Gossage, Williams and the 1984 Padres

As expected, much was made about Rich “Goose” Gossage and Dick Williams’ New York ties this past weekend during their induction into the Hall of Fame.
Gossage entered the hall wearing a Yankees hat, as he should have, although it’s worth mentioning he also played for both Chicago teams, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle.
And like Gossage, Williams, a Yankees scout for 10 years, made sure to give longtime Yanks owner George Steinbrenner a nice plug for the Hall -- which stole plenty of headlines in The Big Apple.
But what got lost in most of the mainstream media coverage of Sunday’s ceremony was the San Diego connection between Gossage and Williams.
Gossage actually played for Williams in San Diego during the mid-1980s and was a key acquisition who helped San Diego win its first pennant and reach the World Series in 1984.
Most of the blogosphere won’t remember it, but Gossage was the one who gave up that back-breaking home run to Tigers slugger Kirk Gibson (yes, he did more than hit big postseason bombs for the Dodgers) in the eighth inning of Game 5 to help Detroit wrap up the World Series.
During the induction ceremony, Gossage apologized to Williams for giving up the longball to Gibson. Turns out Williams wanted “Goose” to walk Gibson, but Gossage talked him out of it because of prior success against Gibson.
“I should have listened,” Gossage said.
Even with the loss to the Tigers, the 1984 season is still remembered as the finest in San Diego Padres history.
They set a then-franchise record for wins (92) thanks to the play of Gossage (10-6 with 25 saves), Steve Garvey, Graig Nettles, Kevin McReynolds and, of course, Tony Gwynn, who won his first batting title with a .351 average that season.
Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. I was lucky enough to sit down with “Mr. Padre” and talk about that 1984 season among other topics shortly before his induction. You can read a portion of that Q&A here.

It's gotta be the camo

Coming into today, San Diego Padres pinch-hitter Tony Clark had as many extra-base hits as I have this season.
Despite the big zero in the EBH category, the Padres went to the pinch-hit extraordinaire late and Clark delivered with a go-ahead, three-run homer off Billy Wagner to give San Diego its fifth straight win, 8-6, and a four-game sweep of the New York Mets.
So is it time to start celebrating in San Diego? Sure it is, the Padres haven’t won 8 of 10 in forever, it seems.
At the same time, the past four games came against the Mets, the fourth-place team in the NL East, who went 2-5 on their trip to Cali.
And the Padres are still nine games under .500 and seven games out in the NL Worst — so hold that ticker-tape parade Friar fan, you’ve still got some work to do.
AP Photo/Denis Poroy

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Story Before

See this happy-go-lucky picture of Mark Prior in a San Diego Padres uniform? Yeah, take a long look at it, because it took me a half hour to find it and you probably won’t see this dude in a Padres jersey (let alone anybody’s MLB threads) any time soon.
In what turned out to be one heck of a day for the Padres, disabled list phenom Mark Prior — who has yet to pitch in a regular-season game for his hometown club — was shut down for the season to undergo season-sending surgery on his bum right shoulder.
Buddy Black announced the here-we-go-again decision prior to Sunday’s game in San Francisco, which Trevor Hoffman fitting blew in the 10th, coughing up a 3-1 lead and eventually falling to the Giants 4-3.
All’s well that ends well, I guess.
The 27-year-old Prior, for the record, hasn’t pitched since August 2006. The second pick in the 2001 draft out of USC was 1-6 with a 7.21 ERA in his final nine games for the Chicago Cubs.
Despite the shoulder, elbow, oblique and Achilles (are we leaving anything out?) problems, the Padres took a flier on him this year hoping the San Diego product could resurrect his career in his own back yard.
But that plan backfired and now his future with the franchise is in the air, having signed only a one-year, $1 million dollar deal in the offseason.
But at least he’s been a consistent pitcher in the Big Leagues, opening the year on the disabled list for the fifth straight season for a grand total of NINE trips to the DL in EIGHT years of professional baseball.
Well, I guess you will be seeing this photo of Prior again. Right next to the term “injury prone” in Webster’s 2009 edition.

• • •

Then again, this shouldn't be much of a surprise, given that knucklehead Nate J. was able to take Prior deep back in the day. And yes, there's even video proof here of Jaberjaw hitting the bomb against Prior, who he calls a "Hall of Fame Hopefull." That's South Carolina for 'ya.

Q&A With Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn

Editor's note: This story was first published in February 2007, shortly after Tony Gwynn was elected to the Hall of Fame.

This is exactly what Tony Gwynn was trying to avoid when he took the San Diego State job.

But when you're elected to the Hall of Fame, the spotlight tends to find you all over again.

