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Bar Chat

06/19/2014

Great Hitter...Great Man

Baseball Quiz: Tony Gwynn won 97.6% of the vote for the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility – a total exceeded by only six players. Try to name the others. [Hint: Only one of the six played pre-1940. The others played at least part of their career post-1960. Babe Ruth is not one of them.] Answer below.

Tony Gwynn, RIP

Anthony Keith Gwynn
“Tony” “Mr. Padre”
San Diego, N.L. 1982-2001

An artisan with the bat whose daily pursuit of excellence produced a .338 lifetime batting average, 3,141 hits and a National League record-tying eight batting titles. Consistency was his hallmark, hitting above .300 in 19 of his 20 major league seasons, including .394 in 1994. Renown for ability to hit to all fields frequently collecting opposite-field base hits between third base and shortstop.  Struck out just once every 21 at-bats. A 15-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove award winner. Hit .371 in two World Series – 1984 and 1998.

Tony Gwynn, who passed away at the age of 54 from oral cancer, had cartoonish stats. Seven seasons of .350 or better! For the period 1994-97, ages 34-37, he hit the following:

1994 - .394 (19 strikeouts in 419 ABs)
1995 - .368 (15 in 535)
1996 - .353 (17 in 451)
1997 - .372 (28 in 592...220 hits, career-best 119 RBI)

“Tony Gwynn may have embodied the game of baseball better than anyone else who has played. It was not because Gwynn was among its greatest hitters. It was because of the wonder he found in the game and the joy he took in applying his daily discoveries....

“ ‘Like a lot of kids, you kind of think baseball’s boring – that’s the perception,’ Gwynn said in 1999 as he closed in on his 3,000th career hit. He added, ‘Really trying to learn all I could about the game, you began to understand the nuances of the game, and it became really fun.’

“Gwynn said proudly that he learned something new at the ballpark every day. It was a simple but powerful lesson, easy to forget in a sport with a punishing schedule: six weeks of training before a six-month, 162-game grind.

“Other sports, to be sure, are enthralling. But when a player so accomplished could be so eager in his search for new frontiers, what a waste it was to ever focus on the drudgery.

“Some players do, and that bothered Gwyn. In 1994, while on his way to the fifth of his eight National League batting crowns, he spoke passionately about the attitude of the modern player.

“ ‘They just feel like stuff is supposed to happen to them,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to have to work for it. And that bugs me because I know how hard I had to work to get where I got. Sometimes they sit there in amazement at why I come out here every day. But I cannot let their way of thinking into my head.’

“For Gwynn, the thrill was in the pursuit of perfection in a job built around failure.”

Gwynn’s .338 career batting average is the best mark – by 10 points – of any hitter who made his debut after World War II and had at least 3,000 plate appearances. He had more games of four or more hits (45) than of two or more strikeouts (34). He faced Greg Maddux more than any other pitcher, 107 times – and batted .415 with no strikeouts. Pedro Martinez never struck him out, either, in 36 confrontations.

Gwynn once stole 56 bases in a season. He was a standout point guard at San Diego State (and still holds the assist record there).

Cool story. After Gwynn’s first hit in the majors, a double off the Phillies’ Sid Monge, the Phils first baseman trailed the play and shook Gwynn’s hand at second.

“He noticed things others would not. One time we spoke, I was wearing a Vanderbilt golf shirt. Gwynn noticed the logo and asked if I went there. When I said yes, he lit up. The Padres beat writer Buster Olney, of The San Diego Union-Tribune, also went there, Gwynn said excitedly. ‘You’ve got to meet him!’ he said.

“Pause for a moment to consider how rare this is. Few players would bother to notice a detail on a reporter’s shirt. Few would know which college the team’s beat writer had attended. Fewer still would then offer, with genuine enthusiasm, to play matchmaker.

“But that was Gwynn. When our interview ended, he went back to the clubhouse, found Olney and brought him to the dugout to meet me. A few years later Olney was writing for The New York Times, and he recommended me for a job. Gwynn had set me on my career path.”

“Once you met him, you couldn’t help but fall in love with him.

