Padres fans have called the second game of the season, "Tony Gwynn Opening Day" for years, because of Gwynn's affection for the fans who showed up for Game 2. He also had the second-most regular-season . Cards available for trade are listed below. Here comes more. The Book on Maddux, Glavine. The historic 1994 season in which Gwynn batted .394 -- the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams did so -- was cut short by the strike. In 2007, Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame after receiving 532 of 545 votes -- the 10th-highest total in MLB history. ], Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox. Mr. Padre Captain Video . How incredible was Gwynns career batting mark? Full quote: "Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. Here are seven (and trust us, there are plenty more) ridiculous stats from San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn's incredible 20-year career: [Special shout out to Fox Sports'Erik Malinowski and ESPN's Jayson Stark who dug up most of these incredible statistics. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Do not let the reality fool you this is still nothing short of amazing. During his career, Tony won batting titles by 32 points (1987), 30 points (1984), 28 points (1994), 22 points (1995), and 17 points (1996). "Except," Maddux said, "for that [expletive] Tony Gwynn." Gwynn never struck out against Maddux . Mike Trout In 36 pitcher/batter battles, Pedro Martinez never struck out Gwynn. The streak lifted his batting average to .402 as late as July 14th. So maybe we never saw Hornsby or Wagner or Tris Speaker hit a baseball. Answer (1 of 8): I would say Tony Gwynn. But not with Gwynn. He didn't play baseball in an age when men routinely hit .424 or .404. He played in an era when it was big news if anyone even got within 50 points of that. Maddux was a tough competitor, earning the nickname Mad Dog for his intense focus. (Some versions say 133 instead of 310 and leave out intentional walks.) Against Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Smoltz . * Andy Van Slyke, now an ESPN announcer, batted .343 (23-for-67) with four home runs and 11 walks. I'm looking for any Tony Gwynn or Greg Maddux cards that I need. Of his 18 total awards, Maddux won 10 with the Braves, five with the Cubs, two with the Dodgers and one with the Padres. Many see 30 count and notice that there are 312 plate appearances (PA) something the original meme creator might have rounded down to 310. J.D. 429 career average and he NEVER struck out against the Hall of Fame hurler. THREE 72 AB vs Smoltz he hit .444 with a .697 slug% and 1 strikeout 99 AB vs Maddux and hit .415 and never struck out. 1994 Quality Starts. Tom Glavine, the other great pitcher in Atlantas rotation during Gwynns day, only struck out Tony twice. His batting average stood at .394 and unfortunately, a run at .400 was one of the things lost when the season was cancelled. 7 Cubs pitchers combine for no-hitter vs Machado, Padres, Top moments from Brady, Manning, Jordan and other athletes hosting 'Saturday Night Live', Fantasy baseball rankings, projections, strategy and cheat sheets, Rojas to withdraw from WBC, stay with Dodgers, The best pitcher in MLB? By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. On Monday, ESPNs Ethan Strauss reminded us about a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn that summed up his sensational career. Baseball News, Analysis, History, Schedule, Rumors. Only 310 saw a 30 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. A few hitters, however, have had their way with Maddux since he made his major league debut in 1986. Greg Maddux. From 1993 to 1997, his best five-year stretch, when he won four batting titles, Gwynn hit .368, a mark that was more than 30 points ahead of the next closest batter, Mike Piazza (.337). The first problem with the 310 batters faced a 30 count claim is this: pitch count data is not available until 1988. Amazing strikeout stat No. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Against the Braves' Hall of Fame trio, Gwynn fared pretty well. 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They can be viewed by season or over an entire career. Did you know that Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major . Sadly, we lost Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn this week to cancer. And he was proud of that. We could spend all day listing Gwynns mind-boggling career achievements. We will see what makes this claim false, what the true number is, and the mistake made by the original creator of the meme. Tony Gwynn is my favorite baseball player and he always will be. But he was about to really start heating up. We can make a rough estimate, however, by using the count data from 1988 to 1990, which was the last season Maddux had a walk rate that was 7.0% or higher. 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Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. Greg Maddux has made a habit of handling hitters and even breaking their bats, as he did to five Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series. What's league average for batting average with bases loaded? . Greg Maddux got to see that firsthand. Tony Gwynn, then going on 26 and . You didn't get Tony Gwynn out, Maddux used to say. Mike Mussina stifled Ken Griffey Jr. He had little home run power. How other hitters have done in the regular season with Maddux, according to STATS, Inc.: * Barry Bonds has hit six home runs, the most against Maddux. One of the most useful research tools on Baseball Reference is the Splits data. Fun/impressive fact: In 107 PAs, Maddux never struck out Tony Gwynn. Gwynn is a .431 career hitter (25-for-58) against the Atlanta ace. Bob Gibson et Pedro Martinez et Greg Maddux sont venus vous battre. Jeff Bagwell hit .368 that year the 13th highest batting average since 1961 but he still finished 30 points behind Gwynn in the batting race! In 293 of those, the batter walked; 153 were intentional. There is also a line called Unknown count there are 321 plate appearances where we dont know what the count was on the final pitch. Only Ty Cobb, who won 12, all before 1920, had more. They were the 307th set of brothers in Major League Baseball history. