Mr. Padre Made His Mark in Debut 30 Years Ago

From one seasoned pure hitter to another who was just arriving on the scene, the conversation on the basepaths at Jack Murphy Stadium on the night of July 19, 1982, was brief, but Tony Gwynn will never forget it.

Gwynn, making his big-league debut for the Padres against the Philadelphia Phillies, had just doubled to left center in the eighth inning for the first of his 3,141 career hits.  So many would find the "5.5 hole" between third and short, but this was more of a "7.5" drive.

Pete Rose, playing first base for the Phillies, backed up the throw into second. Before returning to his position, he noticed that the scoreboard was flashing the news of Gwynn's first hit.

Gwynn, a longtime Poway resident and currently the San Diego State baseball coach, took a moment after serving as color analyst at a Padres-Astros game this week to recall how Rose welcomed him to the bigs.

"Out of a lot of things that happened that night that I'll always remember, shaking Pete Rose's hand was the highlight," said Gwynn.

Then there was the brief verbal exchange.

"First hit, huh kid?" asked Rose as he shook Gwynn's hand. Tony responded with a quick "yes, sir."

"Well, don't catch me all in one night," kidded Rose, who would watch Tony add a two-out, ninth-inning single before Terry Kennedy grounded out to end the game, a 7-6 Phillies victory.

 I was fortunate enough to be there that evening, and I've even dug up a copy of the scoresheet I kept in the press box at the Murph, likely as a correspondent for UPI, the old press service. I joined the media mob that interviewed Gwynn after the game, but those notes didn't survive the three decades since that memorable night.

Scoresheets are the shorthand of the baseball world, making the trip down Memory Lane that much easier. I have collected (and generally misplaced)a couple thousand over the years, mainly during my service as an MLB official scorer since the 1984 pennant-winning season.

Let's examine the Gwynn debut game witnessed by 33,558 fans. Most must have known about Gwynn's call-up from the Hawaii Triple-A farm team, since the game drew better than the combined total for the next two night games against the Phils.

Did you know that Tony had a run batted in even before his first official at-bat? His sacrifice fly to center in the bottom of the first as the fifth batter in the Padres lineup was deep enough to score Tim Flannery and advance Garry Templeton from second to third. Tempy earlier had singled home leadoff man Gene Richards as the Pads grabbed a 2-0 lead.

Starter John Curtis quickly gave up that lead as Mike Schmidt and Bo Diaz led off the Philly second with homers. Flannery regained the lead for the Padres in the second with a bases-loaded walk after singles by Broderick Perkins, Luis Salazar and Richards.

The Phils went ahead for good with a four-run third off Curtis, highlighted by a two-run single by Gary Matthews (senior, not junior). George Vukovich's pinch-hit double scored Rose (who singled twice in the game) in the seventh for a 7-3 Phillies lead.

Phils starter Mike Krukow went just an inning and a third, so Gwynn faced Sid Monge his next three times up, lining out to short leading off the third, striking out in the fifth and doubling for his first hit in the eighth. It followed a leadoff homer by Sixto Lezcano.

Kennedy walked after the Gwynn double, chasing Monge. Sparky Lyle came in to get the next two outs, but not before Gwynnn scored his first run on a Salazar groundout and Kennedy scored on a pinch single by Kurt Bevacqua. Ron Reed came in to get Flannery to bounce back to the mound to end the threat with the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Tony was busy as the center fielder that night, registering five putouts. He would play all three outfield positions at various times his first two seasons as the Padres finished 81-81 both years before winning their first pennant with a 92-70 mark in 1984 with Gwynn anchored in right.

Son Tony Jr., who was born less than three months after his dad's first ML game, would get his first big-league hit with Milwaukee in 2006, 24 years to the day after Tony's memorable meeting with Pete Rose.