CULTURETECHLENSTony Gwynn
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07868 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6996.
Tony Gwynn (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), born in Los Angeles and raised in Long Beach, California, was the finest pure hitter of his generation. Gwynn spent all twenty seasons with the San Diego Padres, winning eight National League batting titles — tying Honus Wagner's league record — and finishing with a .338 career average and 3,141 hits. A fifteen-time All-Star, he hit .394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season, the closest any player has come to .400 since Ted Williams, and struck out only 434 times in more than ten thousand plate appearances. Drafted by the Padres out of San Diego State — where he also played point guard and still holds assist records — he was selected the same day by the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. After retirement he coached San Diego State baseball for twelve seasons. He died of salivary gland cancer at fifty-four. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility, with 97.6 percent of the vote.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Tony Gwynn (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), born in Los Angeles and raised in Long Beach, California, was the finest pure hitter of his generation. Gwynn spent all twenty seasons with the San Diego Padres, winning eight National League batting titles — tying Honus Wagner's league record — and finishing with a .338 career average and 3,141 hits.
The record
- Also known as: Anthony Keith Gwynn, Mr. Padre
Notes
Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0292. Firsts disposition: no 'first' asserted; the eight batting titles are stated as tying the NL record per the Hall of Fame. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Gwynn's average is the least of it — he is the modern proof that contact hitting was a discipline, studied on video before video was standard. Photo: CLEARED (1983 Padres postcard, public domain; the Tony Gwynn Jr. files in the search were refused as a different person).
Sources
- National Baseball Hall of Fame. "Tony Gwynn." Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
- Wikipedia. "Tony Gwynn." Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Tony Gwynn 83
Tony Gwynn 83 — San Diego Padres, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Record CTL-E-6996 · Combined Graph record U-07868 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Tony Gwynn (CTL-E-6996).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6996/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Tony Gwynn (CTL-E-6996) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6996/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Tony Gwynn (CTL-E-6996).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6996/
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