Tony Gwynn was the human made up Sportscenter fact

[NormanConnors]

Never struck out more than 40 times in a season
Had arguably his best year in his age 37 season (NO ROIDS)

Imagine if he was fully healthy his whole career

Strike messed up his bid for .400

 

[Cladyclad]

Batting avg don’t matter anymore

 

[MikelArteta]

Strike messed up his bid for .400

he would have done it

 

[Michael's Black Son]

 

[BXKingPin82]

Digging thru Gwynns work is like fukking with a rubics cube.

 

[Heavy_Handz]

Dope thread. I remember Gwynn always seemed to hit Greg Maddux well & so I just looked it up and found this..

Tony Gwynn had a batting average of .429 with 9 RBIs in 103 plate appearances against Greg Maddux in his career.

 

[Buckeye Fever]

Niqqas can keep adding to this....but the quirky facts that keeps spilling out of his accolades over the years

"From 1990 to 1999, Tony Gwynn hit .312 with two strikes (454-for-1457)."

WHO DOES THAT??? WHO BATS BETTER THAN 98% OF THE LEAGUE JUST STEPPING INTO THE BATTERS BOX WITH HIM AT TWO STRIKES?

This is one of the most astounding stats I have EVER heard

 

[Buckeye Fever]

WTF???????

 

[supertrekker]

Still mad an older kid in my neighborhood tricked me into trading my Gwynn rookie card for the Billy Ripkin "fukk face" upper deck card.

Cac Alert

 

[Sauce Dab]

If I was a pitcher I’d hate going against this man with hitters in scoring position I’d be like because you already knows there’s a good chance those runs getting brought in. It just didn’t make no sense how this man could get constant contact and ALWAYS find the right spot for a base hit

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

“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.”

He could’ve gone 0-1124 and still have a .300 batting avg. Godly stuff.

iirc, part of his strategy was to never swing at the first strike or something crazy like that. Swear I heard him say it on This Week in Baseball

Edit: aye @Miggs , it was he never swung at the first pitch he saw in an at-bat

 

[Big Mel]

Straight Gaffled

Yeah I remember that Billy Ripken hype at least he could of thrown in that tops card with Cal Sr, Cal Jr and Billy

The “hype” was due to the word “fukk face” being written on the end of his bat. It was an error card worth money at the time. We all knew Billy was a marginal player. The other notable error card from upper deck was the Gary Sheffield card with the “SS” for short stop printed upside down.

baseball cards used to be neighborhood currency.


Edit: GODDAMN I just googled the Billy Ripkin card and it was actually Fleer and going for between $700-$1500!


Gwynn going for 3 racks

 

[Miggs]

He could’ve gone 0-1124 and still have a .300 batting avg. Godly stuff.

iirc, part of his strategy was to never swing at the first strike or something crazy like that. Swear I heard him say it on This Week in Baseball

Thats funny cuz thats an awful strategy in todays game....usually the best pitch you get in an AB is that first pitch fastball down the middle...

 

[Heavy_Handz]

In 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts.

 

[MikelArteta]

Adam Dunn struck out more in 2012 than Gwynn did in the decade of the 1990's.


Someone born in the spring of 1982 could go see the Padres play every summer from then until he goes to college and never see Tony Gwynn hit below .300.

The term "San Diego discount" started with Tony becoming a free agent and re-signing with the Padres for less than he was offered elsewhere, because he wanted to remain in San Diego, which really pissed off the players' union at the time.

...when Gene Orza, the No. 2 official in the MLBPA, called Gwynn at home in the ’80s and screamed at him for taking a below-market deal with the Padres, Gwynn shot back that Orza should mind his own business and take care of the other 800 major league players.

His love for town was reciprocated, San Diego belonged to Tony, its' unofficial mayor and the whole place was his cozy neighborhood, everywhere he went he'd get a "Hey Tony!", a smile and a thumbs up, without getting hassled or mobbed.