RIP Tony Gwynn

[Soul]

54. This is crummy news. Always loved watching him hit. I think it was one of his last seasons, I got to see him play @ Wrigley. He hits a double down the LF line. The Wrigley crowd - we all gave him a standing O. He deserved it, no doubt.

[mul21]

Man, he hit .350 or better 7 different seasons and was 3 measly hits away from .400 in 1994. So good and gone so young. Terrible.

[apete6]

In over 10,000 career PA, Gwynn had a 4% strikeout rate. Four. His career high in a season was 40, for comparison Mike Olt has struck out 60 times in part time duty and it's June 16th. And with a .120 IsoP and only a 7% walk rate too. Best hit tool of all time?

 

Easily. Haven't looked at like Pete Rose or Ty Cobb's numbers recently. But the closest I've seen was Wade Boggs, and he ran circles around Wade as a hitter.

 

Wouldn't necessarily say that. Boggs (OPS+ of 131, 91 WAR in 18 seasons) and Gwynn (OPS+ of 132 and 69 WAR in 20 seasons) were nearly equal. Boggs had some unbelievable OBP stretches there in the mid 80s. Led the AL 6 out of 7 years!

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/boggswa01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gwynnto01.shtml

[DiamondMind]

EIGHT batting titles. NINETEEN consecutive seasons hitting over .300. 15 all star games, 7 silver sluggers, 5 gold gloves.

[OleMissCub]

EIGHT batting titles. NINETEEN consecutive seasons hitting over .300. 15 all star games, 7 silver sluggers, 5 gold gloves.

 

only 97% HOF votes. F that 3 percent.

[NOLA]

Of all the amazing stats on him I've heard today, this might be the most amazing. At the end of his career, he could have gone 0 for 1,199 and still have been a career .300 hitter. In other words, 0fer for two years.

[davell]

http://deadspin.com/i-was-tony-gwynns-bat-boy-1592123043?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

Great article.

[Andy]

http://deadspin.com/i-was-tony-gwynns-bat-boy-1592123043?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

Great article.

Holy [expletive] was that great.

[Sammy Sofa]

That one got me.

 

And [expletive] Will Clark.

[treebird]

http://deadspin.com/i-was-tony-gwynns-bat-boy-1592123043?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

Great article.

 

that was great.

[OleMissCub]

That one got me.

 

And [expletive] Will Clark.

 

Yeah. One of the best swings in baseball history wasted on a tool. I had a few youth baseball camps that I attended where he was one of the instructors and I always wondered why he was there because he just wasn't very pleasant. Surely he didn't need the money.

 

Somewhat interesting trivium: Will Clark and Raffy Palmeiro played on the same team at Mississippi State yet Jeff Brantley was the cleanup hitter on that team.

 

Also, [expletive] him for 1989 NLCS

[Sammy Sofa]

Someone in the comments said he actually referred to himself as "Will the Thrill" on his answering machine.

[rocket]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

 

Banned

[Sammy Sofa]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

 

This is even worse than the horse [expletive] fiasco.

[treebird]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

 

This is even worse than the horse [expletive] fiasco.

 

you take that back.

[Sammy Sofa]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

 

This is even worse than the horse [expletive] fiasco.

 

you take that back.

 

Tree, it's SSR running off with your sister-bad.

[Mark Priors Calves]

http://i.imgur.com/Mywl1OT.png

Never figured Maddux for a racist.

[Sammy Sofa]

And especially given how much he loves the Fresh Prince.

[treebird]

i have about 500 will clark cards. he was my favorite player as a kid :?

 

This is even worse than the horse [expletive] fiasco.

 

you take that back.

 

Tree, it's SSR running off with your sister-bad.

 

but the horse [expletive] incident had horse [expletive]

[Sammy Sofa]

Will Clark IS a horse [expletive], so that means rocket has about 500 horse [expletive] pics that he could unleash at any time.

[treebird]

rocket why

[DonnieD]

Somewhat interesting trivium: Will Clark and Raffy Palmeiro played on the same team at Mississippi State yet Jeff Brantley was the cleanup hitter on that team.

 

Also, [expletive] him for 1989 NLCS

 

Jeff Brantley was the ace of that team but it was actually Bobby Thigpen who batted cleanup (sometimes). He was the closer and also played outfield for the team.

[Gmoney08]

lol at the comments section of that awesome awesome article...

 

Should have been you Will Clark

 

 

I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said yeahh well.. yeah....

[OleMissCub]

Somewhat interesting trivium: Will Clark and Raffy Palmeiro played on the same team at Mississippi State yet Jeff Brantley was the cleanup hitter on that team.

 

Also, [expletive] him for 1989 NLCS

 

Jeff Brantley was the ace of that team but it was actually Bobby Thigpen who batted cleanup (sometimes). He was the closer and also played outfield for the team.

 

That's right. I get the hitting pitchers mixed up.