“He was the greatest pure hitter I ever had the privilege of covering as a baseball beat writer.

“It’s hard to believe, that at the age of 54, he is now gone, the latest casualty from cancer.

“The baseball world just took a fastball into the ribcage.

“Man, are we going to miss him, but never, ever, will we forget him....

“You ask anyone who ever came in contact with the man, and they’ll tell you the same.

“This is a guy who treated bat boys with as much respect as the club president....

“If you wanted to find him at the team hotel after games, just knock on his door. He’d be studying video, or playing video games.

“Never once would you see him at a hotel bar, let alone a night club....

“He used to cringe at the heavy usage of amphetamines in the clubhouse.

“He used to mock the abuse of steroids around baseball.

“If you wanted the truth, you talked to Tony.

“Gwynn has been battling cancer for the last four years, but never did he want anyone to feel sorry for him. Please, he requested, no sympathy.

“Doctors found cancer in a salivary gland in 2010, and he underwent multiple surgeries. Gwynn figured it was from his use of smokeless tobacco. No one knows for sure. But his body slowly deteriorated, and in March, he was forced to take a leave of absence from his head coaching job at San Diego State, his alma mater.

“Gwynn, who used to enrage some officials in the players’ association for signing inferior contracts instead of testing the free-agent waters, never wanted to leave San Diego. It was home. Sure, he could have made mountains of money playing elsewhere, and might have earned a degree of fame commensurate with his stature ss a hitter.

“Gwynn’s teams made the playoffs three times in his career, including two World Series. He led the San Diego State Aztecs to the conference playoffs. He coached Stephen Strasburg, and Tony Jr., too, on those teams.

“He made everyone around him not only a better player, but a better person.

“I wish I had the chance to tell him myself, and say goodbye.”

“(Gwynn) was only the best pure hitter since Ted Williams. He was to the Padres as Stan Musial was to the Cardinals.

“And once there was a baseball summer, cut short in August of 1994, the season cancelled and the World Series cancelled because of the last war between the owners and players, when he was on his way to being the first .400 hitter since Williams. One San Diego kid trying to chase another into history, before that chance was taken away from him in the middle of August....

“He was hitting .394 when the season was called off. Maybe he wouldn’t have been able to do it. Maybe even his swing wouldn’t have stood up enough when August became September. But I will always believe he would have done it. And believe that Tony Gwynn believed it until he died Monday.”

Lupica described a day in ’94 at Shea Stadium, when Gwynn told him what he was going to do during batting practice, and proceeded to do exactly that (shooting balls to where he was expecting fielders to be during the game) and “When I left him that day I told him that it had been a very good day for me at the ballpark. Tony Gwynn smiled and shook my hand and said, ‘They’re all good days.’”

More Spurs...More LeBron

“Suffering is good. It reinforces character, resolve and commitment. Experienced in public, it exposes vulnerability. Handled with class, it heightens likability.

“On the road to championship redemption, it helps to have an NBA great anchoring the lane; two foreign-born guards and a coach who are undoubtedly headed to the Hall of Fame; a rising young star; and a bench full of dedicated and productive role players.

“But as a motivational tool, pain can be potent, and in the case of Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs, it can also be promotional.

“For a decade and a half, they were pro basketball’s most unsexy success story, but never were they more respected than after the excruciating way they lost last year to the Miami Heat....

“In time, when the 2013-14 champions earn their own reel of fortune, even the most grudging holdouts on the Spurs...will come around...

“The will relish the memory of the great LeBron James, dethroned but respectful, hugging Duncan tight; of the celebratory embrace of the Frenchmen Tony Parker and Boris Diaw; of the flags of Argentina and Italy draped around the shoulders of Ginobili and Marco Belinelli; and of an emotionally spent Popovich watching the celebration unfold from the bench.

“Asked about the burden of bouncing all the way back, Duncan said: ‘We had the team to, if we believed and let it go.’ He meant the pain of last season, and he most likely lied. ‘You never let it go,’ (Isiah) Thomas said. ‘I’ve carried mine around for years.’

