OnlyBucs

5A777A6B6C7D6A2A29180 wrote: Tony Gwynn faced Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez a combined 323 AB



He struck out three times.


Now that's one awesome stat!
Last season 147 players in MLB struck out at least 100 times. Gwynn's season high in Ks was 40. In a 20-year career, he struck out only 434 times in 10,232 PAs. In 11 of his 20 seasons he had fewer than 20 Ks.


yep, Gwynn deserves a lot of credit, he didn't strike out, he hit for a great average (he would have hit over 400 if he played in the anytime before 1960) and he wanted to avoid the strikeout. 



I will say, that I think Clemente would have hit for a higher average and struck out less but he didn't take any thing off his swing with two strikes.  He wanted to hit the ball hard and didn't care where the defense was playing or what the count was.

1D303D2C2B3A2D6D6E5F0 wrote: Tony Gwynn faced Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez a combined 323 AB



He struck out three times.


Now that's one awesome stat!
Last season 147 players in MLB struck out at least 100 times. Gwynn's season high in Ks was 40. In a 20-year career, he struck out only 434 times in 10,232 PAs. In 11 of his 20 seasons he had fewer than 20 Ks.


Gwynn is one of those players who's overlooked because he didn't hit for power. Because of his low strikeout totals, I always think of him and Joe Sewell together. They were masters at putting the ball in play throughout their careers. Sewell's story is really fascinating to me because he was the triumph that came from tragedy.