Gwynn , who won eight batting titles and had a career .338 average in 20 seasons with the San Diego Padres, is at the center of attention again following his first-ballot election earlier this year. "Mr. Padre" and Baltimore Orioles great Cal Ripken Jr. will be inducted July 29, 2007, in Cooperstown, N.Y.

In the meantime, Gwynn is trying to remain focused on his fifth season at the helm of San Diego State, which opens the season today at Cal Poly.

Gwynn , 113-132 with the Aztecs, fielded questions on his election, life as a college coach and the state of the game this week in a candid interview prior to the 2007 season opener:

Q: Is it nice to be back coaching again after spending the past few weeks on the road for the Hall of Fame election?

A: Yes it is. This is where I belong -- on a bench somewhere coaching baseball. I was in New York, then I was in Baltimore. I still haven't seen our guys play (a game). I missed our alumni game and I was calling our assistant coaches after every half-inning. We were down 5-1, walking guys and making errors. I was just thinking the whole time, "We can't afford to do these kinds of things against the teams we have on our schedule."

Q: What does being elected for the Hall of Fame mean to you?

A: Vindication is the word for me. I was a singles hitter, so I didn't get a whole lot of love early in my career. I just tried to put up the best numbers I could for the first 10 years.

I had a chance tomeet with Ted Williams and that had a huge impact on the rest of my career. Ten years later I'm getting recognized for being consistent and there's talk I'm going into the Hall even though I only hit 135 home runs. ... It's rewarding to know I did the job well enough to be considered and to go in has really just blown me away. Words can't describe how it feels.

Q: How does life as a college coach compare to playing in the majors?

A: I've never been a spotlight guy. When my career was over, I enjoyed going into the college game and becoming a normal guy again. But when you go to North Carolina State, Texas, Oklahoma State and places you've never been, that past catches up with you. Add the Hall of Fame thing and that adds to it too. I thought nothing would top playing in the big leagues, but the last couple weeks, I'll tell you what. Never in my wildest dreams did I think something like this could happen and then shoot it to another level. I'm enjoying this ride, but at the same time I'm looking forward to getting it over and getting back to normal.

Q: Has it been tough juggling that attention with your coaching responsibilities at San Diego State?

A: Yeah, it has. When you go in the Hall of Fame, that's all you can do. I have another life that I truly enjoy. For me, coaching at the college level has been more satisfying than playing in some aspects. Back then, the only thing I had to worry about was me. Now I have 37 guys to worry about. Like right now, what I'm worried about is hunting down a DVD player for the bus. ...Alot of people were surprised when I went to the college game to begin with and they're surprised I'm still here, but I enjoy it.My motor runs at a different RPM than the other guys. I've come to grips with my playing career being over, and I love what I'm doing right now.

Q: Can you compare the state of the college game with the state of the professional game?

A: The college level continues to get better and better. We're getting more notoriety than we've ever gotten. To be on the ground floor of that is really exciting, especially out here on the West Coast where, whoa, it's competitive as heck and we're all in the same boat. Now we have to get to a regional to validate what we're doing.

The professional game is a little bit different. The scrutiny for pro baseball is making it a little bit difficult on people. There's more games on TV. More people are playing. I think they can do a better job ofmarketing the guys that play it. ... Right now, I don't know how much trust is going on with players being suspended for this and that, which I think is good. One of the things I've learned over the years is that this is the people's game. We need to do a better job of recognizing the fans, focusing on the game stuff instead of all that other stuff that's surrounding it. That's how the game gets better because the game has flourished, salaries are through the roof, but we have to do a better job with the fans.

Q: Were you surprised Mark McGwire wasn't elected the first time around?

A: I'm not surprised. I think he's a Hall of Famer, but I'm a player. I look at what the guy did on the field. I don't know what happened in his personal life. All I know is that when I was in right field, and he extended those arms, he hit the ball a mile.

When I retired, I was hoping we could all go in together. I knew there was some question with (Jose) Canseco and (Ken) Caminiti. The good thing for Mark is that he got enough votes to be on the ballot next year. But in the next 10 to 12 years, there's going to be some guys on the ballot who are question marks and that's going to be in the hands of the writers.

Q: As an ambassador of the game, what are some of the messages you try to pass on to the next generation of ballplayers?

A: Like most people, I was a fan to begin with. I listened to Vin Scully every night, knew all the ballplayers, their stats and all of that. I always made sure to show my respect to the guys before me. I'm about the game and giving back what a lot of those guys passed on to me. That's the most important thing you can do, give these younger players what they need to know to be better.

That's why coaching at the college level is so fun. Players are always asking me about stuff in the big league game. You can see in their eyes how much they love playing the game. You are able to put them in a position where they can influence people's lives, and I take that very seriously.