R.I.P. Tony Gwynn

[TABF]

Im a huge baseball guy! Love baseball and I'm a student of the game in all aspects! Nobody could swing it like T. NOBODY!

Greg Maddux put it best: http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball...n-quote/232778

[Millionaire Wussy]

Im a huge baseball guy! Love baseball and I'm a student of the game in all aspects! Nobody could swing it like T. NOBODY!

Greg Maddux put it best: http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball...n-quote/232778

We didn't know how good we had it with TGwynn. Now the whole team might get as many hits in agame as T used to...ha

[Screeme]

Dug out my old Gwynn t-shirt to wear today. I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said already. I remember going to a game and watching him go 5 for 5. Just amazing.

RIP Mr Gwynn

[MakoShark]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/thank-you--tony-gwynn--for-being-a-true-professional-and-an-even-better-person-175320800.html

So we say it again to Tony Gwynn, in case he didn't hear it the first time or the countless times since: Thank you.

Thank you for your heart, your professionalism, your loyalty, your toughness and your genuine laugh, which, cruelly, we will not hear again. Thank you for teaching us the craft, for sitting at your locker and making it sound so hard, for standing in the box and making it look so easy. Thank you for the back of your baseball card, which stacks "SAN DIEGO" on top of "SAN DIEGO" on top of "SAN DIEGO," on and on, and stacks batting titles on top of batting titles, on and on. And for the back of your jersey, No. 19, which never changed, and the front of your jersey, which always read the same. Thank you for playing for the little guy and making it look good. Thank you for your son, Tony Jr., a kind and thoughtful young man whose sole failure as a ballplayer was to be born to one of the greatest hitters to ever grip a bat. Thank you for having us out to those ballgames, and for having us all up to Cooperstown that day and for making us feel good about our game.

[thelightningwill]

Im a huge baseball guy! Love baseball and I'm a student of the game in all aspects! Nobody could swing it like T. NOBODY!

Greg Maddux put it best: http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball...n-quote/232778

When I still cared about baseball, the two best hitters for average were Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn. I think Gwynn was the best of the two, and I don't think it was close. Seeing Gwynn strike out was about as rare as seeing Charlie Joiner drop a pass. Plus, Tony was a cool ass dude who would never ditch his team.

What I like best about him was that he was a fat guy who could run. Other than Alan Wiggins, my other favorite Padre, Gwynn was our best base stealer.

[bonehead]

He was a damn good basketball player at State too

[Highboltage]

Saw this on Reddit and thought it said a lot about how good Tony was:

Greg Maddux talking about how changing speeds and having control are far more important than velocity, because no hitter can tell the exact speed of a pitch. Well, except one...
"You just can't do it," Maddux said. "Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher's hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision."
"Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn."

[thelightningwill]

He was a damn good basketball player at State too

Aztecs rule.

[Millionaire Wussy]

He was a damn good basketball player at State too

That's probably my fondest memory of TGwynn. My earliest one for sure. I used to listen to Aztec basketball games on the radio back in the day and remember TGwynn dribbling the ball up court on many occasions. And we have a post'er here (Windsor?) that was friends with the Coaches son at the time who says Tony used to have a basketball with him everywhere he went on campus at SD State. I mean if that doesn't make you smile. Tony was a sweetheart.

[thelightningwill]

That's probably my fondest memory of TGwynn. My earliest one for sure. I used to listen to Aztec basketball games on the radio back in the day and remember TGwynn dribbling the ball up court on many occasions. And we have a post'er here (Windsor?) that was friends with the Coaches son at the time who says Tony used to have a basketball with him everywhere he went on campus at SD State. I mean if that doesn't make you smile. Tony was a sweetheart.

Uh. No. Tony Gwynn was a badass motherfucker.

[6025]

I want to know, hearing the well earned universal praise from everyone, has anybody asked Jack Clark for his thoughts? He might be the one person on earth who hated Tony, which begs the question - what kind of wretched asshole was Clark?

[thelightningwill]

I want to know, hearing the well earned universal praise from everyone, has anybody asked Jack Clark for his thoughts? He might be the one person on earth who hated Tony, which begs the question - what kind of wretched asshole was Clark?

To be fair, Pags and Tempe had some shit to say about Gwynn that season too. It was a season of bitchiness. But whatever. Gwynn ruled. Jack Clark is a nobody.