R.I.P Tony Gwynn

Today, Tony Gwynn passed away from cancer, related to his chewing tobacco use in his playing days. At the age of 54, baseball lost one of their legends and one of the more recent inductees to the 3000 hit club.

Tony Gwynn's career contained feats such as winning the NL batting title eight times, fifteen time all-star, five gold glove awards, and 2007 first ballot inductee into the Hall of Fame. His career batting average was .338 and never dipped below .309 in any one season. After his career was over, he continued to remain connected to baseball by taking over as the head coach for San Diego State baseball. He took leave in March for medical reasons and unfortunately never returned to his role.

One of the more unknown things about Tony Gwynn was that he almost didn't become a baseball player. He was recruited by San Diego State out of Long Beach Poly High School as a highly touted point guard. In his freshmen year, he only played basketball. During his sophomore, an bicycling accident that injured two of San Diego State's outfielders, left the college baseball team in need. Jim Dietz gave Tony Gwynn a chance to try out and from there, everything is history. He won All-American honors in his junior and senior years, playing leftfield and designated hitter. In basketball he won Western Athletic Conference all conference awards twice. In the 1981, he was selected in the third round by the San Diego Padres with the 58th overall pick. On the same day, the NBA held their draft and the San Diego Clippers selected him in the tenth round.

He was the definition of a player that was self made. He consistently used video of his at-bats to study his own flaws and to study the tendencies of the pitchers he would face. Without this ability, he could not have been the consistent .300+ hitter he became. He constantly made adjustments to improve his hitting. One such adjustment was when joined the Padres minor league system, he had trouble converting over to wood bats from the aluminum bats college used. He made the adjustment to drop to a 32" inch bat that weighed only 31 ounces to mimic the weight of the aluminum bats. Despite losing a couple of inches on the length of the bat, he was able to control his swings better.

He created the term "5.5 hole" because he often would drive the ball to the opposite field between the third baseman (5) and the shortstop (6). Earlier in his career he was able to run, including stealing 56 bases in 1987. Eight knee surgeries slowed him down towards the end of his career.

In summation of his career, fellow major league all-star outfielder Joe Carter said he played with or against three of the games greatest "game changers" and listed them as 1) Kirby Puckett, 2) Paul Molitor, and 3) Tony Gwynn.

The Gwynn family had an odd knack for dates too. Tony Gwynn obtained his 3,000th hit on his mother's birthday. Exactly twenty-four years to the day after getting his first hit (a double), Tony Gwynn Jr. obtained his first hit as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, also a double.

After the end of his career, the Padres retired his number 19 and unveiled a statue of him at Petco Park with the term "Mr. Padre" inscribed into the base of it. It was fitting as he spent his entire career with the organization which became a rarity in his generation. Despite player during the "steroid era", he was one of the few all-star hitters not to be accused of any wrong doing. His career often paralleled fellow hitters Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett. In his fifty-four years, he displayed 100% class which is hard to come by in sports today. 

R.I.P. Don Zimmer

Normally a ballplayer, manager, or someone else involved in Major League Baseball has to hit certain milestones to be considered a Hall of Famer. For a hitter it could be five hundred homeruns or three hundred wins for a pitcher. For a manager, usually it means you have to have a World Series ring or two. Otherwise, if you make it to the Hall of Fame, it's because you did something to revolutionize the game such as breaking the color barrier.

But when should someone be elected to the Hall of Fame, despite not hitting any of the these career milestones? How about a player with these stats....

12 Seasons, .235 career batting average, 773 hits, 91 homeruns, 45 stolen bases, and 1 All-Star appearance

...or manager stats that look like this?...1 first place season, 1 manager of the year award, and a career record of 885 wins and 858 loses.

Not very Hall of Fame like at first glance, right?

Normally I would agree, but in this case, these stats belong to Don Zimmer. He spent sixty-six seasons in professional baseball, playing with World Series winners ('55 and '59 with the Dodgers), and coaching four more ('96 and '98-'00 with the Yankees). He had been involved with the MLB so long that he was the last member of the Brooklyn Dodgers franchise to still be working on the field (Vin Scully is technically the last, but he never played/coached/managed).

Zimmer had also been involved in several other notorious moments in Major League Baseball history. Because of Zimmer nudging Billy Martin to ask about George Brett's bat, the famous "Pine Tar Incident" in 1983 took place. Also in 1953, after being struck in the head by a pitch, the MLB began to adopt the practice of hitters using helmets. Lastly, during a brawl on the field, Zimmer, a coach for the Yankees at the time, charged Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, only to be tossed to the ground. It became one of the most famous fight moments in baseball history.

He also has the dubious honor of being only one of four people to be ejected from a game in six different decades. The others are Casey Stengel, Frank Robinson, and Leo Durocher. He also was the first New York Met to wear the uniform.

As the bench coach for the Yankees, Zimmer was the person to convince Torre not to make it mandatory for the players to wear ties when traveling on road trips. During his tribute in Tampa Bay, it was revealed that his wife Soot used to tie his ties during home games, but on the road, without his wife, he couldn't tie the tie himself. His wife was part of Zimmer and baseball as far back as 1951. They were married at home plate in Elmira, New York in between two games of a doubleheader.

At his tribute, his family mentioned that no funeral service would be performed because the baseball field was his church. Over the years he touched and molded many players and legends of the game from Derek Jeter to Jackie Robinson. Mark Grace to Roberto Clemente. Willie Mays to David Price.

The game won't be the same without him there. With sixty-six years of professional baseball experience under his belt, it's hard for anyone to recall a time the game had been played without Zimmer being part of it. Despite his lack of milestone numbers, his influence superseded what most players have ever achieved in their lifetime.