Famous Athletes: Tony Gwynn

Anthony Keith “Tony” Gwynn

Tony Gwynn was born in San Diego, California on May 9, 1960 by the name of Anthony Keith Gwynn. He went to Long Beach Poly High School and he played both basketball and baseball. He was highly recruited as a point guard and went to San Diego State on a basketball scholarship. He didn't play baseball for San Diego State until his sophomore year, and became a two time All-American outfielder. After being drafted by the San Diego Padres, Gwynn played in the minor leagues for one year. He was called up to the big leagues in 1982. Over his career, he hit for a .338 batting average, and is considered one of the best contact hitters of all time. His number nineteen was retired by the Padres, the only team of his career, in 2004. In 2007, he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame. Sadly, Tony passed away due to cancer on this past Monday, June 16, 2014.

With a career .338 batting average, Gwynn only had one season out of his twenty where he didn’t bat over .300.

Tony Gwynn finished with 3,141 hits in his career, nineteenth on the all-time list.
Gwynn was a fifteen time all-star, five time gold-glover, and seven time silver-slugger.

Gwynn led the league in hits seven times in his career.

In ten seasons of his career, Tony Gwynn led the league in at-bats per strikeouts. That means he averaged the most at-bats in between strikeouts.

Gwynn turned four double plays as an outfielder in 1984, leading the league.

Gwynn mainly hit singles. He led the league in singles seven times in his career, but the highest he finished in extra-base hits was tenth in 1997.

Some interesting stats of Gwynn’s is he finished with more triples than home runs seven times in his career. Gwynn reached 3,000 hits in fewer at-bats than anyone born since 1900. There were eight seasons in Gwynn’s career where he struck out fewer than twenty times. The amazing thing is that ninety-seven players struck out more than twenty times just last month. Tony Gwynn hit over .400 off of eight Cy Young winners (best pitcher in the league). They were Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Bret Saberhagen, Vida Blue, John Denny, Dennis Eckersley, Mark Davis, and Doug Drabek. Tony’s son, Tony Jr, plays outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies.