Gold Glove Gives Gwynn Some Defensive Recognition

Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn won a Gold Glove Tuesday, but he remembers when he had a brick glove.

“You know my story,” he said Tuesday. “Rags to riches defensively.”

There was that day in Walla Walla in 1981, when he was minor league rookie. All the outfielders gathered in center field and were told to throw the ball home.

“The other guys were throwing one to two hoppers to home,” Gwynn said. “But my balls were barely getting to second base on the fly. Right then, I knew I had work on my defense.”

Every off-season, he played long toss and fielded grounders. Tom House, now the Texas Ranger pitching coach, started from scratch on his throwing. Gwynn worked more on defense than offense.

“All along, people thought I could swing the bat,” Gwynn said. “That had been documented. But when I signed (with the Padres), everyone said, ‘Oh, he’s got to work on his defense.’ Well, I got gradually better every year.

“I went through a lot. I can’t put into a short amount of words how hard I worked. I found out the nooks and crannies at Jack Murphy Stadium. I threw out at least five guys this year on balls that bounced off that corner in right field. You have to be smart, you see. And, I tell you, it was starting to eat at me a little bit not to be thought of as a good defensive player.”

That brings us to Aug. 27.

Against the Mets, the most visible team in the National League, Gwynn tied a Padre record by throwing out three runners in one game.

“Best game a right fielder ever had,” batting coach Deacon Jones said that day.

And now a Gold Glove.

“For me, this feels a lot better than a batting title,” said Gwynn, who led the league with a .351 batting average in 1984. “I’m really proud of myself. Now, maybe I’ll get credit defensively. We’ll find out. It won’t take long. When spring training starts, we’ll see how many guys try to run on me. You usually don’t take chances running on Gold Glove guys, but they’ll try running on me. I’ll be ready. I’ll keep working hard.”

Some reaction to Steve Garvey’s attempt to buy the Padres:

“Steve’s the kind of person that really plans ahead, and I think his plans were altered a bit when this situation arose,” former Padre Kurt Bevacqua said. “This might be the first time since he was 10 years old that he made a spur of the moment decision. I mean, two or three weeks is spur of the moment for Garv. He plans golf matches four months in advance.

“But if it were me in that situation, the first thing I’d do as player/owner would be to renegotiate my own contract. I’d be making some buckeroos.”

Tony Gwynn: “Player/owner? That’d be a first, huh? To me, it doesn’t matter who owns the club. If somebody who plays also owns the club, then the owner would be more receptive to the problems the team is having--like travel and things like that.

“But it doesn’t bother me. It’d be great. The owner would be there and know exactly what’s going on--on and off the field. If he wanted changes, he could be right there and say, ‘We got to start doing this and that.’

“But it could also really be a strain. In one aspect, you’ve got the owner sitting on the bench and playing and then you’ve got the manager trying to run the team, but he works for the owner. What do you think would happen if they try to sit Garv down and Garv owns the club? It’d be weird, but the way things have been happening around here the last few years, it’d fit right in.”

Add Bevacqua: He has just signed to work as a part-time broadcaster for KGTV-Channel 10 in San Diego.

“I’ll do some off the wall commentary and maybe some work on weekends if they need someone to fill in,” Bevacqua said. “But I’m not trying to take anyone’s job. I wouldn’t do that because I had too many people trying to take my job for 19 years.”

Catcher Bruce Bochy has recently undergone arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. But a Padre spokesman said Bochy definitely will be ready to play by spring training.