RIP Tony Gwynn

One of the best hitters ever, gone due to oral cancer.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/hall-of-famer-tony-gwynn-dead-at-54-061614

Wow.....I have no words. He was always one of my favorite players and being close in age, this is hard.

I played on competitive softball teams until I was fifty. It used to pisz me off seeing otherwise intelligent people chewing tobbaco. It was a very difficult habit to quit. I have one friend in Biloxi who now has three kids and his dentist was concerned about pre cancerous cells.......I remember as a kid getting our baseball cards and then the gum which was flat and the size of baseball cards would be jammed in our mouths to simulate chewing like the big leaguers.....The man was simply an exceptional hitter and solid as a rock, but if he could leave as a legacy the red flag for kids chewing.......he will have done something very good.

I used to go ballistic with people in my foursome in golf chewing and then spitting on the green. Disgusting habit which was totally unsanitary on a golf green as the next guy is wiping crap off his ball as it rolls through the prior foursomes spit. One of the most addictive habits I have seen, and my friends who chewed always told me they were going to quit.......never easy, but some of the horrible photos of mouth cancer have changed some folks behavior.

What a great role model... and certainly one of the best pure hitters ever. If you had to have a hit... he'd be a first pick for some.