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San Diego, California – January 9, 2007 Deep down, he had to know it, but Tony Gwynn was taking nothing for granted. He politely turned down all media requests to be with him at his Poway home in San Diego's North County. He was reluctant to even talk about his election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame until his phone rang at 11 a.m. (Pacific time) Tuesday and Jack O'Connell, national secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, delivered the news from a suite in New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Jane Clark, board chairman of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, welcomed Gwynn to baseball's most exclusive family. Next came a series of conference phone calls with writers from across the country, followed by a press conference at Petco Park in San Diego and a late afternoon flight to New York to culminate a whirlwind day. Turns out that Gwynn – a 15-time All-Star, eight-time National League batting champion, five-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner – had nothing to worry about. "I've been up since 4 a.m., so when I got the call, it was a combination of elation and relief," Gwynn said. "When I answered the phone, and they said 'congratulations' - I lost it. I thought about my father, my family and how hard I worked."  Class of 2007 Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn was the hitters' hitter of his era. He spent the early morning taking a few calls, but by 9:45 Pacific Time, the line was cleared. Deep down, Gwynn said he believed he'd make it this year, but admits that until the call actually came, he had a tiny, haunting doubt. "When I saw the 212 Area Code come up, I shushed everybody. This is awesome. And what's important is that I played every game in the same uniform," Gwynn said. "When you look at the back of my baseball card, it says 'San Diego' all the way down." Gwynn's percentage of 97.6 based on 532 votes ranks seventh all-time. A record 545 ballots, including two blanks, were cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years' service, eclipsing by 25 the previous mark of 2006 when Bruce Sutter was elected. Players must be named on 75 percent of ballots submitted to gain election. This year, 409 votes were needed. Gwynn made his major-league debut in July of 1982, a little more than a year after he was drafted out of San Diego State, and he went 2-for-4 against the Philadelphia Phillies. He fondly remembers Phillies' second baseman Pete Rose walking over to second base after an eighth-inning double. Baseball's all-time hits leader asked Gwynn if he intended to catch him one day. A singles hitter most of his 20-year career, Gwynn finished with 3,141 hits and a .338 average. He had 543 doubles, 85 triples and 135 home runs. But his favorite pastime was carving a pitch through a place he dubbed "the 5.5 hole" – the spot between the third baseman and shortstop. He had 200-plus hits in a season five times – including a career high 220 in 1997 – and 197 hits in a season twice. He scored 100 runs twice and drove in a career high 119 runs in 1997 after Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew told Gwynn he had the ability to hit home runs, drive the ball in the gaps, drive in runs, and still maintain his average by simply being quicker on the inside pitch. Gwynn hit a career high 17 home runs in '97 and followed that with 16 in '98. One of the moments he cherishes is a blast off the facade of the upper deck in Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the '98 World Series and the postgame jousting with New York writers, who rarely saw him play. Gwynn flirted with the magical .400 mark in 1994 when he finished with a .394 average in a strike-shortened season. The strike started on Aug. 12 and wiped out the rest of the season. To this day, Gwynn believes he would have hit .400 that season had the strike been settled. What Gwynn is most proud of, however, is that he played all of his 2,400 games in a Padres uniform. Whether the taco brown with gold sanitary socks of the early '80s, the brown pinstripes of the mid-'80s or the blue pinstripes of the '90s, the colors were all Padres for Gwynn. "I came to school at San Diego State, decided to make my home here, and never had to move," Gwynn said. "My son (Brewers' outfielder Anthony Gwynn) is in the big leagues, but will only get to play in his hometown as a visitor." But Tony Gwynn almost wasn't a Padre. In 1981, then Padres general manager Jack McKeon went to San Diego State to scout Aztecs shortstop Bobby Meacham. Like everyone else, McKeon liked Meacham, but he was most impressed by Gwynn. The Cardinals took Meacham with the eighth pick in the first round of the 1981 draft. McKeon had to convince his scouting director to take Gwynn in the third round, just two picks ahead of the Houston Astros, who had Gwynn on their radar. Former San Diego State pitcher Bob Cluck, who was then working for the Astros, pegged Gwynn as a first-round talent, but the Astros lost their first-round pick to the Rangers as compensation for signing pitcher Dave Roberts. And Houston's second-round pick went to the Dodgers as compensation for signing Don Sutton. So instead of taking Gwynn, the Astros settled for Tennessee State outfielder Curtis Burke. Neither Burke, nor any of Houston's other picks in the regular phase of the June '81 draft ever played in the big leagues. On the day the Padres selected Gwynn, the San Diego Clippers also took him in the 10th round of the NBA draft. Few outside of San Diego remember that Gwynn came to San Diego State on a basketball scholarship and is still the school's all-time career assist leader with an average of 5.5 during 107 career games. He averaged 8.2 assists a game as a junior in the 1979-80 season and had a school record 18 assists in a game that season against University of Nevada, Las Vegas. To this day, Gwynn – who didn't play college baseball until after his sophomore basketball season – is convinced he would have stuck with the Clippers had he chosen the NBA. "I don't know if I would have been a star, but I would have made the club," Gwynn said. "Remember, the Clippers weren't very good then, and they didn't have a lot of guards." Instead, at the urging of his coaches and friends, Gwynn chose baseball. Turns out, it was pretty good choice. Visit Tony Gwynn on the HOFMAG.com Hall Network John Maffei is a veteran sportswriter, who covers the Padres and writes a sports TV/Radio column for the North County Times in San Diego, California. |
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