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Pat Dye Field => Plainsman Park => Topic started by: Saniflush on June 16, 2014, 12:19:38 PM
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One of my favorite players and always seemed to be a class act.
SAN DIEGO -- Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, the greatest Padres player and arguably the best Major League hitter of the latter part of the 20th century, has passed away. Gwynn, who was 54, had been battling salivary gland cancer.
Gwynn's .338 career batting average over 20 seasons -- all of them with the Padres -- is the highest since Ted Williams retired from the Red Sox in 1960 with a .344 average. Gwynn's playing career ended in 2001, and since then he had been the head baseball coach for San Diego State University, where he starred in both baseball and basketball as a collegian, and a part-time analyst on Padres telecasts.
"Mr. Padre" won a record eight National League batting titles -- equal to the number won by Honus Wagner -- and collected 3,141 hits in his career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007 along with Orioles great Cal Ripken.
Gwynn's battle with cancer began in 2009 when a malignant tumor was removed from his right cheek. Gwynn claimed that the cancer in the salivary gland was the result of his longtime habit of chewing tobacco. The cancer returned twice, and in the latter part of 2012 he again began radiation treatment in an attempt to shrink the tumor.
Gwynn underwent another round of surgery in early 2012 when the nerve that the tumor was wrapped around had to be replaced with one from his shoulder. In each case Gwynn valiantly fought back.
"The whole experience was traumatic because I thought I had it beat, and dang, it came back," Gwynn said during a visit to the Hall of Fame later that year for the induction ceremony.
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Sad day indeed. I loved watching Gwynn and Wade Boggs hit back in the day. That was the way beisbol was supposed to be played.
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Dude was a baseball player's baseball player. And to my knowledge, no steroids. I loved his personality and the way he played ball.
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Did he play basketball?
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Sad day indeed. I loved watching Gwynn and Wade Boggs hit back in the day. That was the way beisbol was supposed to be played.
WTF...no Hawk? and you call yourself a Cubs fan. pfft
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I saw this tweeted earlier:
Retweeted Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman):
Tony Gwynn vs.
Smoltz .462 (30-for-65) 1 K
Maddux .429 (39-for-91) 0 K
Glavine .312 (29-or-93) 2 K
DAMN!
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Did he play basketball?
No but he was that good.
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â€@JeffPassan 1m
Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times over 9,288 career at-bats. That is not a misprint.
22 strike outs a year
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I saw this tweeted earlier:
DAMN!
And this:
Tony Gwynn was more likely to get four hits in a game than strike out twice
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Did he play basketball?
Why yes, yes he did.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h1DUVCqkm0U/UD371oIepjI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/x1lFSIRuB6A/s1600/tg.bllr.jpg)
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Why yes, yes he did.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h1DUVCqkm0U/UD371oIepjI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/x1lFSIRuB6A/s1600/tg.bllr.jpg)
Keen post.
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Why yes, yes he did.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h1DUVCqkm0U/UD371oIepjI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/x1lFSIRuB6A/s1600/tg.bllr.jpg)
Hell yes. Sani knew what he was doing when he put it in the Beard Eaves. He was trying to educate.
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WTF...no Hawk? and you call yourself a Cubs fan. pfft
He was right handed
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Hell yes. Sani knew what he was doing when he put it in the Beard Eaves. He was trying to educate.
There is no sense trying WT. Troglodytes, the lot of them.
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Gwynn was one of my favorites, alongside Winfield, Dawson, Sandburg, Mattingly, Strawberry, Canseco, McGwire, Murphy and Murray.
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One of the best. The guy just hit. It didn't matter if you thought you had him down in the count, he would just slap it somewhere. Some have a golden arm for throwing. Others have God gifted speed. Others a great glove. Gwynn had the gift of being great at one of the hardest tasks in baseball. He could see the ball, hit the ball.
He was fun to watch.
Sad that he is gone at 54.
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I like this perspective. Gwynn died too young. And for those of you that have or do dip/chew--do everything that you can to stop. I can't say that I'm better. I switched from dip to my "medicine gum" 13 years ago. I'm an addict. I don't know if nic gum is any better for you but at least it's not as bad on the mouth and teeth.
I remember when the Skoal was less than a dollar a can. I went from chewing tobacco to skoal, Kodiak and then finally the heroin of dip: Copenhagen. Still love the smell of it.
Stuff can kill you.