“By reputation bad or boring, handling the pain is one way to change perception. Widespread respect came last season. This season brought heightened appreciation. For Duncan and the Spurs, it’s only a matter of time before they are remembered as eternally special.”

Will Duncan return? He will. He has a player option for $10.3 million and he’s still in good physical shape. Why not return?

One more on the Spurs’ dominance...they won 12 playoff games by 15 or more points, a single-season record.

And, finally, I tried to be humble when it came to Kawhi Leonard, who was selected as the MVP of the Finals. But for new readers, as I am fond of reminding folks, back on 6/27/11, following the NBA draft, I wrote this:

“Charlotte took UConn’s Kemba Walker with the ninth selection and my man Kawhi Leonard of San Diego State slipped down to No. 15, picked by Indiana, but then traded to San Antonio for guard George Hill. Leonard is perfect for the San Antonio system. He’ll thrive there.”

Of course now the sky is the limit. Leonard is also easy to root for. His father, with whom he was very close, was murdered at the car wash he owned. Says his mother today, “From the moment it happened, he wanted to make his dad proud. He wanted to keep on moving and moving and moving.

“Kawhi just wants to get better and better and better. He does not want to be a superstar. He does not want to be in the limelight. He just wants to be good at what he loves to do.”

After Game 5, James addressed the topic of his options, being able to opt out of the last two years of his deal worth $20.5 and $22.1 million. “I will deal with (it) when I get to that point. Me and my team will sit down and deal with it. I love Miami. My family loves it,” James said. “You guys [media] are trying to find answers. ...I’m just not going to give it to you. When I get to that point, I’ll deal with it.”

“(It) would be unwise to read between the lines, especially in the aftermath of Miami’s one-sided Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs. There definitely are important messages to discern when James talks but not his future.

“James once told me he is used to people parsing his words and trying to find meaning or answers in the worlds that were unspoken. Just because what he said now is similar to four years ago, it doesn’t mean James is leaving Miami. They are different situations.

“The Cavaliers failed to win a title despite year after year of trying to put together a roster that could. The Heat went to four consecutive Finals and won two championships. Miami also is well-managed with continuity and stability surpassed by maybe only the Spurs.

“There are some similarities. The Cavaliers didn’t have enough support for James, and it was obvious the Heat didn’t either, despite two other All-Stars (Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) on the team.

“ ‘Obviously we would need to get better from every facet, every position,’ James said.”

Heat President Pat Riley knows that, and when he talks to James about the future, he needs to show James how he will put together a team that is filled with, in James words, ‘high-basketball IQ guys’ and ‘high energy guys’ who ‘fit into the system.’

“That message just wasn’t for Riley. It was also for executives who plan on trying to convince James their team is the right team for him.”

Yes, the Heat need a point guard and they could use a scorer like Carmelo Anthony, but to get Melo would require lots of cap space juggling by Miami’s Big Three.

Or do Melo and James show up in Los Angeles with the Lakers, who supposedly can work out the cap situation? Even with Kobe still there.

There is talk of Chicago, but they don’t really have the cap space. And what of Derrick Rose’s health.

Actually, Cleveland kind of makes sense, today...not in a year or two as some have had it. The Cavs wouldn’t sign Luol Deng, but would have Kyrie Irving and the first pick in the draft, so, Embiid, Parker or Wiggins. But...the draft is June 26, the pick will have been made, and James would opt out July 1. What if he doesn’t like the pick?

Or both James, and Melo, could stay with their respective teams one more season, and then the Knicks and Nets come into play in a big way next year.

One thing is for sure...LeBron wants to reduce his minute load next season so he has more left in the tank for the playoffs. He played 400 minutes more than any teammate this season (1,300 more minutes than Wade).

For now, LeBron is going on vacation but said the Big Three will get together later this month to discuss their futures.

World Cup

--USA-Ghana...Clint Dempsey scored 30 seconds into the game and then it was 80 minutes of nervousness, then Ghana tied it, but a few minutes after, in the 86th minute, substitute defender John Brooks, a 21-year-old German-American making his competitive debut for the United States, scored on a header for a spectacular ending.

