Profile lede on Tony Gwynn

With 2,999 hits under his belt, Tony Gwynn stepped up to bat against the Montreal Expos, who are now the Washington Nationals. Everybody knows he's going to get the hit, it was just a matter of where. His two favorite spots were the hole in between shortstop and third, and just over the second baseman's head. Right when the pitch left the pitcher's hand, Tony knew where he was sending the ball. It went over the second baseman's head and in to center field.

Tony would go on to hit 141 more hits after the monumental 3,000th. Over his twenty year career, Tony Gwynn had a .338 batting average, an astonishingly high average to maintain over a 20 year period. He won the batting title 8 times, yes 8, a remarkable feat for anybody to win just once. Although he never really hit for power, Gwynn was arguably the greatest contact hitter of all time. He would hit lasers in front of the outfielders or drive the ball into gaps to get doubles, he had 543 of those. Also, in 10,432 career plate appearances, Gwynn struck out only 434 times and only recorded one 3 strike out game. That feat is truly amazing considering he played in 2,440 games. When asked how he never struck Gwynn out in 107 chances, hall of fame pitcher Greg Maddux said, “You just can’t do it, sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitchers if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Except that (expletive) Tony Gwynn." The ultimate sign of respect is admitting somebody was better than you, and Tony Gwynn was better than every pitcher he ever faced. 

Tony Gwynn died yesterday, June 16th, at the age of 54 due to complications in his cancer treatments. The San Diego Padres, the team he played all of his 20 seasons for, released this statement, "You were a better person than you were a hitter, and you were the best hitter this generation has seen. San Diego will miss you dearly, Mr. Padre. Thank you for the memories." His son and current Philadelphia Phillies added this statement on Twitter, "Today I lost my dad, my best friend and my mentor. I'm gonna miss u so much pops. I'm gonna do everything in my power to continue to make u proud!". Tony Gwynn will be greatly missed.