Best Price: $49.95Tony Gwynn and The Will To Win
San Diego Padres – Tony Gwynn and the Will to Win
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The San Diego Padres have been playing in the Major Leagues since their inaugural season of 1969, when they joined the league in a four-team expansion. The team’s early struggles – they were last in the National League West for their first season, and repeated that dismal feat for the next five seasons as well – helped to quell much of the early excitement that surrounded the team’s creation. It would not be until the mid 1980s that the Padres would experience the type of glory that the fans had expected. Indeed, the arrival of Anthony Gwynn, the talented right fielder, seemed to provide a spark that turned the team’s fortunes toward success – eventually leading to two National League Pennants. The first was won in 1984, with the second being won fourteen years later.
In hitting, consistency is the key
There have been many great sluggers in the annals of Major League Baseball, during both the dead and live-ball eras. The modern era, however, thrives on the long ball, and home runs seem to be the measure of a player’s power. In that respect, a player like Gwynn would have thrived even more in the dead-ball era where home runs were scarcer. His game was never one based on power, and he never broke the 17 home run mark in a season. Rather, Gwynn was a true contact hitter whose batting average was consistently at or above .309 in each season he played. In fact, over the course of his career – which included more than 9,000 times at the plate, he only struck out a total of 434 times.
The lifetime student of the game
Never content to rest on past accomplishments, Gwynn made no secret of his thirst for more baseball knowledge. He would listen to any advice and seek any counsel in his efforts to both study and improve his batting swing so that he could be an even more effective hitter. While others around him used the larger, heavier bats, Gwynn preferred the smaller Louisville Sluggers because they felt similar to the weight he was used to in his college days. The difference in size and weight may have influenced his ability to hit home runs to some degree, but it certainly never seemed to diminish his ability to make contact with the ball and place it into the field of play.
Hall of Fame numbers
During his long career, Gwynn had more than 3,000 hits. Of his 135 home runs, 3 were with the bases loaded, and 19 more were with two runners on base. Another 39 scored two runs, with 74 of them taking place with the bases empty. Though his home run numbers are something less than impressive by today’s standards, his timing is not. In fact, 99 out of those 135 home runs were hit by Gwynn in situations in which his Padres were trailing in the game or tied. If nothing else, Gwynn’s home runs were always driven out of the park just when the team most needed the boost – a shining example of his ever-present will to win.
Looking At The San Diego Padres
Major League Baseball expanded in 1969 with the introduction of four new teams. Two were added to the American League and two to the National League. To the AL went the Seattle Pilots (later the Milwaukee Brewers) and the Kansas City Royals. The NL saw the addition of the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) and the San Diego Padres. Success for these new teams would be far in the distance. This is especially true for the Padres.
When the Padres burst on to the baseball scene, the city of San Diego was filled with excitement and hope for their new franchise. This was not surprising, after all the team could boast of a brand new ball field, an experienced front office, and a young team. The fans’ enthusiasm proved to be premature. The Padres were dreadful. They finished dead last in the NL West in each of their first six seasons. Four of those seasons saw the team drop at least one hundred games.
They did have a few glimmers of hope. First was a player named Nate Colbert. Colbert, playing first base, was indeed a power hitter with many accomplishments. One of his amazing feats took place over the course of a double header. He hit 5 homeruns in those two games. He and Stan Musial are the only two players to do this. In addition to the homeruns, he also tallied 13 runs batted in, a record that he holds alone.
The second ray of hope was that the team was sold to a new owner, Ray Kroc. Kroc was the owner of the world’s largest fast food chain and had a burning desire to win. One of his first actions was to introduce himself to Padre Fans during a game via the PA system. It was at this time he apologized for the team’s “stupid ball playing” and pledged improvement. Unfortunately for him, the fans became distracted when a streaker took to the field while Kroc was speaking.
Very slowly but surely the team began to improve. In 1978 the team hit the . 500 mark for the first time. They actually finished six games above five hundred. This was due in no small measure to players such as Dave Winfield, Rollie Fingers, and Gaylord Perry. However the team ended up losing both Winfield and Fingers to free agency.
The Pads did see success with two pennants and appearances in the World Series in 1984 and 1998. As luck would have it, both times they were facing juggernaut teams. First was the Detroit Tigers who began their season 35-5 and went on to win the whole thing in 5 games.
The 1998 series proved to be another uphill battle against another premier American League foe – the Yankees. The Yankees had won 114 games during the regular season and were regarded by many as one of the best teams to ever take the field. But even though the Yanks swept the series, the Padres played with pluck. Three of the four games were nail biters.
The 2000s have seen unevenness of play. They were the division champs in 2005 and 2006 but other years turned out to be disappointments. Today, they remain decent, but not terrific. Time will tell what is in store for them.
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San Diego Padres
In 1969, San Diego businessman C. Arnholt Smith, former owner of the Pacific Coast League Padres, a minor league team, became the first owner of the Major League Baseball San Diego Padres. The Padres finished in last place in each of their first six seasons, including 100 or more loses in each of four seasons, despite all the initial excitement, the guidance of longtime baseball executive Buzzie Bavasi and a new playing field. Nate Colbert, who came over from the Houston Astros as an expansion draftee, was the lone shinning point during the early years of the organization; through 2007, he was the Padres’ career homerun leader. Before the 1974 season it was fully expected that the Padres would move to Washington, D.C. Fans, players and baseball card companies were all fooled when Smith changed his mind about selling to a man who wanted to move the team, Joseph Danzansky, and instead sold to Ray Kroc, the co-founder of McDonalds’. The Padres have never left the town of their birth and the Nation’s capitol would have to wait until after the 2004 season to get a baseball team, when the Montreal Expos, the Padres’ sister National League expansion team in 1969, transferred and became the Washington Nationals.
After Colbert left via trade, the Padres still featured a star outfielder in Dave Winfield. Winfield went to San Diego in the 1973 draft after a stellar collegiate career at the University of Minnesota. Winfield is one of only two players to ever be drafted into three different sports, the other being Dave Logan, who played football for the Cleveland Browns. Winfield had been also drafted by the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association and the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association. Before moving to the New York Yankees in 1980, Winfield had 1,134 hits, 154 homeruns and 626 RBI’s, in 1,117 games in seven years for the Padres.
The Padres play at PETCO Park, the stadium being named after the pet store, PETCO. One of the bricks at the center plaza was purchased by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization that has protested the breeding and purchasing of the animals sold at PETCO stores. The brick reads, “Break out your cold ones. Toast the Padres. Enjoy this champion organization.” The first letter of each word is really an acrostic (a writing in an alphabetic script, that spells out another message) in which the first letter is actually urging people to boycott the stores (BOYCOTT PETCO).
San Diego won two pennants in their first 30 years, 1984 and 1998, both followed by years of dismal performances. Each time the Padres would do well but fall short and the end of the season would at times see them fall in dead last. Despite these issues, star-player Tony Gwynn would continue to set landmarks before retiring in 2001. Gwynn then went on to be inducted into the Hall-of-Fame.
Michael Bishop is a sportswriter for SportsFanTreasures.com Check out his San Diego Padres Merchandise and his Boston Red Sox Merchandise
