t part of it, oh God, I couldn’t live with myself,” he said.
Instead, he homered in his first game ever in Yankee Stadium and batted .500. Despite New York’s sweep, Gwynn said he had the time of his life.
This year’s All-Star game may have topped the World Series.
Gwynn has become friends with Ted Williams because of their San Diego connections. Although he was still sidelined by the calf injury, Gwynn went to the All-Star game in Boston and ended up steadying the former Red Sox great during the emotional first-pitch ceremony.
“It’s the best thing that I’ve ever been a part of in my whole life,” Gwynn said.
Getting No. 3,000 will give him yet one more memorable moment.