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/klapisch-tony-gwynn-died-too-young-chewing-tobacco-cut-his-life-short-1.1036325 (http://www.northjersey.com/sports/klapisch-tony-gwynn-died-too-young-chewing-tobacco-cut-his-life-short-1.1036325)
Klapisch: Tony Gwynn died too young; chewing tobacco cut his life short
June 16, 2014, 11:42 PM Last updated: Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 8:58 AM
By BOB KLAPISCH
Tony Gwynn making a backhanded catch in 1985. He was a 15-time All-Star for the Padres.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Tony Gwynn making a backhanded catch in 1985. He was a 15-time All-Star for the Padres.
I was a junior at Columbia the first time I tried chewing tobacco. I was about to pitch against Penn when a teammate offered me a chaw of Red Man. It was almost the size of his fist.
“This stuff is awesome,†he said as I stuffed the clump into my cheek. He was right: the combination of aroma and chemicals went right to my brain, sharpening my focus, making home plate seem closer, while simultaneously calming me down.
That bizarre contradiction only makes sense to those who chew or use smokeless tobacco, more commonly known as dip. It’s the unspoken tragedy behind Tony Gwynn’s death on Monday, the story of a superstar whose life ended too soon because of his addiction.
Gwynn was diagnosed with cancer in his salivary gland in 2010. There are plenty of tributes being beautifully written about Gwynn’s super-human hitting skills – he batted .338 and struck out only 434 times in 10,232 plate appearances – but his life and career cannot be separated from his tragic passing.
Gwynn was only 54, too young to die. But he learned too late that chewing and dipping would eventually kill him. Such a loss makes you rage at the sky and ask how Gwynn, a genius in the batter’s box, could’ve been so dumb as to use tobacco throughout his adult life.
I ask only because I know the answer: I kept chewing after that seminal moment in my Ivy League career, right through my 20s as I played for the Hackensack Troasts in the Metropolitan League. I was just an amateur, but no less addicted to the rush. It was a disgusting habit – spitting the juice left brown pools near my teammates’ feet in the dugout – but I felt I couldn’t pitch without it.
It took years for me to quit, which made me one of the lucky ones. The chaw has mostly been replaced by the cleaner, less obvious “dip†but the effects are no less devastating. According to the American Cancer Society, three out of four people who use tobacco in their mouths have non-cancerous or pre-cancerous lesions.
Gwynn’s four-year battle started to decline rapidly in 2012, when he underwent a 14-hour operation to remove a malignant tumor from his right cheek. Eighteen months earlier, the Hall of Famer had surgery in the same area to address the first incidence of cancer.
Following that operation, Gwynn was unable to open his right eye or close his mouth. His speech was badly slurred.
That alone should’ve been a lesson to the world, if not the major league family. Gwynn was obviously dying because of tobacco, yet there was no groundswell among his peers to prevent future deaths.
In 2011, the Players Association voted down a proposal to ban tobacco from the major leagues. Instead, they agreed to a watered-down compromise that prohibits players from keeping tobacco tins in their uniform pockets. And they can’t do television interviews while chewing or using smokeless tobacco. But that’s it.
Apparently, the union feels any further regulation would be an intrusion on the players’ rights. I emailed union chief Tony Clark on Monday asking if he, personally, wants to see tobacco removed from the game. He responded, saying Gywnn's death was "a difficult loss, both personally and professionally. As an organization, we always have and will continue to discourage the use of smokeless tobacco products by players or by anyone else. Our focus...is therefore comitted to player education."
Clark's heart is in the right place, but that's as far as he is willing to go.
The dip’s lure is still too great among his constituents, especially now that amphetamines have been banned. If you want to know how big a bite the new drug policy has taken out of the game, see how slow the action is any afternoon following a night game. For many players, dip — or for some still hanging on to old-school chaw — tobacco is the last allowable vice.
“It’s a nasty habit, but it’s one of those traditions in baseball,†Red Sox manager John Farrell told the Boston Globe earlier this year.
He’s not alone in that sentiment. Mike Napoli said, “[Chewing] is just part of my routine when I play. It would feel weird without it. I’ve gone a couple of months without it. But as soon as I step on a field, I feel like I need it.â€
To be fair, tobacco is officially banned at the minor league level, but the rules are only casually enforced. Teams will make a cursory sweep in the clubhouse, checking to see what’s in the lockers, but anyone who’s determined to stick tobacco in their mouths can do so in the dugout with impunity.
