A few weeks ago, East Village Times founder James Clark published a terrific article discussing former Friars’ shortstop Khalil Greene and the mental health issues he dealt with throughout his professional baseball career. If you haven’t already done so, I suggest clicking on the link above and giving it a read.

The article prompted discussion among EVT contributors, several of whom mentioned that Greene, whose big-league career spanned from 2003 through 2009, was one of their first favorite Padres players. That means some of my colleagues have been watching Padres baseball for only the last two decades or so.

My Friar fandom began in 1983, and though my favorite player at that time was former catcher Terry Kennedy.  Tony Gwynn was beginning what would become an MLB Hall of Fame career in San Diego and would also become a favorite of mine. I realized that several of my colleagues never had the privilege of seeing Mr. Padre live and in person during his playing career.

That fact, frankly, made me feel old, but also sad that so many never got to experience firsthand the brilliance of Tony Gwynn.

Today, Gwynn is universally recognized as being among the very best hitters in baseball history.

He won eight batting titles and finished with a lifetime batting average of .338, the highest mark of anyone who played in the latter half of the 20^th century or later. Only once, during his abbreviated rookie campaign when he hit .289, did Gwynn not finish a season with an average above .300. He hit .309 or better in 19 consecutive seasons, despite his body beginning to break down as he reached his late 30s.

He was also on the verge of becoming the first batter in more than 50 years to break the .400 barrier when a player’s strike halted the 1994 season. At the time, Gwynn was hitting .394 but was in the midst of a heater, with 19 hits in 40 August at-bats, good for an average of .475. Would he have finished at or above .400? We will never know for sure, but I’d like to think he would have.

As great as Gwynn was, he was not without his critics. Some say he was a slap-happy singles aggregator and less valuable than some of his contemporaries because he didn’t hit with much power. It’s true that his career high in home runs was just 17, and he reached double figures only five times throughout his career.

Now, a good “slugger” doesn’t just stack up a bunch of homers. A good power hitter also hits doubles and triples. Slugging % is calculated by dividing the total number of bases earned by a player by the number of at-bats accumulated, where a single is worth one, a double two, and so on. Digging deeper into the numbers and Gwynn’s place among sluggers may surprise some.

May 9^th would have been Tony’s 65^th birthday. Jim Miloch, known as @podoffame on X, posted an interesting tweet (if that’s what they’re still technically called) on where Gwynn ranks among other Hall of Fame hitters in terms of OPS.

Tony Gwynn had a lifetime OPS of .847.

That is better than 96 positional players in the HOF, including some big time hitters below. pic.twitter.com/MHEO3oOYlu

— Jim Miloch (@podoffame) May 9, 2025

A few names stood out to me. Gwynn ranked higher in career OPS than noted “sluggers” Reggie Jackson (563 career HR), Carl Yastrzemski (452 career HR and a 1967 Triple Crown winner), Eddie Murray (504 career HR), and one-time Padre Dave Winfield (465 career HR). For comparison, Tony “slugged” all of 135 round trippers in his 20 major league seasons.

A second tweet from @podoffame lists the outfielders with the most career Silver Slugger awards since 1980.

The Sliver Slugger Award (SS) has been awarded annually since 1980 to the best offensive player at each position:

7 Batting Titles & 7 SS: Tony Gwynn
6 Batting Titles & 6 SS: Gwynn
5 Batting Titles & 5 SS: Gwynn, Wade Boggs
4 Batting Titles & 4 SS: Gwynn, Boggs, Miguel Cabrera pic.twitter.com/zQDNr2Ccvf

— Jim Miloch (@podoffame) May 9, 2025

Unsurprisingly, Barry Bonds, baseball’s official home run king, heads the group with 12. Mike Trout is second with nine, followed by Manny Ramirez’s eight. Gwynn with seven is tied for fourth with Vlad Guerrero and Ken Griffey Jr. Not even I would have guessed Gwynn would rank that highly among his outfield contemporaries.

Jim’s tweets prompted me to take another look at Gwynn’s performance and ranking as a “slugger.” According to Baseball Reference, he ranks 405^th overall in career Slugging% % among all major league hitters with a minimum of 3,000 at-bats. In Major League Baseball history, 1,847 batters reached the 3,000 career at-bat threshold, per MLB.com. That means Gwynn ranks comfortably in the top quarter of all big leaguers in Slugging % among batters to receive a minimum of 3,000 at-bats.

So, how does a hitter with only 135 career HR’s still rank relatively high in Slugging?

Well, the sheer number of base hits Gwynn accrued obviously helps. But Gwynn also hit his fair share of doubles (543 – good for 36^th overall in MLB history), and doubles count for twice as much when compared to singles in the Slugging % calculation.

However, Gwynn did it; the numbers speak for themselves. He may never be thought of as a big-time slugger in the traditional sense, but Gwynn was far more than a slap-hitting, singles aggregator. He was simply one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game of baseball, and Padres fans were lucky to have had him for as long as we did.

Glen Miller

Born and raised in Oceanside, I became a diehard Padres fan when my dad took me to my first MLB games at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium all the way back in 1983. My first favorite player was Terry Kennedy, probably because like most kids I was impressed by the “tools of ignorance.” I’ve experienced a lot of ups and downs in my 40+ years of Friar Fandom, mostly lows, but I’m still cautiously optimistic I’ll live to see a World Championship. One day.