--Kind of interesting take from the Daily Star, a Lebanese paper, on Portugal’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of your editor’s World Cup “Pick to Click,” Germany.

“Portugal’s abject performance in their 4-0 defeat by Germany...was a painful reminder that having the world’s best player does not always guarantee success.

“Their aging, bad-tempered team endured a nightmare afternoon in the wilting heat of Salvador, suggesting that coach Paulo Bento may have miscalculated in staying faithful to the players who reached the Euro 2012 semifinals.

“Poor finishing, dreadful defending and a generally unsporting attitude, culminating with central defender Pepe’s infantile sending-off for a head-butt, combined to make it an all-round disaster for Bento’s side in their Group G opener.

“Ronaldo was dragged into the abyss with the rest of his teammates and, apart from a bright opening 10 minutes, never looked like he would have a chance to perform one of his defiant goal celebrations.

“Nothing went right for the 29-year-old World Player of the Year, whose performance reached a low point when he drilled a 30-meter free kick into a one-man Germany wall.

“Even his hair – usually immaculately groomed – fell out of place in the dripping tropical humidity.”

The U.S. and Portugal square off on Sunday. We can only hope the bad karma enveloping the Portuguese squad carries over to their next match.

--If you didn’t see it, look up Mexico goalie Guillermo Ochoa’s highlight reel in their 0-0 draw with Brazil on Tuesday.   It is simply the greatest bunch of saves you will ever see in a futbol game.

Ball Bits

--In the College World Series, entering Wednesday’s play, Virginia and Vanderbilt have won their first two, while UC Irvine plays Texas and TCU goes up against Mississippi to see who advances to play them. Can the ACC finally win a CWS title?

--For years it’s been ‘this will be the year the Royals break through,’ only to have them disappoint. This season they started out 26-30 and it was looking like more of the same, despite many picking them in the preseason to make the playoffs.

But now Kansas City is 38-32 and a half-game in front of Detroit in the A.L. Central after the Royals have won 12 of 14, nine in a row.

Meanwhile, the Tigers got off to a sterling 27-12 start but have only gone 9-19 since (36-31).

--The Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka moved to 11-1 with six innings of one run, 10 strikeouts, as New York defeated Toronto 3-1 on Tuesday. Tanaka’s ERA is 1.99.

--The Mets are a season-worst 31-40. I watched the “Game of Thrones” finale on Tuesday (belatedly) rather than the Mets and for the first time this season, I think, didn’t turn them on for a single pitch. I know I’m not alone in my apathy.

--Mike Trout went 3-for-5 Tuesday, with 2 HR and 4 RBI. He is now at 16 HR 54 RBI and has the average up to .311.  He will win the Triple Crown...book it.

“It would have been nice if the U.S. Open had been played on a traditional U.S. Open course because maybe then someone could have stayed awake to watch it. A great win for Martin Kaymer was a failed experiment for the tournament, which became a classroom lesson in botany and was about as interesting. The problem was that Pinehurst No. 2 didn’t have rough. It had scruff. ‘Back where I grew up, we call that weeds,’ Bubba Watson said before the tournament began, and he was exactly right.

“Take nothing away from Kaymer, who played nearly immaculate golf with his opening two rounds of 65-65, and then did a superb job of protecting his lead the rest of the way for an overwhelming eight-stroke victory. But this will go down as one of the dullest U.S. Opens in recent years, thanks to a combination of his dominance and a course setup that substituted beds of arugula for rough. The U.S. Golf Association and Pinehurst allowed a bunch of biodiversity wonks to subvert the tournament.

“In 2010 Pinehurst underwent a restoration, led by Ben Crenshaw and architect Bill Coore, who did a beautiful job of making the historic Donald Ross course more sustainable and indigenous. Fine. The problem was they gave the rough over to a research team led by a ‘crop scientist’ from North Carolina State and her students, who cultivated ‘native areas’ alongside the fairways instead of penal areas. According to a story on the university’s Web site, native plants ‘were carried back by sandhill breezes and native birds.’ In other words, they let it go to seed.

