Knee Injury Makes Him Gwynn and Bear It

Tony Gwynn turns 40 on Tuesday and is batting .186.

He is on the disabled list--put himself on, actually--and missing his first trip with the San Diego Padres since 1990 because of a left knee that has been operated on five times in his career and required draining six times since the start of spring training.

Gwynn hears the speculation and his back stiffens, as it always has when skeptics come calling.

Is this a Hall of Fame career in jeopardy?

A player thinking of quitting, retiring?

He sits on the bench at Qualcomm Stadium and says no way he is finished or thinking he might be.

He borrows from a heavy hitter named Dylan Thomas and says, “I refuse to go gently into that good night. If I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down fighting. That’s basically how I got to this point [in my career]. Working hard, working at my craft, fighting the skeptics--and there’s a bunch more of them than there was five years ago. Of course, that’s the nature of the business, what happens when you get older.”

It is hard to think of Gwynn being older, being 40, and Gwynn doesn’t. He doesn’t even want to talk about the milestone birthday because he doesn’t want to give people a reason to turn a celebration of his longevity with the Padres into a potential “back-stabbing” in which 40 plus .186 plus six knee drainings add up, for some, to a player who is through.

“Besides,” he said, pointing to his head, “it’s not what the birth certificate says but what’s up here that counts.”

And what’s up there, according to Gwynn, is the conviction that he can still hit, contribute and take the field regularly if his knee cooperates and allows him to correct some mechanical problems.

After all, he has 3,075 hits and 17 consecutive seasons of hitting .300 or better to tie Honus Wagner for the National League record.

He also hit .338 in 411 at-bats last year, so when it comes to all those talk-show experts, to even his friends who call to suggest it’s time to retire, he shakes his head and says he has no room for that thinking.

“Not after 18 years of establishing credibility, but that’s me,” Gwynn said. “From 29 to 39 I played with this condition and it wasn’t a big deal. Now it is, but until people are in my shoes, they don’t know. I mean, I don’t have a lot to show for it right now hitting a buck eighty, but there are a lot of healthy guys hitting a buck eighty too. I don’t mean to sound cocky or arrogant, but I’ve been a pretty confident player my whole career and I see no reason to change now. People can say what they want, but I’ll just go about my business. I have the feeling this is the right thing to do and that I’ll be fine.”

Drained by the drainings, unable to play regularly or keep the fluid out in pressurized airplane cabins or on synthetic fields, Gwynn suggested 15 days of rest and rehabilitation, and the Padres jumped at it. Besides, he said, he’s a video junkie who was probably driving teammates crazy in the clubhouse and on the bench watching and re-watching so many games and at-bats.

While the Padres are in Arizona today, Gwynn will be swimming in the backyard pool at his Poway house, a new form of therapy for a knee that is basically bone on bone and receiving lubricant injections as you would oil a rusty gate. Doctors have told him they can implant shark cartilage as a potential cushion, but “the good Lord blessed me with what I’ve got,” Gwynn said, “and I just don’t think I should be sticking other stuff in there from another species.”

The drainings have been going on for 10 years, but never with this frequency. If two weeks on the sideline don’t help, Gwynn said, he would then have to explore other options, but he wouldn’t specify what those are.

Meanwhile, his playing time has decreased from 149 games in 1997 to 127 in 1998 to 111 last year, and his current pace could jeopardize his 2001 option. In rewriting and extending his contract in March, the Padres agreed to give Gwynn--who has remained in San Diego while comparatively underpaid--a $2-million signing bonus on top of a $4-million salary this year. He will also receive a $6-million salary in 2001 or a $2-million buyout. The 2001 option automatically vests if Gwynn has 502 plate appearances this year.

Owner John Moores has said he wants Gwynn to be a member of the Padres when the team moves into its new ballpark in 2002. Moores would probably keep Gwynn in uniform if he failed to reach 502 and still felt he could play next year.

One way or the other, Gwynn is a community icon and figures to remain in a high-salaried capacity with the Padres.

However, his current hope is to continue playing.

“That decision,” he said, referring to 2001, “will be based on productivity, not loyalty or being a good guy. That’s the way it’s been my whole career. I’m not concerned or worried about 502. If I get my knee healthy, the rest will take care of itself. Check my numbers over the years.

“If I’m productive and they still don’t want me, there’s always the possibility of going somewhere else, but in my whole career, things have always had a way of working out, and I don’t see why that would be different now.”

What is, however, is that the eight-time batting champion can’t do what he has always done, and he can’t keep asking Manager Bruce Bochy to erase his name and adjust the lineup a few minutes before the first pitch because the knee has kicked up again. He is confident he can still hit, hopeful that he’ll come out of these two weeks able to prove it.

In the meantime, he will continue to lean on Dylan Thomas and “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”