RIP Tony Gwynn

[mr2686]

Great Padre and HOF'er Tony Gwynn has passed away. Only one month older than me and he broke in to the majors shortly after I moved to San Diego. A long time fixture in and around SD and San Diego State (where my wife went to school) I felt like I knew him. He will be missed.

[jgmp123]

Very sad day. Taken way too young.

[djson1]

Horrible news I heard this morning too. On top of being one of the greatest hitters of all time (he's like a modern Ty Cobb in my opinion), he was a really great guy. The two times that I met him in person, he was very appreciative of fans (he kept walking around saying "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you" to everyone) and he was very talkative. Nice guy who passed way too young. RIP.

[Mr. Zipper]

Sad loss of a class act.

I saw him in Cooperstown HOF weekend last year. One of the few guys I saw that was gladly signing on the street.

[TyrusRCobb]

Probably would've hit .400 in '94 if not for the strike shortened season. Truly, one of the greatest.

[thetruthisoutthere]

RIP, Mr. Gwynn.

[Klrdds]

What hurts is that his death / cancer was from him admittedly using smokeless tobacco from high school through his playing career. As a dentist I preach to all of my patients the dangers of its use, especially the baseball players who seem to begin the habit earlier than most . The sad thing is that now I have an example with a recognizable name to put to the face of this dangerous habit. As he said when diagnosed he hopes he can be a model to also stop its use. Not trying to preach but Gwynn was a great baseball ambassador, and truly died too young.

[Lordstan]

I had the pleasure, as a teenager, to meet Tony in 1985. He attended a card show run by my father and his partner. He told us it was his first time at a card show. He was, arguably, the nicest player I ever met. I think both he and Musial were about on the same level. Truly a throwback type of player. He was hard working, humble, and generous. He was also a damn fine player. He will be missed by all.

[mr2686]

For those on the East coast they really didn't get to see Tony play too much, let me tell you a story to help illustrate how great he was. My boss, who's family had Dodger season tickets from the time the stadium opened, gave me her 4 tickets for a day game against the Padres. These tickets were about 6 rows up and about 3 feet up the first base line. Yeah, they were that good. Anyway, Tony comes up the first time and promptly slaps a base hit in the 5.5 hole. Next time up, the 3B cheats a bit over to his left, but tony slaps another base hit in the 5.5 hole. Third time up, 3b cheats just a little more and the SS cheats over to his right...boom, another slap right through the same hole. Last time up, the 3b waits till the last minute and starts moving over and boom Tony hits it over the 3b bag for extra bases. He didn't use a bat, he used a wand. What a great hitter.