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Gwynn, Padres' batsman,
collects 3,000th career hit
/ * *
B BERNIE WILSON
Ti e Associated Press
,\] y
Tony Gwynn is one consis
t? it guy.
He's played for only one
t< im in his 18-year, career, the
. S n Diego Padres. He has hit
b tter than .300 for 16 straight
s< isons and is tied for Honus
yfagner with eight NL batting
-ti les.
He got two hits in his major
le igue debut on July 19; 1982.
Hit No. 1 was a double off
Philadelphia's Sid Monge. On
the field that night was Pete
Hose, who would become base
career hit king.
? "Rose trailed the play and
skid, Congratulations. Don't
c^tCh me in one night,"' Gwynn
said. "That's always going to
slick with me." '?
; On Friday night at Montreal,
Qwynn singled in the first
isning for his 3,000th career hit.
He finished the game 4-for-5,
gjving him 3,003 career hits.
? He was in a rush to get it,
too, having said he wanted to
b^at longtime contemporary
\yade Boggs to the mark. Boggs
had 2,997 hits going into Friday
night's home game for Tampa
B(ay against Cleveland.
? Gwynn became the 22nd
member of the 3,000-hit club,
a}id Boggs is bound to become
t$e 23rd.
< But getting to 3,000 wasn't a
... breeze for.Gwynn,,39.
J After a hot April, he strained
hjs left calf breaking out of the
batter's b9x on May 21 and
elided up making two trips to
t$e disabled list, missing 44
g^mes. * (
1 " -
J He piissed all but two of the
PJtdres' franchise-record 14
gpme winning streak in late
June-early July. Gwynn, on? of
t(e most affable and accessible
pjayers in the majors, was frus
trated - not as much that his
drive for 3,000 hit the skids, but
because he was missing out.on
aji exciting stretch for the
Padres.
? "It's been very uncomfort
able, very difficult," Gwynn said
recently. "I just want to get
there as quickly as possible and
get back to normal."
I Gwynn uttered those words
even before Jim Leyritz took a
potshot just before he was trad
ed from the Padres to the New
York Yankees, hinting that
(Jwynn wasn't exactly a team
player.
' The same thing often was
siid about Boggs, a five-time AL
batting champion and left-han
der fitter like Gwynn.
! In fact, Gwynn tried to imi
tate Boggs in his early years.
; "He was the hitter I wanted
te be like," said Gwynn, who
\uon his first batting title the
y?ar after Boggs won his first.
*He became the hunted. I want
ed to emulate him. So for me,
there's a connection because
v^e're both similar in our
approach, except that Wade's a
?
Jm ? ?
whole lot more patient. He was
the guy 1 had to chase."
For Gwynn, that approach
has been to put the ball in play
using all fields.
Although ,it didn't count in
his career totals, Gwynn's
favorite hit was his homer to
right field in the first game of
last year's World Series at Yan
kee Stadium.
Otherwise, Gwynn loves to
garve hits the other way. He
became so proficient at hitting
between third base and short
stop that he began calling it the
"5.5 Hole" - in baseball scor
ing, the third baseman is repre
sented by 5 and the shortstop, 6.
Gwynn even has "5.5 Hole"
patches on the tongue of his
cleats. '
Gwynn played basketball
and baseball at San Diego State,
and it wasn't until his senior sea
son that he decided to stick with
baseball.
He loved basketball and
thought he might have a shot at
the NBA, but didn't start half
the games due to an injury suf
fered the previous summer.
_1'I was sitting on the bench
and thinking, I've got to think
about my career here.' -It just
dawned on me that I probably
had a better chance at baseball.
' And about halfway through
my senior year I started sneak
ing down to the baseball field
and hitting in the cage and tak
ing grpund balls and stuff. So by
the time basketball season
ended and I went out to jplay
baseball, I was kind of ready,
where before 1 would just go
straight from basketball to base
ball."
He was a third-round draft
pick of the Padres in June (981,
and made his big league debut a
little more than a year later.
Gwynn won his first batting
title in 1984. He won the other
seven in bunches, from 1987-89,
and 1994-97.
As he got older he seemed to
get better, never hitting lower
than .353 from '93-'97. Last
year he fell off to .321, but did
hit .500 in the World Series as
the Padres were swept by the
Yankees.
o
4
His best year was 1994, when
he was batting .394 when the
players' strike began. It-was the
highest in the majors since Ted
Williams batted .406 in 1941.
"At the break I was hitting
.383 ahd was really on a good
roll," Gwynn said. "1 was hit-".
, ting the ball hard and using all
fields. If I was going to hit .400,
I knew that was going to be my
best crack at it. Unfortunately
for me and everyone else, we
didn't finish the season.
"F9r me, that was the year 1
was doing a whole lot of things
right."
For a guy who's hit .339 for
his careei; - the best among
active big leaguers - a lot of
people would say he's done a
whole lot of things right'.
L$sm lb. or More Fresh j
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?
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