Tony Gwynn dies at 54

Posted on June 16, 2014

Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres bats during a game against the San Francisco Giants at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, California on September 30, 2001. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Last week I wrote a blog post about the passing of Bob Welch at the age of 57. His funeral was just two days ago. Today I am writing about the passing of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who died today at age 54. It is so sad to see two great players that I photographed die so young, within days of each other. You will read many stories in the coming days about what a great hitter, teammate, and person Gwynn was. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about how difficult this great player was to photograph as a hitter.

Gwynn is famous for his great smile and .338 lifetime batting average. His smile was easy to photograph. His magical swing that produced 3,141 hits was so hard to shoot.

Gwynn is one of those guys I wish I could go back in time to photograph. I was a very young and inexperienced shooter when Gwynn was in the prime of his career. I didn’t have the knowledge of the game I have now. I didn’t take the time and effort to make sure I documented one of the era’s greatest players as best I could. By the time Gwynn was about to retire at the end of the 2001 season I realized that I didn’t have any real good batting pictures of him. How could this be?

Gwynn was a magician with the bat, making the 5.5 hole on the left side of the infield between the shortstop and third baseman so famous. Taking the ball the other way as a left handed hitter meant that if you shot Gwynn from first base he didn’t turn on the pitch and face you after he hit the ball. If you shot him going the other way from third base the pictures were OK, but you could not see his face until after he hit the ball. If you got the bat hitting the ball his head was usually facing straight down, making the pictures not as pleasing.

In addition to the factors mentioned above you must know that Gwynn played during the “film era” for photographers like me. More specifically, he played when I shot nothing but color slide film (chrome).

Shooting digital like we do now makes things so much easier for so many reasons. One of the big reasons I do not have as many Gwynn slides from the 1990’s as I wish I did was because back then shooting stock required freelancers like me to spend lots of cash on film and processing. I simply could not afford to shoot as many games then as I do now. If Gwynn played while I was shooting digital I would have surely gone to more Padre games in San Francisco in search of better pictures of “Mr. Padre.”

I am much smarter now in the way I pay attention to who the great players are and their importance to the history of the game. I feel it is my responsibility to document today’s players for myself, and for the fine folks in the photo library at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

When I began searching for pictures of Gwynn in my archive this morning I wasn’t very happy with what I found. Sure I have taken the time to scan and caption all my old chromes, so my best stuff was available at my fingertips after typing “Gwynn” in the search bar of my online archive. There are no lost images of Gwynn sitting in boxes in my garage. Because I am organized all of my stuff is available. The images just aren’t as good as I wish they were.

By the time the San Francisco Giants moved into their wonderful new ballpark in 2000 Gwynn was not playing that much. I did not have the chance to shoot him hitting from my favorite new low inside third base spot with my 70-200mm lens like I did Barry Bonds. Gwynn would have looked great from that position!

I finally made my best batting picture of Gwynn during his final at bat ever in San Francisco, on September 30, 2001 (see top). I was in the out of town scoreboard in right field at Pacific Bell Park shooting Bonds through a chain link fence. He was going after the single season home run record and I was on assignment for Sports Illustrated. I was shooting with the Canon 1200mm 5.6 lens, using Fujichrome Provia 100 slide film. The fall light was so pretty at the ballpark as the game neared it’s end. Finally in the top of the 9th inning, with the shadow right at home plate, Gwynn pinch hit for the visiting Padres. This was my chance! I would be able to shoot the future Hall of Famer from the outfield on chrome in crazy light with the most expensive Canon lens money could buy.

Bonds did not homer that day, but Gwynn hit a ball right towards me, resulting in my best ever frame of “Mr. Padre” wielding his magic wand. RIP Mr. Gwynn. It was an honor to photograph you, but man was it hard!