And once a prospect gets called up, he’s home free – all the tobacco he wants, any time, any place, as long he’s not caught on TV. Pity, because for most, the rush is only an illusion. Perhaps Clark will have the guts to stand up to his own rank and file in 2016, when the next Collective Bargaining Agreement is negotiated and say: enough.
We should speak as one in mourning Gwynn, who was so talented and so obviously not in need of an artificial boost. Of all the statistics that leave you breathless, this one stood out: Pedro Martinez was unable to strike out Gwynn in 36 career at-bats. Greg Maddux couldn’t get him in 107 tries.
Gwynn had everything going for him – a keen eye, incredible bat-speed and the ability to out-think a pitcher. Gwynn was a nightmare from 60 feet, 6 inches, although he found out the hard way that his athletic genes were no match for the cancer cells raging through his body.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate only 3.5 percent of Americans over the age of 12 are using dip. But that’s still nine million people needlessly at risk.
Sadly, we can make that nine million minus one. Such is the asterisk on the back of Gwynn’s baseball card:
“Died too young.â€
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/sports/klapisch-tony-gwynn-died-too-young-chewing-tobacco-cut-his-life-short-1.1036325#sthash.3wr2s3j3.dpuf (http://www.northjersey.com/sports/klapisch-tony-gwynn-died-too-young-chewing-tobacco-cut-his-life-short-1.1036325#sthash.3wr2s3j3.dpuf)
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Gwynn was one of my favorites, alongside Winfield, Dawson, Sandburg, Mattingly, Strawberry, Canseco, McGwire, Murphy and Murray.
Winfield - Big arrogant. Better choice is Reggie Jackson
Dawson - Insane, but liked him
Sandberg - Eh. Liked the Cubs when he played there. Good team.
Mattingly - Yankee. Death to the Yankees.
Strawberry - Drug monkey. Griffey Jr is a better answer.
Canseco - Idiot. WWF(WWE) goon in a baseball uni.
McGwire - Popeye joke who wouldn't have been squat without injections. He can suck it. Better answer is Terry Pendleton or Frank Thomas.
Murphy - Overrated but no argument. Claudell Washington was more fun to me. Love those Braves (Murph, Claudell, Horner, Benedict, Raffi, Hub, Chambliss, Butler, Neikro, Bedrosian, Garber, Camp, Pascual 'Drive around Atlanta' Perez, Hrabosky, Bob Walk...) I can remember every one of them but can't name four members of the current Braves team.
Murray - liked him.
Any particular reason most of the ones you listed are first basemen?
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Winfield - Big arrogant. Better choice is Reggie Jackson
Dawson - Insane, but liked him
Sandberg - Eh. Liked the Cubs when he played there. Good team.
Mattingly - Yankee. Death to the Yankees.
Strawberry - Drug monkey. Griffey Jr is a better answer.
Canseco - Idiot. WWF(WWE) goon in a baseball uni.
McGwire - Popeye joke who wouldn't have been squat without injections. He can suck it. Better answer is Terry Pendleton or Frank Thomas.
Murphy - Overrated but no argument. Claudell Washington was more fun to me. Love those Braves (Murph, Claudell, Horner, Benedict, Raffi, Hub, Chambliss, Butler, Neikro, Bedrosian, Garber, Camp, Pascual 'Drive around Atlanta' Perez, Hrabosky, Bob Walk...) I can remember every one of them but can't name four members of the current Braves team.
Murray - liked him.
Any particular reason most of the ones you listed are first basemen?
McGwire (like Bonds) was still a badass when he was skinny. Dude hit like 50 HRs as a skinny assed rookie. But also like Bonds, he decided to ruin his legacy by trying to keep up with the Sosas. Both were great without the juice but they will both be forever known for it now.
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McGwire (like Bonds) was still a badass when he was skinny. Dude hit like 50 HRs as a skinny assed rookie. But also like Bonds, he decided to ruin his legacy by trying to keep up with the Sosas. Both were great without the juice but they will both be forever known for it now.
Both of those guys ruined what could have been with their legacy but from a $ standpoint, it was likely a good decision.
I'll take your word that they were badass when skinny. Regardless, I have little respect for either. I would love for MLB and NFL to take steroids serious but I don't see it happening. And players are going to do what they feel they need to do in order to compete.