Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin, Part VIII
Back in America’s Finest City … Tony Gwynn edition ... fate intervening to change lives … the teammate who told Tony to play baseball … and more stories of Mr. Padre
"Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin" is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together loose topics on my mind.
This weekend’s college baseball assignment took me back to the Harvard of the West Coast, which everyone knows is San Diego State University. I’m in town to broadcast some games at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
While in town, I’m meeting up with my college friends, meeting some of the new professors, and I’m using the J-School’s new Podcast Studio to record upcoming episodes of “Where Ya At?”
I’m saying “Tony Gwynn Stadium” on the broadcasts more than I’d normally use the name of the venue because, I mean, doesn’t it just put a smile on your face when you hear “Tony Gwynn Stadium?” It does for me. Gwynn is one of those transcendent players where it doesn’t matter if you are a Padres fan or not; he’s universally beloved and respected.
Tony Gwynn Stadium was the gift of former Padres owner John and Becky Moores. It was originally supposed to cost $3 million, but went over budget and the Moores just added another million to make sure it was completed properly. It opened in 1997, the year after I finished college.
Tony Gwynn is a Hall of Famer because he was one of the greatest hitters of all-time: 15-time All-Star, 8 battling titles, 7 Silver Sluggers, 5 Gold Glove awards.
He’s beloved so much because he was the most approachable and humble superstar of our generation.
I think of the famous Maya Angelou quote when I think about Gwynn: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Everyone has a Tony Gwynn story, actually, multiple Gwynn stories. I’ve got plenty and it’s not because I was around him that much.
So much of my life was luck or fate.
My final two choices for college were Arizona State and San Diego State. My heart was set on ASU, mostly because of trips to spring training in high school with my Dad and grandparents, and because I knew they had a really good Journalism program. But in the end, I couldn’t justify my Dad paying five times as much for out-of-state tuition, so picked SDSU.
I was randomly assigned Olmeca Hall for my freshman dormitory. By fate, a bunch of guys on the baseball team lived in the same dorm, on the same floor, and became my buddies. One of them was Benji Grigsby, a star pitcher for the Aztecs who was selected by the Oakland A’s with their first pick in 1992.
My first story for The Daily Aztec was about a card show and autograph signing to raise money for the baseball team. I knew about it because my friend Benji told me he was signing autographs. I wasn’t even on staff yet. I pitched the story to my future boss and lifelong friend Eric Winter and he told me to write it.
While at the show, I saw Tony Gwynn and quoted him. Here’s a very grainy copy of it.
At the time, interviewing Gwynn didn’t even feel like that big a deal. He was there. I asked for an interview and he said yes. My nervousness went away almost immediately because he just put you at ease.
The Daily Aztec was the first step in my professional life, perhaps the most important. That story is the reason I became a full-time staff writer.
Upon reflection, I get chills when I tell people I interviewed Tony freakin’ Gwynn for my first story as a student journalist. It makes me realize how lucky I am and how much a life in baseball was always in the works for me.
This week’s not-so random Immaculate Grid story: Bobby Meacham
Bobby Meacham was a first-round pick, in 1981, by the Cardinals out of San Diego State. Meacham played six years in the majors, all with the Yankees, and has been a longtime coach and manager in professional baseball, including last year with the Isotopes.
His biggest gift to baseball is that he’s the main reason why Tony Gwynn played baseball.
Meacham grew up in Los Angeles. Gwynn grew up in Long Beach. Meacham knew Gwynn from playing various youth baseball tournaments in the Spring and Summer, but there wasn’t magazines and the internet to keep track of where everyone was going to college in the late 1970s.
When he arrived at SDSU, Meacham saw Gwynn on campus and was excited that such a great baseball player was going to be his teammate. But that’s when Meacham learned that Gwynn was playing basketball at SDSU. Meacham couldn’t believe it. He told Gwynn, “you’re a good basketball player, but you’re a great baseball player. You need to play baseball.”
The basketball coach at the time, Tim Vezie, wouldn’t let him play two sports, so his freshman year Gwynn only played basketball.
I don’t normally take delight in someone getting fired, but Tim Vezie getting fired is quite likely the greatest thing to ever happen in San Diego sports history.
The new SDSU basketball coach was Smokey Gaines. He didn’t care if Gwynn played baseball, but only after basketball season ended. That meant Gwynn missed about a month of the baseball season.
Baseball coach Jim Dietz was initially reluctant to take away playing time from an outfielder who went through all the offseason practices. But a fateful accident involving an automobile that struck two baseball players riding bicycles left Dietz in need of an outfielder. Meacham implored Dietz, you must put this guy on our team.
“Had it been anyone but Bobby, I probably wouldn’t have given it serious thought,” Dietz once said. “But Bobby was an outstanding young man. When he had something to say, I listened … I’d never seen Tony play. But in college you can’t call somebody up from the minor leagues. We gave him a chance.”
Gwynn hadn’t played baseball in about 18 months. He was rusty and his defense needed a lot of work. His first season was good, but not special. Gwynn wasn’t supposed to practice with the baseball team until basketball season ended, but fitting for his legendary work ethic, he frequently snuck over to the diamond to get in workouts around his basketball commitments.
