The Greatest Hitter of Our Time

    He is a very simple man.  He is a very quiet man.  When you talk to him, you would never know that he is the best hitter of the last 20 years.  He doesn't think he is, but that's part of what makes him so wonderful.  The man I'm talking about has never hit 70 homeruns in a season, hell it's rare that he even gets close to 15.  He has played for just one team in all of his 18 years of baseball through both good times and bad.  Age has not weakened his batting eye one bit, although it has taken a toll on his legs and mid-section.  He is not only the greatest of our generation, but one of the best of all time.  His name of course is Tony Gwynn.
    In an age where it is nothing for a player to hit 40 or even 50 homeruns, there is nobody I'd rather see hit than this simple singles hitter in San Diego.  He quietly goes about his business with few people other than true baseball fans noticing.  He is one of the last of a dying breed.  He loves the game of baseball and he's not afraid to let it show.  He has accepted less money than he could have earned in free agency to stay with the same team he started with for his entire career.  He is also one of the nicest people in Major League Baseball today.  There is nobody this guy can't hit against, I mean he has a .458 lifetime batting average against Greg Maddux and a .429 average against Tom Glavine, which is the highest by one man against both pitchers.  He is amazing.  Who else could you possibly put up against him as the best pure hitter of our era, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker, Wade Boggs.  You can have them all.  There is nobody else that comes close to his .339 lifetime average, or his 8 batting titles, or his one strikeout per 35 at bats.  He is quite simply the best.  Mark McGwire can hit the ball 500 feet on any given pitch, but let me ask you a question, who would you rather pitch to in a tie ballgame in the bottom of the ninth with a runner on second and two outs, McGwire or Tony Gwynn?
    Nobody in the game of baseball consistently hits the ball as solid as Gwynn does.  It seems that every ball he hits is right on the nose.  Now, it might be right at somebody, but he always rips it.  Ask any pitcher how they go about pitching him and they will tell you that they just throw the ball over the plate and pray he hits it at somebody, because you're not going to fool him with off-speed stuff and you're not going to blow a fastball by him.  Just hope that nobody's in scoring position when he gets a hit and start working on the next hitter.
    The game of baseball has changed dramatically since Tony Gwynn started his career in 1983.  In 1983, he was very slim and even once stole 76 bases in a season in a time when speed and base hits dominated.  Reggie Jackson and Gorman Thomas tied for the American League homerun championship in 1982 with 39.  39 would have gotten you 8th place last year in the American League and 10th place in the National League.  Oh, how the times have changed.  There were 26 teams in the majors, and every one of them had at least decent pitching staffs hard as that is to believe.  He rolled along in the eighties making it to the World Series in just his second year in 1984.  They lost that series, but Tony thought he'd have plenty of time to get his ring.  In the decade of the 80's, as the Padres slipped farther and farther away from first place, Tony kept on hitting and winning batting titles, but was pushed back from the spotlight and not even considered the best hitter of the decade (Wade Boggs was).  Oh, but Tony was just lying in the weeds waiting to really explode in the 90's.  From 1993-1997 Tony hit over .350 all five years.  Doesn't sound so wonderful until you realize that the last guy to do it was some guy named Ted Williams.  Tony continued on hitting and won his 8th batting title in 1997.  That also doesn't sound so wonderful until you realize that only one man in history has more batting titles than that and he was some guy named Cobb.  Tony finally made it back to the World Series in 1998, but his team unfortuately was no match for the Yankees, even though every baseball fan in the nation was rooting for Tony to get the ring he deserved.
    You just can't help but root for Tony.  There is just something about him that is wonderful.  He epitimizes everything that is great about baseball.  He has played for the same team his whole career and doesn't complain about how little money he makes, he grants interviews and signs autographs all with a smile on his face.  Ted Williams even likes him, and that in itself is saying a lot.  He just keeps hitting.  His career average is .339 which puts him in the top 10 all-time.  Injuries and Larry Walker hitting in that sorry excuse for a ballpark, have kept Tony from any batting titles recently, but if he can stay healthy for an entire year, then watch out.  This guy could hit the ball for the rest of his life he so desired, but since he will probably retire with the Padres rather than go to the American League and DH where he could for the next 5 years or so (see Harold Baines), then he will probably only play two more years.  I just hope everyone realizes just how special this guy is before he does retire.  The talent he has and what he can do only comes along once in a lifetime and it has truly been a pleasure to watch him over these years.  So, once again this baseball season while everyone watches to see how many homeruns everybody's hitting, I will watch the greatest hitter of our time stoke singles in between the shortstop and third baseman and each time I will smile and hope he plays forever.