News breaks down Mr. Padre in a way pitchers never could
By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | ∞
Tony Gwynn acknowledges the crowd at the start of the press conference for his vote into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
DON BOOMER Staff Photographer
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SAN DIEGO ---- Fifteen minutes before the 10 a.m. Tuesday call he hoped for, Tony Gwynn shut it down. 
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Wide awake since 4 a.m., he wanted no more phone calls from well wishers, no more idol chatter in his Poway home.
He thought he was ready for what was to come.
But when Jack O'Connell, secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, called Gwynn from New York, "I broke down," Gwynn said.
"When the phone rang, and I saw the 212 area code, I shushed everybody.
"When I heard the word 'congratulations', I lost it."
Gwynn was accepting congratulations for his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Gwynn received 532 of a possible 545 votes ---- 97.61 percent, the seventh-highest vote total of all-time.
Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., who also will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 29, received 537 votes ---- 98.53 percent ---- the third-highest vote total of all-time behind only Tom Seaver (98.84) and Nolan Ryan (98.79).
Ty Cobb (98.23), George Brett (98.19) and Hank Aaron (97.83) are the only other players to get a higher percentage of the vote than Gwynn.
After he took O'Connell's call, Gwynn figured "my cell phone would blow up." While he didn't take many calls, he answered one.
"About 30 minutes after I got the news, I saw a number I didn't recognize, but I answered it anyway," Gwynn said.
It was baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
"I broke down again," Gwynn said. "My wife came over and put her arm around me. And my son, Anthony, came over and settled me down."
Gwynn shared the Hall-of-Fame news by phone with his mother, Vendella, who lives in Long Beach, and his brother Chris, a 10-year major leaguer, who scouts for the Padres.
Gwynn wasn't able to immediately get in contact with his oldest brother, Charles, a teacher in Long Beach.
Later at a Petco Park press conference, Gwynn broke down when asked what his late father, Charles, would have thought of his son's induction.
"He would have been proud," said Gwynn, fighting back tears. "He would have been darn proud."
Gwynn played all of his 20 years in a Padres uniform, something he's very proud of.
But he came very close to not being a Padre.
In 1981, then Padres general manager Jack McKeon went to San Diego State to scout Aztecs shortstop Bobby Meacham.
McKeon liked Meacham, but was most impressed by Gwynn.
The Cardinals took Meacham with the eighth pick in the first round of the 1981 draft. McKeon had to convince his scouting director (Bob Fontaine Jr.) to take Gwynn in the third round, just two picks ahead of the Houston Astros, who had Gwynn on their radar.
Former San Diego State pitcher Bob Cluck, who was then working for the Astros, had pegged Gwynn as a first-round talent.
But the Astros lost their first-round pick to the Rangers as compensation for signing third baseman Dave Roberts. Houston's second-round pick went to the Dodgers as compensation for signing pitcher Don Sutton.
Instead of taking Gwynn, the Astros settled for Tennessee State outfielder Curtis Burke. Burke never played in the major leagues, nor did any of Houston's other picks in the regular phase of that draft.
"I firmly believe things happen for a reason," Gwynn said. "Why did the Padres pick me when they did? In my case, I believe I was supposed to be a Padre."
On the day the Padres selected Gwynn, he was also taken in the 10th round of the NBA draft by the then San Diego Clippers.
Few remember Gwynn came to San Diego State on a basketball scholarship and is still the school's all-time career assist leader with 590 ---- an average of 5.5 over 107 career games. He averaged 8.2 assists a game as a junior in the 1979-80 season and had a school record 18 assists in a game that season against UNLV.
To this day, Gwynn ---- who didn't play college baseball until after his sophomore basketball season ---- is convinced he would have stuck with the Clippers had he chosen the NBA.
"I don't know if I would have been a star, but I would have made the club," Gwynn said. "Remember, the Clippers weren't very good then, and they didn't have a lot of guards.
"But I was a 5-foot-10 guard, so my chances of playing big-league baseball were a whole lot better than playing in the NBA.
"I figured my best chance to play in the major leagues was baseball."
In the spring of 1981, Gwynn was in Phoenix and talked to ex-Aztecs basketball teammates Joel Kramer, who was playing for the Suns, and Kim Goetz, who was playing for the Clippers, "and I got the urge to play basketball," he said.
Ted Podleski, general manager of the Clippers at the time, said drafting Gwynn wasn't a publicity stunt.
"A lot of people said we drafted Tony on the last round just to get some publicity in town," Podleski said at the time. "Nothing could be farther from the truth.
"We drafted him on the 10th round because the Padres drafted him on the third. We knew Tony would probably lean toward baseball, but we still wanted the rights to him if he decided to play basketball."
A little more than a year after he was drafted by the Padres, Gwynn was in the big leagues.
He hit .289 in 54 games that first season. He hit over .300 in each of his next 19 seasons, including .394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season ---- the highest major-league average since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.
"I was locked in that year," Gwynn said. "I'm convinced I would have hit .400 had we played the entire season."
Gwynn won eight National League batting titles ---- the first in 1984, the last in 1997 ---- and played in 15 All-Star Games.
It was a meeting with Williams at the 1992 All-Star Game in San Diego that changed the course of Gwynn's career.
