The baseball world is mourning the loss of Hall of Famer and "Mr. Padre" Tony Gywnn the best way it knows how: by remembering how incredible a player he was.
Perhaps the greatest pure hitter of his generation, the back of Gwynn's baseball card has enough nuggets and oddities to keep trivia buffs busy for days. And thanks to statistic hubs like Baseball Reference, some unbelievable numbers are being shared from Gwynn's career.
Here are seven (and trust us, there are plenty more) ridiculous stats from San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn's incredible 20-year career:
- Winner of eight batting titles, Gwynn finished in the top five for the league's best average 13 times from 1984 through 1997. The only season he didn't was 1990, in which he missed the crown by one hit.
- Speaking of average, Gwynn's career mark of .338 ranks 17th among the all-time leaders. He would have to go 0 for his next 1,183 at-bats to fall under .300.
- His streak of 18 consecutive .300 seasons from 1983 until 2000 is only surpassed by Ty Cobb's run of 23 straight years.
- Amazing strikeout stat No. 1: Gwynn's most strikeouts in a season was 40 (1988). That's 49 fewer punchouts than Miguel Cabrera's lowest total in a year.
- Amazing strikeout stat No. 2: Gwynn had one three-strikeout game during his career. Eleven major leaguers struck out three times each on Sunday.
- Amazing strikeout stat No. 3: Gwynn never struck out against arguably the two greatest pitchers of his generation. Greg Maddux (94 ABs) and Pedro Martinex (135 ABs) never recorded a K against the Padres outfielder.
- No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gywnn. His career high in hits (220) came during his age-37 season.
[Special shout out to Fox Sports' Erik Malinowski and ESPN's Jayson Stark who dug up most of these incredible statistics.]