Gwynn played four years of basketball and three years of baseball at SDSU. He’s still the all-time assist leader in Aztecs history. He was an All-American in baseball his final year. He was famously drafted by the San Diego Clippers (in the 10th round) and the San Diego Padres (in the 3rd round) on the same day: June 9, 1981.
Fate is crazy, huh? If Meacham hadn’t known Gwynn from playing against him in LA, if Meacham had chosen a different college, if Tim Vezie hadn’t been fired, if a car hadn’t struck two baseball players, if Meacham hadn’t been so persistent to Dietz, if Dietz hadn’t listened to his star shortstop.
Imagine a world in which Tony Gwynn never played baseball.
This week’s “Where Ya At?” podcast guest: Kayla Asencio
I host a podcast for San Diego State’s School of Journalism and Media Studies titled “Where Ya At?” Each week, I interview an alum to learn about their experience at SDSU, transitioning from student to professional, and their current job. You can listen on all podcast platforms.
This week’s guest is Kayla Asencio, a four-time Emmy-nominated freelance associate producer, from the Class of 2018.
Kayla grew up in El Paso, loved watching football with her grandfather, and playing football in the streets with neighbors and cousins. Her mom had once visited San Diego and manifested a move there one day. Her mom made the dream happen and moved to America’s Finest City.
In junior high and high school, Kayla was already taking Journalism classes and getting experience. As fate would have it, an older classmate interned for KUSI-TV and she asked for advice on how to follow his lead. Before she was even officially taking classes at SDSU, Kayla was working on the Prep Pigskin Report for KUSI.
The story of Kayla she landed a coveted job with the NBC Sports in New York was fascinating. Since then, she’s worked on two Olympics, helped tell the stories of the survivors of the USA Gymnastics abuse scandal, and is currently contributing to the NFL’s Emmy award-winning program NFL 360. I highly recommend this episode.
Tony Gwynn stats are the best stats
Just for fun, here are some of the best of the best mind boggling facts about Tony Gwynn:
In his career, Gwynn had 3,141 hits in 9,288 at-bats for a .338 batting average. If he went hitless in another 1,100 at-bats, Gwynn would still be a lifetime .302 hitter.
In 1995, he struck out 15 times in 577 plate appearances. Most players strike out that many times in a month.
He had fewer strikeouts in the final 12 seasons of his career (201) than Aaron Judge did in his rookie season (208).
In his 10,232 plate appearances, Gwynn fell behind 0-2 in the count 709 times (or 6.9%). He still batted .267 in those counts, which is higher than the league average during his career.
Against the famed trio of Braves Hall of Fame pitchers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, Gwynn batted .394 with 18 walks and 3 strikeouts. Maddux never struck him out.
Against the 18 Hall of Fame pitchers he faced, Gwynn slashed .331/.371/.426 against them.
How Tony Gwynn changed college baseball
It’s the end of the 2001 baseball season. A lot is happening in the world and baseball.
The country is still trying to heal from 9/11. Barry Bonds is chasing the single-season home run record. Rickey Henderson is chasing the all-time runs scored record.
Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn are in the final days of their playing careers. Gwynn’s knees are killing him. He’s mostly relegated to pinch hitting duties down the stretch. Fans don’t care. Huge crowds show up to The Murph to watch him get one at-bat in a game and give him lengthy standing ovations.
Then comes a stunning announcement about the next chapter of his life … Tony Gwynn is going to coach college baseball. It was unheard of at the time. Maybe a few “cup of coffee” major leaguers went back to college, but that’s it.
Legends like Tony Gwynn might remain in baseball as coaches and commentators. But they’d stay in professional baseball. For a player to return to the very unglamorous world of college baseball was shocking. It was also fitting for Gwynn’s belief system.
I remember talking to Bonds about Gwynn’s decision. Bonds was in a playful mood and told Gwynn that he wanted to be his hitting coach. Gwynn said, thanks, but he was definitely the hitting coach. Bonds replied to Gwynn that he wanted to be the “power hitting coach” because Gwynn was going to turn every college hitter into a “slap hitter.”
Gwynn was a volunteer coach under Jim Dietz for one year, learned the ropes of college baseball, then became the head coach. He studied the massive NCAA rulebook for what was a recruiting violation to pass the test and hit the recruiting trail.
I’ve talked with his former players and always asked, “what was it like when Tony freakin’ Gwynn recruited you?” Inevitably, the answer was always that Gwynn was so unassuming, they immediately felt at ease.
He flew commercial flights with his teams, stayed at smaller hotels, signed countless autographs in places like Albuquerque, Fresno, and Colorado Springs from fans who couldn’t believe this Hall of Famer was in their town coaching college baseball.
And, make no mistake, Gwynn loved coaching college baseball. This was no PR stunt for a couple years. If it wasn’t for his health, he’d still be coaching to this day.
College baseball is now filled with former major leaguers who were All Stars and are now coaches. The trend started with Tony Gwynn.
One last Tony Gwynn tidbit.
If you attend the second game of the season, know that Tony will be happy. He always had an appreciation for the real fans who didn’t just want the ceremony of Opening Day, but wanted to watch game two.
Padres fans still refer to game two of the season as “Tony Gwynn Opening Day.”
In his career, Gwynn batted .403 in Game 2 of 162.