San Diego Padres: Tony Gwynn hits .400 if ’94 season is played in full
The strike-shortened season of 1994 ended the chances of San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn being the first batter since Ted Williams to hit .400.
As we sit without baseball we think about another shortened baseball season, when the player’s strike took the 1994 campaign from us. Just as we wonder how long this coronavirus business will cut into our current season, back then we wondered if San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn would really hit .400.
At the time of the player’s strike Gwynn was leading all of baseball in batting average, hitting at a .394 clip. Hitting .394 in the middle of August!
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Would Gwynn have been able to keep the momentum going? Would he have finished out the final month and a half strong enough to boost him over the golden mark not achieved once in the previous fifty-three years?
I believe Gwynn would have achieved this milestone had the season been played to the very end. The man could flat out rake and the game was much different in ’94 than it is today.
Starting pitchers pitched deep into games as there were no late-inning specialty guys. Gwynn didn’t need to see a pitcher three-four times to finally understand his stuff, he knew his stuff in the first inning.
Gwynn didn’t strikeout. In 20 years he struck out 434 times and in 1994, in 475 plate appearances, he only had 19. The more times putting the bat on the bat the more holes that ball finds.
At the time of the strike, the San Diego Padres team was 47-70. Opposing pitchers didn’t have to worry about getting burned by other Padres so they were either going to pitch around Gwynn or challenge him.
Gwynn had such a great eye for the plate and could even smack bad pitches for base hits. He wasn’t walking much, meaning pitchers were trying to get him out.
Delayed season is a bigger deal than you think. dark. Next
Tony Gwynn was a magician with the bat and a legend swinging the lumber. The strike-shortened season of ’94 cost him his opportunity at hitting .400.