RIP Tony Gywnn

A great loss

Just read this on Facebook. I'm shocked.

He seemed like a real nice guy, and one hell of a ballplayer.

I always found it fitting that he and Cal went into the Hall of Fame on the same ballot, given that they both played their entire career with the same team and both had strong ties to the local community.

RIP Tony. Truly one of baseball's greats.

talk about a good human being who left the Earth too soon.

I was shocked to hear this just a few minutes ago.

He always seemed to be a total class act and just a great human being. A loss for all of us.

This sucks, so young.

8 time batting champ - amazing.

He fought cancer for four years, a total class act.

This article ran for Father's Day, yesterday

Man, that is horrible. I didn't realize he was in bad shape.

What an incredible player. Tony hitting .300 was as much a lock as there could've been in pro sports. Also, never heard a bad word about him. What a real shame.

Man, that is horrible. I didn't realize he was in bad shape.

What an incredible player. Tony hitting .300 was as much a lock as there could've been in pro sports. Also, never heard a bad word about him. What a real shame.

He and Cal had almost exactly overlapping careers, and they were predictably consistent in their own ways (both on and off the field). It’s a sad day.

Ripken Quote for Roch

Here's my favorite Gwynn statistic: He struck out only 434 times in 9,288 career at-bats. Think about that for a minute."

UNEAL stat that's mind boggling

Great Human. Great ball player.

Tony was a pro's pro.

What a shame. I guess they haven't proved that his use of chewing tobacco caused the cancer he got in his salivary gland, but I'd like to think that Tony's untimely death will discourange some younger players from picking up the habit.

Ripken Quote for Roch

Here's my favorite Gwynn statistic: He struck out only 434 times in 9,288 career at-bats. Think about that for a minute."

UNEAL stat that's mind boggling

One of my favorite baseball stats ever is that Joe DiMaggio had more home runs (369) than strikeouts (361). Yogi Berra also came pretty close, 358 homers and 414 strikeouts. Gwynn was even harder to strike out than those two, though less of a power hitter. And here's a shout out to Bill Buckner, who despite not being nearly the hitter that Gwynn was, only struck out 453 times in 9397 PA, almost as good as Gwynn.

Gwynn ranks 92nd all time in AB per strikeout (21.40), while Buckner is 106th (20.74). The list is comprised just about entirely of guys who played long before Gwynn or Buckner. There are only three active players with 3,000 PA who have a ratio better than 10 to 1 -- Jeff Keppinger (13.47), Alberto Callaspo (10.09) and Yadier Molina (10.04).

This was shocking to me as well. Did not know about his condition. Very sad day for MLB. Condolences to his family and to all fans of the game for his loss.

What can you say? A GREAT player and seemingly wonderful human being is gone far too soon. RIP

One of my favorite baseball stats ever is that Joe DiMaggio had more home runs (369) than strikeouts (361). Yogi Berra also came pretty close, 358 homers and 414 strikeouts. Gwynn was even harder to strike out than those two, though less of a power hitter. And here's a shout out to Bill Buckner, who despite not being nearly the hitter that Gwynn was, only struck out 453 times in 9397 PA, almost as good as Gwynn.

Gwynn ranks 92nd all time in AB per strikeout (21.40), while Buckner is 106th (20.74). The list is comprised just about entirely of guys who played long before Gwynn or Buckner. There are only three active players with 3,000 PA who have a ratio better than 10 to 1 -- Jeff Keppinger (13.47), Alberto Callaspo (10.09) and Yadier Molina (10.04).

Given the era, Gwynn was much harder to strike out than DiMaggio or Berra. When those guys played you could lead the league in Ks with less than 100. Good hitters would have BB:K ratios of three or four to one. Gwynn was a peer of Dave Kingman and Sammy Sosa. He was striking out 25 times a year when it took 130 or 150 to lead the league.

Gwynn is a big loss. One of the last of the great hitters for average. For the time being, while they let Ks climb ever higher, that's a dying breed. Always a class act, too.