Braves, baseball mourn the loss of Tony Gwynn

That was the impression Gwynn made on Braves like bullpen coach Eddie Perez.

Perez spent much of his career as Greg Maddux’s personal catcher and the success Gwynn had against Maddux was the stuff of legend. The former Padres outfielder hit .429 (39-for-91) against Maddux, the pitcher who is about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July. In fact Gwynn hit .462 against John Smoltz and .312 against Tom Glavine, combining to strike out only three times in 249 at-bats against the “Big Three.”

But it was something Gwynn did while digging into at the plate, before Maddux ever threw a pitch, that might have impressed Perez the most.

“We were in San Diego at the old ballpark and the seats were close to home plate,” Perez said. “There was somebody (in the stands) giving the hitters location. ‘Outside!’ ‘Inside!’ And (Gwynn) heard him and he called timeout and he called security and got the guy out of the ballpark. He came back to the plate and he said, ‘That’s not good. We don’t play that way.’”

That kind of integrity, to go along with his friendship, is what had first base coach Terry Pendleton choking back tears as he talked about Gwynn with reporters in the Braves dugout.

“He was always there for you,” said Pendleton, who like Gwynn grew up in the Los Angeles area. “When you struggled on the other team, he was always there for you. He just wanted to see everybody succeed in the game, whether you wore the same uniform or not.”

As for what he did on the field as a hitter, he earned the respect of Maddux to the point where even the master poker player scrapped trying a game plan against him.

“I don’t think he ever tried to figure out how to get him out,” Perez said. “He was just (like), ‘Throw every pitch he got, see if he can hit it.’”

Maddux tweeted on Monday: “Tony Gwynn was the best pure hitter I ever faced! Condolences to his family.”

Gwynn’s remarkable statistics were a clubhouse conversation throughout baseball and the Braves were no different. Kris Medlen and Braves closer Craig Kimbrel were talking about it at their lockers.

“He hit over .300 for 19 years in a row,” Kimbrel said.

“The only year he didn’t was his first year. He hit .289,” said Medlen, and he continued without using an Ipad or Iphone for reference. “The year of the strike (1994) was .394. He was 37 and he hit .372, with 600 at-bats!”

Medlen got to see Gwynn play as a kid, growing up in Los Angeles from the fourth deck of Dodger Stadium.

Monday’s news brought up memories for a lot of people, whether it was manager Fredi Gonzalez relaying the story that Gwynn was such a disciplined hitter that he could give the sign for hit-and-run and then drive the ball based on which middle infielder he saw covering second base. Or visiting clubhouse attendant Tony Farmer remembering the runs he used to make to Krispy Kreme for Gwynn and the Padres on day games whenever they were in town.

Aaron Harang, a San Diego native, got to know Gwynn personally while playing for the Padres, and his younger brother Daryl played for Gwynn at San Diego State.

“It’s definitely a tough thing to hear and being from San Diego, he was Mr. Padre, he was Mr. San Diego,” Harang said. “We saw him all over billboards, all over the city all the time. Just to know somebody like that is gone. He’s truly going to be missed …

“He was always smiling, always having a good time. His laugh was one of a kind. You didn’t even have to be in the room. If you heard it, you knew it was Tony laughing. It’s a sad day for baseball, I know for people in San Diego and especially for his family.”