“What Pinehurst got was a lot of pigweed, wide-open sandy wastes with some sparse wiry salad greens. And what the U.S. Open got was a non-tournament.”

--Tiger Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, told ESPN.com in a text message Tuesday that “Tiger is making continual progress” and is hitting full shots for the first time, including his driver, this last bit according to GolfDigest.com. If it’s true...this bodes well for the British Open and Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) where Tiger won before in 2006.

Remember, Hoylake is where he hit just one driver – and it was during the first round – the entire tournament. It was stinger city as he dissected the course.

You don’t have to like Tiger, but boy does golf need him...if not for Hoylake, at least the PGA and then the Ryder Cup.

--BEAVER!!! No. 8 on the All-Species List, we are suspending the Beaver a second time, with this sentence lasting one year, after two attacks within days of each other. A kayaker in Upstate New York was hospitalized after being attacked by a beaver in Irondequoit Creek last month. The man “was knocked into the water when the beaver jumped out of the creek and started mauling him, biting him on his back and arm. ‘I heard my name called out from the shop and I ran out the door to see a guy getting pulled into the water,’ a trainer at BayCreek Paddling Center tells WHAM. ‘It was like watching a horror film.’ (The man) was able to get to the dock, but the beaver wouldn’t let go, so the trainer started hitting him with a paddle until the paddle broke and the beaver finally retreated.” [Newser]

Meanwhile, literally minutes from where I live, a Summit couple was attacked by a beaver at Lake Surprise. They were “enjoying a stroll by the picturesque lake nestled in Union County’s Watchung Reservation, when they noticed a head popping out of the water.

“The creature spotted the Rubinsteins and set its sights on the shoreline.

“ ‘It’s bee-lining, I mean, this thing is swimming right at us,’ Karen said.

“The animal, which she estimated weighed as much as 40 pounds, came flopping out of the water, its teeth bared and its webbed feet moving as fast as they could manage.

“The couple started running toward their car when a jogger warned them the animal could get hurt if it chased them into the road.

“Karen Rubinstein jumped onto a nearby bench and saw her husband cut back toward the lake when the animal suddenly lunged, missed him by inches. After almost chomping Barry’s leg, it scurried back into the water.” [Star-Ledger]

However, the county’s director of parks planning said there were no known beavers living in Union County, which is a flat-out lie. But a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture official said there were otters in the lake, which could resemble beavers.

I’m on Karen’s side. It was a beaver. Heck, she studied forestry in college.

But there’s trouble ahead. The lake is being drained this summer as part of a dam project. That means the beavers will be looking for new homes. If you hear a “thwap thwap” at your door, don’t open it. Call 911.

--SHARK! Director of Shark Attacks for Bar Chat, Bob S., relayed the news of a huge monster spotted off Monmouth Beach here in New Jersey the other day, which to me seemed awfully early in the year because the water is still cold...or so I thought.

But then Steve D. told me he was down at the Jersey Shore on Monday and spent 45 minutes in the water because it was so warm. The water here never normally warms up in a big way until August.

Ergo, we could be talking a bloody summer off the Jersey coast. Good for Web Summer Sweeps Weeks.

Top 3 songs for the week 6/17/78: #1 “Shadow Dancing” (Andy Gibb) #2 “You’re The One That I Want” (John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John) #3 “Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty...great beginning and then total blowdom...)...and...#4 “It’s A Heartache” (Bonnie Tyler...dreadful...) #5 “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late” (Johnny Mathis/Deniece Williams) #6 “Take A Chance On Me” (Abba) #7 “Feels So Good” (Chuck Mangione... whatever...) #8 “On Broadway” (George Benson...not his best...) #9 “You Belong To Me” (Carly Simon...has held up better than others on this list) #10 “Love Is Like Oxygen” (Sweet...I was out in Oklahoma, selling books door-to-door this particular week. The world’s worst book salesman, to be exact...)

Baseball Quiz Answer: Six players to exceed 97.6% of the Hall of Fame vote. Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., Ty Cobb, George Brett and Henry Aaron.

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