The best, must-read stories about Tony Gwynn
Here’s Maddux talking about the importance of changing speeds vs. having velocity because he says no player can tell you how fast a pitch is going … except for one.
“You just can’t do it,” Maddux said. “Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitchers if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision.
“Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn.”
Tony Gwynn used to go to the factory to pick out his bats. He knew them so well he could tell his bats from a teammate’s who used the same size bat from the same manufacturer.
Tony Gwynn loved hitting so much, he visited the Hillerich & Bradsby factory more than once so he could handpick the billets of wood for his bats. His bats were his magic wands, and they had to feel right in those little hands of his. His bats were the same length and weight as those of teammate Scott Livingstone.
“If I close my eyes,” Gwynn said, “and put my bat in one hand and Scott’s in the other, I’ll tell you which bat is mine every time.”
He took the test. He got it right every time.
“Stan Musial told me he could do the same thing,” Gwynn said. “Hitters always know the feel.”
Tony Gwynn only used one bat for most of the 1994 season when he hit .394. He called the bat “Seven Grains of Pain.”
In 1994, the year he hit .394, he used one bat for most of the season, an astonishing feat given that bats are broken today more than ever (hitters use as small and as light a bat as possible, with a skinny handle and fat barrel; Pete Incaviglia once broke 144 bats in one season because he simply overpowered his own bats). Gwynn didn’t use his favorite bat against really tough left-handed pitchers, such as Jeff Fassero, who might get the split-fingered fastball inside on him, and perhaps break his bat.
“I called it ‘Seven Grains of Pain’ because it was a seven-grain bat,” Gwynn said. “The next spring training, I was really struggling, so I brought that bat out again. And I broke it in practice taking BP against Rob Picciolo [the Padres’ first-base coach]. I broke it on Field 7.”
Tony Gwynn had such great vision he could see things nobody else could.
Gwynn also could see the ball better than any hitter of his time. And he could see things that other hitters couldn’t. Shane Reynolds of the Astros had an excellent split-fingered fastball, but Gwynn knew it was coming because he could see Reynolds’ grip in his glove as he delivered the ball. He would explain to teammates what he was seeing, but, Gwynn said, “They couldn’t see it.” At the batting cage during the 1998 World Series against the Yankees, Gwynn, then 38 years old, complained to a writer that “I can’t see like I used to.”
“So,” the writer said, “what is your vision now, 20-20?”
“No,” Gwynn said, “it’s 20-15. But I still can’t see like I used to.”
Tony Gwynn was one of the pioneers of using video to study himself hitting
Via Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci.
Gwynn was a fervent student of the game. He was one of the first players who dove into the video age. His wife would travel around with a video cassette player — the old Betamax used in those days was as big as a suitcase — and tape his at-bats. Gwynn would watch the tapes after games in his hotel room on the road. Sometimes he would cover the TV set with a sheet of plastic wrap and draw with a wax marker, often to make sure his head didn’t move during his swing or that his body kept its center of balance.
Tony Gwynn could see Trevor Hoffman’s changeup
Via Trevor Hoffman interview with Darren Smith on The Mighty 1090 (12:51 mark)
“We talked a little about the changeup and how my grip would have the fingers lifted up off the ball. He’s going, ‘Hoff, you know, I think I’d be able to see that if I were to hit off of you. I was able to see it.’ I’m like, ‘if it’s just you that’s able to pick that up, then I think I’m OK. Now that we’re teammates I’m not going to have to worry about it.’ ”
Tony Gwynn on being pulled by manager Jim Riggleman a single shy of the cycle on June 10, 1993. The Padres still have never had a player hit for the cycle.
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” Gwynn said several years later.
Video recorded by The Mighty 1090’s Marty Caswell:
Tony Gwynn loved hitting off the tee and preached its importance as a practice tool.
I can’t find any specific quote about it, but I recall hearing/reading about how Tony carried a tee around with him in his car so he could always have it available to practice wherever he went. On a personal note, after I heard that story when I was 14, I began using the tee every day when I practiced my swing. I never hit better than that season.
Via Column written by Tony Gwynn for ESPN
The tee is a wonderful hitting tool. Even though the tee can’t speak, it can tell a hitter a lot about himself.
Gwynn talked specifically about how the tee helped Greg Vaughn and Jacque Jones improve as hitters.
Again, if you know of other great Tony Gwynn stories, please notify us or leave a comment so we can add them to the list.