Tony Gwynn Biography - Young Athlete, "mr. Padre", Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments, Tony On Tape, Winning Through The Pain - CONTACT INFORMATION
san diego baseball league
1960-
American baseball player
Tony Gwynn is one of the greatest players and most prolific hitters in major league baseball history, ranking with Ted Williams and Stan Musial for batting average. Finishing his twenty-year career with the San Diego Padres at age forty-one in 2001, he recorded a .338 overall average, with 3,141 career hits, putting him in sixteenth place for the most hits in major league history. He also
Tony Gwynn
won five Gold Glove Awards for his outfield skills—the most in San Diego Padres history—was voted a starter in the All-Star Game eleven times, and won eight National League batting championships and seven Silver Slugger Awards. Gwynn is known for videotaping his hits and studying them to improve his technique. Gwynn is expected to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: c/o San Diego State University Department of Athletics, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, California 92182-4313. Online: http://www.goaztecs.ocsn.com.
Additional Topics
Anthony Keith "Tony" Gwynn was born May 9, 1960, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Charles (a warehouse manager) and Vendella (a postal worker) Gwynn. He grew up with his two brothers in Long Beach, California, where his dad played baseball with the boys in the backyard, using cut-up socks as balls. Young Tony also had a best friend in elementary school, Alicia Cureton, who beca…
Gwynn started his professional career in the Padres' farm system in Washington, Texas, Hawaii, and Nevada before being brought up to San Diego on July 19, 1982. He debuted against the Philadelphia Phillies' champion hitter Pete Rose, who was so impressed with Gwynn's hitting that he said, "What are you trying to do, catch me after one night?" During the 1982 and …
From very early in his career, Gwynn videotaped all of his at-bats and then studied them religiously to improve his nearly perfect technique. This practice began in 1983 when he asked his wife to tape a game during a time he felt his hitting was off. After watching the tape, he saw the error he was making. He quickly corrected it and relied on the tapes for the rest of his career, accumulating a l…
Gwynn kept up his award-winning playing after the 1984 season—his batting average never dropped below.300 between 1984 and 1994, and he continued to win batting titles—along with the love of the San Diego fans. He also won his first Gold Glove Award for defense in 1986. He had an exceptional .370 batting average in 1987, with a Padres record of 218 hits. Gwynn enjoyed eating and deve…
Although he became a free agent in 2001, Gwynn stayed on with the Padres to finish out his career. After 3,141 hits and finishing with a batting average of .338, he retired from the Padres at the end of the 2001 season. His teammates presented him with a motorcycle during a ceremony at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, as some 60,000 fans cheered him goodbye. After his twenty years with the Padres, h…
(With Jim Geschke) Tony!, Contemporary Books, 1986. (With Jim Rosenthal) Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player, St. Martin's Press, 1992. Upon retirement in October 2001, Tony Gwynn was selected head baseball coach at San Diego State University (SDSU), his alma mater, which in 1997 named its new baseball stadium in his honor. He chose to serve one year as a volunteer coach before beginn…
Upon retirement in October 2001, Tony Gwynn was selected head baseball coach at San Diego State University (SDSU), his alma mater, which in 1997 named its new baseball stadium in his honor. He chose to serve one year as a volunteer coach before beginning a three-year contract term with the university. Gwynn called the coaching position "the dream gig for me." During 2002, Gwynn moonl…
Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 18. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 1998. Newsmakers, Issue 4. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 1995. Who's Who Among African Americans, 14th edition. "Tony Gwynn." Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. "Coaching at His Alma Mater." Jet (October 15, 2001): 50. "Community Champions." Sporting…
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