When I was growing up there were three players I considered my favorites. Cal Ripken Jr. was by far #1 and you could flip a coin between Kirby Puckett and Tony Gwynn for #2. It sucks that both Puckett and Gwynn are gone now.
Gwynn's resume is impressive, obviously since he's a hall of famer. Over 3000 hits, 8 batting titles, a .338 career batting average, 19 consecutive seasons hitting above .300, 15 all star appearances in 16 years. What might be most impressive is he struck out only 434 times in 20 years and never more than 40 times in a single year. Just to give you a comparison from a great hitter from this era, Albert Pujols so far has struck out 890 times in 14 years.
When someone dies everyone comes out and says what a great guy they were and how no one ever had a bad thing to say about him. Well people have been saying that about Gwynn for years already. He was a true gentleman and an even better person than he was a player. RIP Tony Gwynn.
