It's always sad when someone dies. Just a few days ago, Chuck Noll, the legendary coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, died at the age of 82. I was sad of course, but Noll lived a long and full life. He accomplished a great deal and was lucky enough to enjoy a long, quiet retirement. So while I and many others mourned his passing, we (or at least I) can take solace in the fact that Noll did just about all you can do with a life.
I can't take solace in Tony Gywnn's death. This one broke my heart. As melodramatic as that sounds, I mean it with the utmost sincerity. 54 is too damn young for anyone in this day and age to go.
I always thought Gwynn would be to my children and their children as someone like what Hank Aaron, Willie Mays or Yogi Berra is to someone like me- a living legend that is a window to a past long gone. The old, distinguished guy that would show up to a ballpark with the P.A. announcer listing off his accomplishments to a crowd that was in mid-standing ovation. It seems wrong that that's not going to happen with Tony Gwynn and it seems selfish to want to keep someone like that from going gently into that good night when they're in pain, but damn it, I wanted Tony Gwynn to grow old in baseball and there's no way for that to come true.
If there's one positive thing to come out of this, I got to see a bunch of awesome clips of him. That's pretty much all I've been doing since I got home and learned the news- reading article after article and watching video after video about Tony Gwynn and marveling at what a remarkable talent he was.
I've tried to use this blog as, essentially, a layman's guide to sports with my point of view on display. Whether I've succeeded or not, that's what I've intended. All my analysis and writings are taken from breaking down numbers and articles that other people wrote and compiled themselves- I'm a glorified parrot in that regards. I can't truly explain Tony Gwynn's greatness as a player or as a man, but I definitely can point you in the direction of people who can.
Here's Joe Posnanski's article on him.
Here's a video of Tony Gwynn breaking down film on This Week In Baseball 25 years ago.
Here's a breakdown of Tony Gwynn's stats. Hell, here's his Baseball-Reference page. Look at all those bold numbers!
Those are just a fraction of articles and videos about Tony Gwynn you can consume. I implore you to go out and look for more. You'll be doing yourself a great service to watch/read about a master and his craft. And you'd be thinking about him while doing it. This sounds like something someone else said at some point, but as long as we think about the dead, they haven't truly died. Not really. Keep Tony Gwynn alive, now and for years to come.
