Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

[OSUG1]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11091626/hall-famer-tony-gwynn-san-diego-padres-died

[Majingir]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Crazy to hear that. I only started watching baseball late into his career,but even to this day,whenever I think of the Padres,he's the first player who comes to mind. One of best hitters in baseball and sucks how he played most of his career on a bad team. Wonder how he might have done on a good team. But either way...20 years with the same franchise,despite them not even having great success...that's even rarer to see in sports history.

[Motown]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Sad to hear. Career .338 BA One of the best hitters ever in the history of Professional Baseball. RIP Mr. Padre

[Jasong7777]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Damn. What a great hitter as well as a great professional. RIP

[jmillhimes]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

watched him growing up...RIP

[19]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Damn man, 54. So sad.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Padre.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

434 strikeouts in 10,232 plate appearances. That doesn't even make sense.

RIP

[RGmoney]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Too damn soon. Loved watching him at the plate. I could sit all day and listen to him talk about the art of hitting.

Very sad.

RIP Tony.

[Segagendude]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

Great player, great guy, excellent personality. He made me laugh listening to his interviews.

Definitely a sad day for baseball. -

[The JareBear]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

I woke up to a text from someone back home (in San Diego) telling me about this. Really, really sad. For those us who grew up in San Diego during the 80s/90s we have lost both our heroes now (Seau).

Tony Gwynn was seriously one of the all-time "good guys" in the business. Rest in peace.

[Sportsforever]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

This is brutal…absolutely brutal. Loved him as a player and he meant so much to the city of San Diego. He will be sorely missed…can't believe it.

[roadman]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

RIP Tony.

Thanks for the memories of watching you hit and being a classy ballplayer too.

[DrJones]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

As some of you know, I used to work on EA's MVP series. When we made NCAA Baseball in 2006, one of my fellow producers, Pete, was in charge of acquiring uniform details from the 128 teams we used. There was no style guide, so Pete had to contact all of the teams himself.

One of the last teams to give us what we needed was San Diego State, so Pete left a phone message there one night before leaving work. The next morning, Pete called the rest of us over to his desk and played his answering machine. Late the previous evening, someone from SDSU had left a message for Pete, apologizing for the tardiness and informing him that the uni deets would be sent out ASAP.

Who had left this message, which began with, "Hey Pete, sorry about this!" Some PR flack? An intern? No. It was the Aztecs' manager, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of baseball's immortals, who took the time to personally return Pete's call. It was Tony Gwynn.

The word "classy" is grossly overused in sports these days, but it's more than appropriate when talking about Tony Gwynn, one of baseball's true greats, both on and off the field. RIP, Tony.

[Sportsforever]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

This was so unexpected, but I can't seem to find anything that mentions if it was or not. Usually you will see that he passed away with his family around him or something like that…it's odd that no one had heard he was doing poorly.

[rspencer86]

Re: Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54

With how incredible he was at hitting, it's easy to overlook he won 4 Gold Gloves as well.

He and George Brett were the two reasons I really grew to love baseball and the art of hitting. Just incredible to watch him work at the plate. We'll miss ya, Tony.