OT: Tony Gwynn dies at age 54

[Rhettmatic]

Sad news.

Favourite Gwynn memories?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hall-of-fa ... 48977.html

Tony Gwynn, the greatest pure hitter of his generation whose perfect left-handed swing won him eight batting titles and a litany of admirers across baseball, died Monday after years of battling cancer. He was 54.

Gwynn, who spent his entire 20-year career with the San Diego Padres, underwent multiple surgeries over the past four years to remove cancerous tumors from his mouth, blaming a smokeless tobacco habit. He took a leave of absence from his job as San Diego State baseball coach in March to undergo further treatment.

Gwynn finished his major league career with 3,141 hits and a .338 batting average, the highest mark for a hitter since Ted Williams' career started in 1939. Gwynn arrived in the major leagues in 1982, a year after the Padres drafted him out of San Diego State, and never stopped hitting, spraying singles throughout stadiums across baseball, adding power as he grew into a 15-time All-Star and striking out at an almost inconceivable rate today, just 434 for his career over 9,288 at-bats.

His stats are mind-boggling. Here's a random one:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AceballStats/status/478558945163112448[/tweet]

[Mehar]

Very heartbroken to read this right now. Tony Gwynn was one of my favourite players growing up. The best hitter in his generation. 19 straight seasons that Gwynn hit over.300 is a remarkable achievement. He was a great ambassador of the sport and a very classy guy all around from all accounts. R.I.P Tony Gwynn.

[wtcantfw]

RIP to one of the best hitters ever.

[vaff87]

Very sad. He always came across as a very likable person.

[satyr9]

I loved Tony Gwynn. I really really wanted to make the Padres my NL team because of how much I loved Tony Gwynn, but 10PM starts make truly following a WC team impossible.

He didn't get too many opportunities on the largest stages, but I never cared who won in a non-Jays WS more than the year he got there with the Padres. That series didn't go their way, but everyone who wasn't a Yankees fan had to be rooting for the guy who was a HOF superstar playing in a tiny market that never complained, never tried to play for a winner, just did his job better than anyone else in the league for 20 **** years.

Way too early to see him go.

[rarefind]

Seemed like a really nice person. Was one of the best hitters of his day, if not the best.

[Rhettmatic]

Another neat stat:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/neal_kendrick/status/478588774947909634[/tweet]

[satyr9]

Consider this: 434 career strikeouts. He played 20 years, had more than 10k plate appearances and struck out less than 500 times. That's crazy.

For a little perspective on how absurd a number that is, ARod has struck out over 2k times. Jeter, a better comp. considering power, has 1791. Bonds 1539. **** Paul Molitor had 1142.

edit: removed some stuff that wasn't right at all 'cause it only had 1980 to now and I thought it was all-time.

[Lateral Quicks]

One of the best pure hitters in the history of the game. I don't know anyone who wasn't a fan of Tony Gwynn. Very sad to hear of his passing.

Edit: Just looked at his statistics: http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... to01.shtml

They're even better than I remember. In his 20-year career, he only had one season where he struck out more than he walked: his rookie year at age 22 (14 walks to 16 strikeouts). That year was also the only year he hit below .300 (.289) and got on base less than 35% of the time (.337). He was a ridiculously brilliant hitter.

[Hoopstarr]

Definition of "pure hitter". He could lace hits all over the field and I liked that he wasn't a big home run hitter; opposite field doubles (his favorite kind) are way cooler than homers anyway. Pure class person too. I learned today that he was also a basketball player in college who was drafted by the then San Diego Clippers. **** cancer.

[Graham's Cracker]

I learned today that he was also a basketball player in college who was drafted by the then San Diego Clippers. **** cancer.

I found that interesting too. Didn't think of him as an 'athlete' and more as a 'pure hitter'. Phenomenal talent.

[Rbk_3]

Time to out right ban chewing tobacco in the majors.
Hopefully the MLB takes this more seriously after one of their all time greats died because of it at such a young age. So sad that it's something that could easily be prevented. You can see many of the Jays doing it during games.

[tempests_dawn]

This is b****** WTF.

I thought I had misread the headline on my Twitter feed. This is unbelievable.

[vaff87]

Time to out right ban chewing tobacco in the majors.
Hopefully the MLB takes this more seriously after one of their all time greats died because of it at such a young age. So sad that it's something that could easily be prevented. You can see many of the Jays doing it during games.

Hopefully, at the least, this will help persuade some people to stay away from it.

[Raps_Swingman]

Sad day for the baseball community. From all accounts he was a better person then he was a hitter and that's saying alot.

His hit totals are crazy and to hardly ever strike out? Man thats special.

[Lateral Quicks]

I learned today that he was also a basketball player in college who was drafted by the then San Diego Clippers. **** cancer.

I found that interesting too. Didn't think of him as an 'athlete' and more as a 'pure hitter'. Phenomenal talent.

Me neither, but his career best in steals was 56!

[Back2back2back]

Sad day for baseball.

I remember watching Tony play

One of the greatest to play the game. That career strikeout stat and batting average with runners in scoring position is ridiculous, and I don't think anyone will ever come close to those numbers.

One of the greatest hitters of all time, and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and see.

This cancer stuff is scary. My family has also been touched by this disease. I don't know of anyone that hasn't had someone (friend or family) that has had (survived/passed away) from cancer. Scary stuff.

Tony was a warrior. He was battling cancer for 4 years. He will be missed.

RIP Tony Gwynn.

[TOStateofMind]

Very sad news.

What a hitter though. Some of his stats are really mind blowing.

[James_Raptors]

Tony was an absolute legend on the field and easily one of the purest hitters of the game that I've had the pleasure to watch.Interestingly I had that same sensation what I had the opportunity to watch Rod Carew play the game.Both of them could manipulate the ball with their bat like true craftsman at their profession.

On a related note "Carew began using chewing tobacco in 1964 and was a regular user up to 1992, when a cancerous growth in his mouth was discovered and removed. The years of use had severely damaged his teeth and gums, and Carew has spent a reported $100,000 in restorative dental work"

MLB really needs to put their foot down and ban chewing tobacco.

[UN-Owen]

In two-strike counts, Gwynn hit .302. That's a statistic that's only been measured since 1988, and since then, Gwynn's mark is easily the best. Wade Boggs, next on the list, hit .260 in two-strike counts