News and Notes	June 1, 1999

Here's a great article on Tony Gwynn from a current ESPN Magazine (May 31st 1999 issue).  Check it out:

Do The Math
by Steve Hirdt

A Hit Man For All Seasons

I've learned a lot lately.  I've learned about the construction of the New York City subways and the Golden Gate Bridge.  I've learned about plumbing systems, helicopters, tunnels and medical imaging.  All because of Tony Gwynn.

The History Channel has this neat program called Modern Marvels.  The night I found it in the TV listings, I tuned in--assuming that it was about Gwynn.  They haven't gotten to him yet, but if you want to know anything about aqueducts, I'm your man.

Take a llok at page 7 of The Book of Baseball Records and you'll see the names of players holding various batting average records, including Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, Napoleon Lajoie, Jesse Burkett, Lou Gehrig--and Tony Gwynn.  Gwynn is as out-of-time in that group as a cell phone in Alexander Graham Bell's workshop.  You don't even meet old men with some of those names anymore--apologies to any Honuses and Napoleons out there.

Gwynn's .339 career batting average ranks 16th in major league history among players with 5,000 at-bats.  But that damns him with faint praise.  After all, he's in the company of guys who traveled in horse-drawn carriages, never set foot on an airplane and did not play in integrated major leagues.  Among the 15 players with higher averages than Gwynn, only Gehrig and Ted Williams were born this century.  And only Cobb, Lajoie and Tris Speaker maintained their averages for as many at-bats as Gwynn has.

Gwynn is an anachronism who has resolutely done his thing in an era in which most players try to put one over the fence rather than through the third-short hole.  Now, on the eve of his 3,000th hit, Gwynn is about to take a bow.

The overall batting average in the majors has been in the .250s or .260s every year of Gwynn's career.  Since his 1982 debut, the major league average is .261; Gwynn has beaten that mark by 78 points.  Now, consider that the overall batting average stood in the .270s or higher in every season from 1893 through 1901, and again in every season but one from 1920 through 1939.  Remember those 15 players with higher career averages than Gwynn?  Every one played part of his career in one of those high-average eras.

Let's do for Gwynn what we did in this column for NHL goalies a few issues ago; compare his personal average with the average of his era, then measure the difference against what other great hitters have done.  The results are in the chart, below left.

Throughout his career, Gwynn's success and style of hitting have encouraged comparisons to Wade Boggs, who also arrived in the majors in 1982 (Boggs in April, Gwynn in July).  Among contemporary players, Boggs stands with Gwynn as the best practitioners of what Cobb and his pals called "scientific hitting."

On July 31 of their rookie year, Boggs went 2-for-3, raising his batting average to .360, while Gwynn went 2-for-10 in a double-header, dropping his average to .339.  From that day in 1982, Gwynn stood in Boggs' shadow--atleast in terms of their respective career averages.  Boggs maintained his lead by varying margins, but with the speed and inevitability of continents drifting, Gwynn narrowed the gap--from 30 points on Sept. 23, 1985, to 20 points in May '90, to 10 in July '93, to 5 in April '94.

On July 6, 1995, when Gwynn went 3-for-5 and Boggs 0-for-5, Tony nosed ahead of Wade for the first time in nearly 13 years.  Except for two single days reigns later that month, Boggs has trailed Gwynn ever since.  Gwynn's edge reached 10 points earlier this year.

Of all the marvelous Tony Gwynn statistics, that's the one that does it for me; that he could spot a hitter as good as Wade Boggs a 30-point lead and then catch him from behind.  Here's hoping hit No. 3,000 goes through that third-short hole.

Rap Stars - Tony Gwynn stands this test of time
Player	Seasons	AVG.	Majors	Diff.
Ty Cobb	1905-28	.367	.264	+.1029
Ted Williams	1939-60	.344	.260	+.0841
Dan Brouthers	1879--1904	.343	.261	+.0823
Rogers Hornsby	1915-37	.358	.278	+.0810
Nap Lajoie	1896-1916	.339	.258	+.0806
Willie Keeler	1892-1910	.345	.265	+.0794
Tris Speaker	1907-28	.344	.266	+.0780
Tony Gwynn	1982-	.339	.261	+.0778
First and last season of player's career are listed; some players had interrupted careers. "Majors" column lists composite BA of all major leaguers for all seasons in which the player had 100 or more at-bats.  The difference is computed between player's career average and the average for his era.

Story posted: 6/2/99 at 12:32 AM