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Basically if you're a legendary pitcher, good luck with Tony Gwynn. Gwynn got hits off Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro -- four men who won a combined 1,282 games. Keep in mind that this data only goes back to 1988, so we must adjust batters faced to 19,576 and intentional walks to 162. Perhaps the greatest pure hitter of his generation, the back of Gwynn's baseball card has enough nuggets and oddities to keep trivia buffs busy for days. Sorry Bronson Arroyo Maddux allowed as many home runs in his first five seasons with the Braves (1156 innings) as Bronson Arroyo did in 2011. Heck, we knew, he knew and everyone else knew who was going to win that NL batting title before anyone even threw a pitch. Log in. Most players have a disadvantage when they are facing pitchers of the same stripe as them. So let's talk Gwynn's hitting. Tony Gwynn owned Greg Maddux, and Mad-Dog knew it. In the past 100 years, nobody has more batting titles than Gwynn's eight. No hitter who has played his entire career since the invention of the designated hitter has accumulated as many hits as Gwynn (3,141) without spending a large portion of his career in the American League. He was 39-for-91 off the right-hander, with eight doubles and a triple. Gwynn has seven of those seasons . I read earlier that in 323 combined career PAs against Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, Gwynn struck out only three times. . Despite the fact that Martinez has won 355 games to Maddux's 355, he is still regarded as the game's leader. That six-hit game deserves closer examination. He batted at least .300 against 32 of those 38 pitchers, including Tom Glavine, Nolan Ryan, John Smoltz and Orel Hershiser. "Tony Gwynn would hit .338 in 2021, '31, '41 But we were lucky enough to see Tony Gwynn fire baseballs all over the field, into open spaces from coast to coast, for 20 years. Myth: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. For the 20-game batting streak in May and June, Gwynn hit an incredible .494 (39-for-79) with a .534 on-base percentage. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81411994, Yankees Free Agency Push Needed Post-Lockout, Ten Greatest Comebacks in MLB History: #3 (2), A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs. Gwynn faced Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz a combined 323 times. On May 19, 1997, Gwynn was hitting .368, not to shabby for sure. He faced Greg Maddux more than any other pitcher, 107 . It means Tony Gwynn would have had to go 0-for-his-next-1,183 to get his average to fall under .300 (and even then, it would have "plummeted" to a mere .29997). You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Winner of eight batting titles, Gwynn finished in the top five for the league's best average 13 times from 1984 through 1997. On the mound was the imposing presence of the Astros' right-handed flamethrower 38-year-old future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan - who already had 241 MLB wins . No surprise, six-time NL batting champion Tony Gwynn is among the best against the four-time Cy Young winner. Dude was a craaaazy good hitter. 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Greg Maddux got to see that firsthand. 1: Gwynn's most strikeouts in a season was 40 (1988). Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. chaque match, chaque manche, chaque frappeur pendant 25 saisons, Ryan a opt pour le retrait au bton. In the other 19, the batter put the ball in play. Greg Maddux's long and successful career was defined by his ability to change up his pitches and keep hitters off-balance. MLB analyst John Smoltz was talking about facing Gwynn, which sent me to Baseball Reference. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The last player to finish his career with a higher average was Ted Williams' .344 mark. High School Sports. 7. Gwynn hit below .300 just once in his career, Gwynn struck out less than 20 times in six straight seasons with a career-low 15 times in 1995. Well, heres the thing though: runs scored is not factored in WAR. The great players are usually the ones who are able to maintain their skills later than their contemporaries. With the specter of a strike hanging over the game, he ramped it up in August, hitting .475 in the 10 games before the game was stopped due to the labor strife. So mind-blowing, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. Thats essentially a full seasons worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. Manny Machado vs Jose Ramirez Comparison. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. In those 20,421 at-bats, only 310 hitters saw a 3-0 count. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles and hit .300 in 19 of his 20 major league seasons. I would appreciate someone to clarify this for me. Kinda random it was just these two especially Pedro Martinez since it was probably only the beginning of his career when they were facing eachother. in a 162 game span covering the strike year of 1994 and the first half of 1995, Tony Gwynn hit over .400. Find the newest tony gwynn meme. Gwynn also had incredible success against many ofthe best strikeout pitchers. Two vs. Glavine. Tony Gwynn: man or machine? For the eight-week period from mid-May to mid-July, Gwynn hit a sizzling .430 and collected at least one hit in 44 of 46 games. In his prime, when he was really at his best hitting the baseball, Gwynn was as dominant in batting as anyone since Ty Cobb in the Deadball Era. His first and biggest love is baseball. He hit .415 (in 107 plate appearances) vs. Greg Maddux, .303 against Tom Glavine (105 PA) and .444 against Smoltz (75 PA). Six times in Padres history has a player recorded 200 hits in a season. Gwynn has seven of those seasons, the most of any player in that span. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426. Barry Bonds TONY GWYNN Jeff Bagwell Ozzie Smith Greg Maddux PSA Auto Baseball. Everybody in the stadium is shocked. Aztec Ticket Exchange. He walked very little, which means his singles make up a lot of his batting average and on-base percentage. On June 21, Gwynn started a 19-game hitting streak in which he hit .429 with 36 hits and more power (he hit five homers). In the 14 seasons from 1984 through 1997, Gwynn finished in the top five in the batting race 13 times. This leaves 845 batters unaccounted for. Gwynn hit .415 off of him. But all I know is this: I've never seen anyone, in my years covering baseball, who mastered the art of bat meeting ball as brilliantly, or as artfully, as Tony Gwynn. Before signing with the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1993 season, his lowest walk rate for a season was 6.2% (1991). Thank you for reading and commenting, Christian. Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April.