Cleveland Sports Forum

I grew up watching guys like Rod Carew, Pete Rose, and Tony Gwynn. I guess that's why I get so frustrated at how many guys strike out today. Especially guys that stand there and watch a 3rd strike go by. I will never understand it.

The most Gwynn ever struck out in a season was 40 times. That same year he hit .313. And that was a very bad year for him. He usually only struck out around 20 times a year.

The 4 year span from 1994 thru 1997 he hit something like .371. And that was at an age of, what, 34 thru 38.

I guess that's why I get so frustrated at how many guys strike out today.

Yep!

Is there anyone more frustrating to watch than Santana? How many times has he turned his back on called third strikes with pitches right down the heart of the plate.

Tony Gwynn used fear as motivation

Tom Friend ESPN.com | June 16, 2014

SAN DIEGO -- In late April, I surprised him at the hospital. He was in a wheelchair. His hair was fully gray. He couldn't open his right eye. He could only halfway open his mouth. He was on oxygen. The purest hitter of our generation was dying.

You can't prepare yourself for that. Not when you knew him like I did. I was a rookie Padres beat writer in 1985; he'd won his first batting title in 1984. I knew him when his vision was 20-10, when he considered 1-for-4 a bad day at the office, when he used to write "5.5 hole" on his cleats. That day in the hospital, I would have done anything to see a young Tony Gwynn again. And then I looked down at his feet. He was wearing his old baseball shower shoes. On them was his scribbled number: 19. He was 19 to the end.

He thought I came to write about him that day. But I was really there to cheer up the man who spent 20 seasons cheering up a city. To live in San Diego is to live and breathe Tony Gwynn. My 12-year-old son, born a year after Gwynn retired, wore No. 19 in Encinitas Little League. He and a thousand other kids in town. Petco Park's address is 19 Tony Gwynn Way. His statue sits right behind where he played: right field. If the name Cal Ripken says Baltimore, then the name Tony Gwynn says San Diego.

Since the day his career began, Tony Gwynn was the face of San Diego baseball.

He played basketball and baseball at San Diego State. He was drafted by the Padres and the San Diego Clippers on the same day. He played here 20 seasons. He could have left via free agency any number of times -- because the Padres are in a small market and let player after player walk -- but Gwynn always took "the hometown discount.''

Other Gwynns kept following him to the club. His brother, Chris, had an RBI for the Padres on the last day of the '96 season to beat the Dodgers and clinch the division. Tony's son, Anthony, would later roam the outfield for the Padres, too. Tony's daughter, Anisha, sang the national anthem here.

This may be a beach town, but Tony made it blue collar. He was the first big league hitter to videotape and watch every one of his at-bats. I would get to the ballpark at 2:30 p.m. for a 7 o'clock night game, and there was Tony, all alone, taking early batting practice. He thought he was a terrible hitter; that's what made him a Hall of Famer. That's why he was able to win eight batting titles and have a career average of .338, the highest since his friend and fellow San Diegan Ted Williams. Tony always told me he was motivated by fear -- fear of going 0-for-5. At 2:30, every day, he'd hit upwards of 100 balls to the 5.5 hole -- between shortstop and third -- and then lope back to the clubhouse ...

For another pinch of chewing tobacco.

I guess, if you want to get technical, baseball killed him. Because he first began to chew at rookie ball in Walla Walla, Washington. He was so paranoid that his swing would fall to pieces overnight that he would dip smokeless tobacco to take the edge off.

He told me he had the same morning habit for years -- brush your teeth, then fire in a dip -- and that he would go through a can and a half of Skoal a day. I remember the cup he used to keep by his locker to spit into. One day at home, his young son, Anthony, thought that cup was full of juice and took a sip. "It was gross,'' Anthony told me once. From that moment on, Anthony vowed he'd never chew.

But it was too late for Tony. "I was addicted," he once told me. He would sneak out of his house late at night -- "like a criminal,'' he said -- to buy his tobacco at a convenience store. If his wife, Alicia, had known, she would've socked him. She wanted him to quit, begged him to quit, threatened to leave him if he didn't quit. He tried bubble gum, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and synthetic chew, but baseball wasn't baseball without the real stuff.

"I'm a tobacco junkie,'' he told me.

Until it gave him cancer of the salivary gland in 2010.

Cancer -- talk about a fastball to the head. He worked to beat it the same way he worked to go to the 5.5 hole. At the time of his diagnosis, he was the head baseball coach at San Diego State and promised them he'd be back after facial surgery, chemo and radiation. But when he returned, his face partially paralyzed, it was hard to look at him, hard to face this fact: Tony Gwynn didn't have the strength to smile. What had made him special -- and this may be part of his legacy -- is that he was the most congenial superstar I ever came across in my 30-year career. His laugh -- part hyena, part grammar school -- would enter the room a minute before he did. You could hear his giggle a half-mile away. Cancer took that away.

He beat it temporarily, but then the growths came back ... and came back again. His father, Charles, had died young of heart problems. Death crossed Tony's mind a lot. When I visited with him at the hospital, he thought I had come to write his obit. About a week earlier, there'd been a mishap during one of his cancer treatments. From what I'm told, he'd lost oxygen and was suddenly barely able to move. It was almost like a stroke, and he was sent to a rehab hospital to learn how to walk again. He knew his body was failing. He knew something perilous had happened to him, and he wasn't going to lie: He was scared.

