Major League Baseball (MLB) has had incredible hitters throughout its history. Every era has them, and few did it better during his time than Tony Gwynn Sr.
Committed to one team, Gwynn Sr. played his entire career with the San Diego Padres (1982-2001).
Tony Gwynn Sr. made his MLB debut in 1982, and won the National League (NL) batting title in 1984 (his first full season in the majors), hitting .351 and finishing 3rd in the NL MVP race. He led the Padres to their first World Series appearance, where they lost to the Detroit Tigers in five games.
In 1987, Gwynn Sr. again led the NL in batting average (.370) and in hits (218). Overall, he won four batting titles in the 1980s, including an incredible three consecutive titles from 1987 to 1989.
Even with those strong perforances, Gwynn Sr. probably had his best season in 1994 when he was on a quest to hit .400, something that hadn’t been done since Ted Williams eclipsed the mark in 1941. Many believe to this day that Gwynn Sr. would have done it had the players not gone on strike in August of that year. Gwynne St. was hitting .394 at the time.
Gwynn Sr. finished his career with 3,141 hits and won a total of (get this) eight batting titles (1984, 1987-1989, 1994-1997). He also played in 15 All-Star Games and won five Gold Gloves (1986-1987, 1989-1991).
Gwynn Sr. had a career average of .338 and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
Gwynn Sr. is uniformly regarded as one of the greatest hitters in MLB history. Of that, there is no doubt.
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This article was published first on Anthony’s blog.
