Just heard on Dan Patrick Show. Don't see any articles, yet Rest in peace to one of the greatest hitters in MLB history and to a guy that seemed to be a genuinely nice man. Lost his battle to cancer at the age of 54. ESPN
sad to hear. by all accounts a good guy. And just an amazing hitter...15 time all star, 8 time batting champ! Pretty insane numbers when you look back (even though you already knew he was good).
Sad to hear this, no shocking though. The man was a surgeon with the stick. He had a 5 year stretch in the mid-90's where he hit .368. .338 career average, and he only stuck out 434 times his entire career, vs 790 walks. Truly impressive in the modern era of scouting reports.
I suspect we may start seeing a lot of guys from that "hitters era" passing away over the next 10 to 15 years.......
His worst season for strike outs was 40...in 520 ABs. The only season in which he hit under .309 was his first in 1982 when he hit .289 as a rookie.
He was the epitome of what a hitter should be like. You could scout Tony Gwynn every single at bat he took in a year and it still wouldn't help you stop him. The fact that he hit safely in 75% of the games he played... That's unbelievable.
WTF I am suggesting is that players during that era did a lot of really, really bad things to their body.... dip was extremely popular, PED's were rampant and substance abuse was common. Players from that era are now in their mid 40's and 50's and the abuse is going to start costing these guys long term.
Further, I worked for the Astros during part of that era and players were using ephedrine, tobacco, caffeine, diet pills, PED's, drinking huge quantities of alcohol and engaging in very risky behavior. That stuff comes back to haunt.
You used the term "hitters" era to suggest PEDs. This wasn't a heart attack or some kind of PED induced body failure. Players have engaged in basically all of these bad habits, save for PEDs, for decades.
I would suggest that very little of that has any relationship to Tony Gwynn's passing. He wasn't a big weights guy, he wasn't a home run hitter or any sort of great physical specimen. He was just a guy with a great batting eye who sprayed hits all over the ball park and made consistent contact. You throw out "hitter's era" as if to imply that Gwynn took steroids or PEDs, when there's no suggestion or reason to believe that he was a user. Talk about speaking ill of the dead, without any reason to do so.
What can you see say? Tony was an incredible person with a love and devotion to the game of baseball that was unsurpassed. I know he doesn't have the power stats, but Gwynn was one of the top three pure hitters ever to play the game. Hit em where they ain't - That was what Tony was about. And BTW....This was NOT a guy that used steroids. It was ALL about intense, thorough study. Everything was dissected and implemented. From the book on each pitcher, to his swing, his bat, situations, who was out in the field, tendencies, increased bat speed, great vision, strategic AB's (THE GREATEST HIT AND RUN GUY EVER), etc. We lost a great man and player today (of my generation) whose legacy will stand the test of time.
I would suggest you are projecting... I threw out "hitters era" because the second half of Gwynn's career was during the "hitters era". I do not know whether Gwynn used PED's. What I do know is that he used tobacco and for two decades and has had serious health issues and it has been suggested his health struggles could be related to his tobacco vice. I suspect we will see more and more players from that era that have serious health issues, many of which are related to the lifestyle in the era that they lived in. If you choose to jump to conclusions, that is your choice. As a side note, it is irrelevant whether a player was thin or fat, or somewhere inbetween. By Gwynn's own calculations half the league was using uppers (which have serious health side effects). Also, the outcome of PED's would not be limited to heart conditions, but cause a whole series of complications.