I wanted to change the subject, so I brought up baseball. For the first time all day, he lit up. His greatest moment was his home run at Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the '98 World Series, off of David Wells. His most disappointing was the '94 baseball strike. His batting average was .394 on Aug. 11, 1994, the day the players went on strike. If he'd had four more hits -- either four dying quails or four lucky nubbers -- he would have finished at .400, the first hitter to do so since Ted Williams. Without the strike, I believe Gwynn would have done it, and he did, too. He could've handled the media scrutiny. He would've taken his early BP at 2:30 and been all smiles at 6:30.

If not for the MLB strike in 1994, there was a good chance Tony Gwynn would have hit .400 in 1994.
So his baseball life hadn't been perfect. Over the years, teammates were jealous of his popularity (see Jack Clark), and even upper management seemed threatened by him. Maybe he'd gotten too big in town for them. How he was never hired as the Padres' hitting coach is beyond me. They could've talked him out of coaching at San Diego State. They could've done more than just hire him as a broadcaster. John Moores, the owner when Tony retired, promised him a lifetime contract in 2001. But, over the years, the two drifted apart.

It has ended badly and sadly. But I choose to remember the young Tony Gwynn, who despite his cherubic appearance, once stole 56 bases in a season. I remember him working on his defense in the offseason -- the same way Michael Jordan worked on his jumper -- and then earning five Gold Gloves. I remember doing a story on him and Don Mattingly in 1986, about a contest in which they were both supposed to hit a button when lights flashed -- to see who had the quickest reactions and the keenest eyesight. They were both in their prime at the time, and Mr. Padre whipped him Mr. Yankee.

But I will also never forget that day at the hospital this April. Tony was trying to get his hands and arms to work again, and a therapist sat him in front of a series of lights -- just like he and Mattingly had done in '86. It had been 28 years. There had been three cancer surgeries, there had been weight gain. Tony was slow. He was frustrated. It wasn't fair. He used to have 20-10 vision; now he could barely see out of his right eye.

But he said he was hanging in, that he was looking forward to watching his Anthony play for the Phillies that night on TV. Just the sight of his kid trying to go to the 5.5 hole was enough to keep him upbeat. But first he wanted to take a rest. He was tired. So I said goodbye for the last time.

It was 2:30.

19 incredible stats about Tony Gwynn's Hall of Fame career

career .302 batting average with two strikes............

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big- ... 43389.html

Nice guy, hard worker, not injured this year, but not producing:


Red Sox to designate Grady Sizemore for assignment
By Matt Snyder | Baseball Writer
June 17, 2014 3:38 pm ET

The Red Sox are going to designate outfielder Grady Sizemore for assignment, confirms Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. This means he'll eventually either be claimed by a different team (doubtful), be released or sent down to the minors.

Sizemore, 31, is hitting .216/.288/.324 (69 OPS+) with 10 doubles, two triples, two homers, 15 RBI, 14 runs and five stolen bases on the season. A lot of that, though, came early on. Sizemore is hitting .187/.263/.267 since April 15.

After losing Jacoby Ellsbury to free agency, the Red Sox attempted to enter the season with a combination of Sizemore and youngster Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field. The results have been pretty awful and the club is currently six games below .500.

Sizemore's demise has been rather extraordinary. Through his age-25 season, he was one of the best players in baseball. He'd already been to three All-Star Games and was coming off a season in which he won both a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger while finishing 10th in AL MVP voting.

Since then, though, injuries have essentially ruined his career. Sizemore was last a productive player in 2010 -- though not All-Star caliber any longer -- and has appeared in 262 games from 2009 to the present.

It wouldn't surprise me if it comes out now that he WAS injured, but wasn't telling anyone.

Wow, the Royals are en fuego!
Last night they jumped all over Verlander, and tonight they just put a 7-spot on Scherzer in the 2nd inning!

Wow, the Royals are en fuego!

Last night they jumped all over Verlander, and tonight they just put a 7-spot on Scherzer in the 2nd inning!

It's about time ! I was predicting this the past two years.

I was predicting 3 years ago the AL Division Leaders on June 18th 2014 would be Toronto, Kansas City and Oakland.

Brandon Phillips and heckler:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2104 ... g-national

Cespedes does it again!

http://www.mlb.com/r/video?content_id=3 ... d=51231442

Abreu belted 2 homers tonight while picking up his 63rd rbi. His batting average is up to (.280). It's going to take a miracle or a serious injury to stop Abreu from winning the ROY this year. If the sox make the playoffs, he may have a shot at MVP. I was hoping we would have made a serious offer for him.

Hector Rondon is 1-2 with 11 saves and an era of 3.6 for the Cubs.

joez wrote:Hector Rondon is 1-2 with 11 saves and an era of 3.6 for the Cubs.

The one that got away!

Jose Abreu is six homers shy of a personal record after hitting homer 27 tonight.


José continued to improve in 2010-2011 with one of the greatest seasons in Cuban history. He hit .453/.597/.986 with 79 runs, 93 RBI and 33 home runs in only 66 games. Despite missing 23 games due to bursitis in his shoulder, he broke Despaigne's home run record (as did Yoennis Céspedes - both hit their 33rd on the season's last day). Despaigne would reclaim the record a year later. Abreu led the league in average (.052 over Michel Enriquez), slugging (a whopping .212 over runner-up Frederich Cepeda), intentional walks (21) and homers (tied with Yoennis Céspedes), was second in RBI (6 behind Céspedes), tied for 8th in runs with Donal Duarte, was 7th in total bases (209) and 4th in times hit by pitch (21). Had he not been injured, he would have likely easily won a Triple Crown. He won Serie Nacional MVP. He was the second MVP from Cienfuegos, following Pedro José Rodríguez, Sr. by 31 years.