"That was the first time I had met Ted, and after my conversations with him, I knew I could drive the ball," Gwynn said. "After my conversations with him, I was a better hitter."
Gwynn said Williams, Stan Musial, Rod Carew, Joe Morgan and Pete Rose influenced his hitting style.
Gwynn was a singles hitter with 2,378 of his career 3,141 career hits being singles.
He finished with a .338 career batting average, striking out just 434 times in 10,220 plate appearances.
"This proves there is a place in the Hall of Fame for singles hitters," said Gwynn, who said his biggest hit was a 1998, home run off the facade of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the World Series.
"This is validation.
"If I'm the spokesman for Punch-and-Judy hitters, I'm perfectly willing to accept it."
-- Contact staff writer John Maffei at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.
By the numbers
97.61
Percentage of Hall of Fame ballots on which Tony Gwynn appeared ---- the seventh-highest percentage in history. Gwynn received 532 votes, five behind Cal Ripken Jr., and was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
3,141
Number of hits Gwynn collected in his 20-year Padres career (1982-2001). Gwynn's 3,000th hit came on Aug. 6, 1999 at Montreal's Olympic Stadium against the Expos' Dan Smith.
.338
Gwynn's career average. His best year came in the strike season of 1994, when he hit .394 and nearly became the first player since San Diego native Ted Williams in 1941 to break the .400 barrier.
8
Number of National League batting titles won by Gwynn, tying Honus Wagner's NL record. Gwynn's first batting title came in 1984, when he led the Padres to their first NL pennant.
2007 Hall of Fame Voting
545 votes cast; 409 needed
x-Cal Ripken Jr. 537 (98.5 percent)
x-Tony Gwynn 532 (97.6)
Rich Gossage 388 (71.2)
Jim Rice 346 (63.5)
Andre Dawson 309 (56.7)
Bert Blyleven 260 (47.7)
Lee Smith 217 (39.8)
Jack Morris 202 (37.1)
Mark McGwire 128 (23.5)
Tommy John 125 (22.9)
y-Steve Garvey 115 (21.1)
Dave Concepcion 74 (13.6)
Alan Trammell 73 (13.4)
Dave Parker 62 (11.4)
Don Mattingly 54 (9.9)
Dale Murphy 50 (9.2)
Harold Baines 29 (5.3).
By receiving fewer than 27 votes (less than 5 percent), Orel Hershiser 24 (4.4), Albert Belle 19 (3.5), Paul O'Neill 12 (2.2), Bret Saberhagen 7 (1.3), Jose Canseco 6 (1.1), Tony Fernandez 4 (0.7), Dante Bichette 3 (0.6), Eric Davis 3 (0.6), Bobby Bonilla 2 (0.4), Ken Caminiti 2 (0.4), Jay Buhner 1 (0.2), Scott Brosius 0 (0.0), Wally Joyner 0 (0.0), Devon White 0 (0.0), Bobby Witt 0 (0.0) are no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA.
x-elected
y-final year of eligibility for election by the BBWAA
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Oceansider wrote on Jan 9, 2007 12:26 PM:Way to go, Tony! You deserve this great honor!
Concerned wrote on Jan 9, 2007 1:36 PM:Typical East Coast Media. The story is McGuire doesn't make it instead of Gwynn and Ripkin named to the Hall of Fame. Bad news rules the news cycle. Hopefully the NCT will do better tomorrow. Congratulation to Number 19, always a hall of famer in my book!
Nitpick wrote on Jan 9, 2007 2:42 PM:Congrats to a great human being and ballplayer, Tony Gwynn. I've got to ask the question though - why would Ripkin get a higher percentage of votes than Tony?
Skinny wrote on Jan 9, 2007 4:34 PM:It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy! My 80 something Mom was at the ball park one day and somebody called Tony over to say hello. Just nice and down to earth as you could ask. As others have said, "Way to go Tony!"
threecubed wrote on Jan 9, 2007 5:43 PM:in response to nitpick's querie , there is no logical explanation which leaves us only the illogical . it must be noted the vote is more of a commentary representation of the b-ball writers IQ and their homeristic opinions than one of basaball proficiency . how can anyone with a lifetime .260 BA be considered anything but average ?
JJMC wrote on Jan 9, 2007 8:29 PM:That fat rascal could really hit! Tony is one cool dude.
to nitpick and concerned wrote on Jan 10, 2007 10:46 AM:Ripkin's consecutive game record was the thing that got him the extra votes...it's amazing that anyone didn't vote for him, though the same is true of Tony, who was such a better hitter. Both being one-team guys makes both a wonderful antidote to the shifting and free-agency misery we all go through with our teams, but the games streak is really incredible and this made Ripkin an even more shining symbol of what's right in baseball than Tony, hard as that is to imagine. But ask any of them which of the two they'd pay to see play, and it's a no brainer. I agree with concerned that McGwire's failure and the easy target of the steroid story should not be the headline compared to celebrating the two that got in. A moral failure on the part of the press.
A Baseball Fan wrote on Jan 10, 2007 1:26 PM:Thank you Tony for all you've done and been for San Diego. We appreciate and love you! You certainly deserve all the recognition you get. Stay humble though...
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