Nick Canepa: Tony Gwynn’s legacy lives on in city he refused to leave

Sez Me …

Where would San Diego be without Tony Gwynn?

Same can be said about the Navy. He is our human Navy.

When everything is taken in, Tony is the most important athlete to ply his trade on a team here. Because he has endured. He had the immense skill, personality, drive, and availability to pull it off.

Seriously. The NFL Team That Used To Be Here had great players. But there are choices when it comes to franchise faces. Alworth. Fouts. Winslow. Junior. LT. Rivers. Most people probably think of Don Coryell, and he was the coach.

No one looks at the Padres and thinks Dick Williams or Bruce Bochy.

Whenever the Padres have hit a dead end — which has happened most of the time — there has been a way out on Tony Gwynn Drive. Just mention his name. Everything’s OK. On to next year.

Tony would have turned 64 on Thursday, and every time I watch a Padres game, I think of him. Even in death, he remains the face of the Padres.

I think the world of Trevor Hoffman. I have admired him as a man, and a Hall of Fame closer who continuously strived to make himself better. Pure class. Loyal.

But let’s face it. Tony was “it,” has been “it,” and remains “it.” He may always be it.

A statue of Tony Gwynn sits in Gallagher Square at Petco Park.

(Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Has there ever been a baseball player more important to the history of his franchise than Anthony Keith Gwynn?

Babe Ruth? Sure. But the Yankees have had so much more than Babe. They have 27 players in the Hall. Four MLB franchises have none. When we think of the Giants, we think of Willie Mays. But San Franciscans don’t. He never was their favorite, which is not understandable, but the case.

Padres history is brutal.

Of their 73 first-round draft choices, one has made the Hall, and Dave Winfield did nearly all his damage with the Yanks. None of their first-round draft picks have even been Rookie of the Year. Most have been busts. Gwynn was a third-rounder who played more basketball than baseball at San Diego State.

Baseball’s draft is the ultimate crapshoot, but this goes beyond front office ineptitude. “It’s incredible,” Bill Gayton, the team’s affable former head of scouting once told me. “Every so often, you get lucky in the draft. We don’t get lucky.”

What truly endears Gwynn to San Diego was his reluctance to leave it, no matter that salaries rose dramatically during the team’s many dreadful years. Even when John Moores bought the team and had a great love for Tony, he never got superstar money. Still refused to leave.

San Diego was his city. He was comfortable here. He was beloved. He was not a power hitter, but there was strength in his name.

When he played, I can’t remember a time when we didn’t talk before a game. There were many times he didn’t feel like talking. He always talked. Always.

Tony Gwynn has a laugh at spring training camp in Yuma in 1987.

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

I’d known him from 1977, when he was a freshman at State on a basketball scholarship. Coach Tim Vezie, who recruited him out of Long Beach Poly, didn’t allow him to play baseball his freshman year.

Tony didn’t like everybody, for sure. He didn’t get along with Smokey Gaines, who took over the Aztecs basketball job. Nor did he and Padres president/master marketer Larry Lucchino go out to dinner.

One of Larry’s big deals was enticing Mexico’s baseball fans to cross the border for games. In the late 1990s, he scheduled a game in Monterrey, and put out a gag order on players. No derisive remarks to the media.

Before the game, I sat in the dugout with Tony, and if there was a gag order, he didn’t honor it. He blasted the very thought of going to Mexico to play a real baseball game. He was great, at the top of his verbal game. By that time in his career, he was safe in his skin, and without fear.

A few weeks later, I ran into Lucchino, who looked at me and said: “I knew we weren’t going to get out of Monterrey without that (bleep) saying something.”

San Diego State basketball player Tony Gwynn shown in action against Hawaii.

(U-T file photo)

Tony never wanted to leave, but I wonder if, playing today and in his prime, he could have turned down all the millions owners are throwing around.

I don’t know if he would have been the face somewhere else, but he would have been hard to dislike. He was a giant here. And remains one in passing.

When Tony was coaching San Diego State baseball — a dream job he openly lobbied for — and the Aztecs hit a bad stretch (he was 363-363 as manager), athletic director Jim Sterk told me: “I’m not going to be the man to fire Tony Gwynn.”

Not even God fired Moses. …

The 1971 baseball All-Star Game featured 21 Hall of Fame players, Guessing the one in July of this year won’t have that many. …

After Jim Essian hit the first home run of his career in 1977, he told reporters: “I wanted to go into my home run trot, but then I realized I didn’t have one.” …

On Wrigley Field:

• “We came out of the dugout opening day and saw a fan holding up a sign saying: ‘Wait ‘Til Next Year.’ ” — the Cubs’ Moe Drabowski

• “I’d play for all my salary if I could hit in this dump all the time.” — Babe Ruth

• “I’ve been to Wrigley once. Froze my ass off.” — Me. …

The schedule release is yet another minor NFL story that becomes made for TV, played up as if it were VE Day by NFL Network and ESPN. If Roger Goodell gets a pedicure, cameras are rolling. …

Tantruming. Jamal Murray should have been fined $100,000 for shooting 25 percent from the floor. …

The last American NBA player to become MVP was James Harden. In 2017-18. …

I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising. A Canadian invented basketball. …

But James Naismith, that inventor, went 55-60 as the first head coach at Kansas, the only loser in Jayhawks history.

Charles Barkley says the Knicks — and New York — are overrated. Charles Barkley is not. “Y’all make good pizza and good bagels.” …

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, playing the Knicks in their playoff series, says he’s being wronged by the officials because Indy is a small-market team. I’d say Rick is challenging the integrity of the league, but it doesn’t have much of it left. …

The Pacers submitted what they believed to be 78 bad and no-calls to the league office. I didn’t know the league had an office. …

If the NBA is pushing for a New York team to be relevant, it’s been doing a bad job of it for decades. …

Our very own Jim Laslavic, one of the good guys, is going to be a member of the Croatian-American Sports Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. He has honored his heritage with great pride. …

Say Hey! Happy 93rd, Willie Mays. Best. …

RIP, Jimmy Johnson, brother of Rafer, and the greatest cornerback of his era …

RIP, Sean Burroughs. We hardly knew ye. …

Now they’re saying Secretariat may have been on steroids, which could keep him out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.