Monster Card Monday: 1994 Tony Gwynn

“Gotta be Mr. Gwynn today”, says Pastor Rich.  In light of the sad news of Tony Gwynn’s passing, I agree.

Tony Gwynn was simply Mr. Padre, playing for the team for his entire career (1982-2001).  Not only that, he represented the town of San Diego growing up there as well as attending and playing for San Diego State University.

Aside from being a outstanding steward of the game of baseball, Gwynn of course, played it well.  His lifetime .338 batting average ranks 20th among all players.  He led the NL in hits seven times, won eight batting titles and collected 3,141 over his career (19th all time).

It was during the strike-shortened 1994 season when Gwynn flirted with .400.  While he last hit that mark on May 15th that season, it never fell below .378 and hovered in the .380s-390s for most of the year.  By year’s end, Gwynn had a .394 average.  

Despite Gwynn’s chunky frame in his later years, he knew how to run the bases and APBA rated him Fast.  Appropriately, he was also rated an OF-3. 

But the hit the hit numbers!  Lefty Gwynn had four zeroes AND four sevens plus a 15-10.  That gave him a nice 51-7.  Gwynn has three 14s and just one 13, an oddly placed 16-13.

There’s one knock on Tony Gwynn’s 1994 card.  To reflect his league-leading 20 GIDPs, he has four 24s.  To perhaps alleviate that,  he does have three 31s including a 24-31.  Bring out the H&R boards! 

As a Cubs fan, I respected Tony Gwynn but I remember being angry at him in particular during the 1984 playoffs.  Against the Cubs, he batted .368 with three doubles in the NLCS. With his help, the Padres defeated the Cubs in a tight, comeback 3 games to 2 series. 

Nice going, Mr. Padre.