IBC

Cardinals wrote:You know Steve, thinking back to that no hitter Bud Smith threw, Gwynn pinch hit in the 7th or 8th inning. He was injured. He smacked a ball up the middle that Renteria got to somehow and threw him out, but if he was healthy, even as old and fat and slow as he was at the time, it would've been a hit.

Growing up without cable, the only times I ever saw Tony Gwynn was the All Star Game or in 1996 and 1998 when the Padres made the playoffs. Every interview with Tony Gwynn that I've ever seen, you could just tell how much he loved baseball. I don't think anyone has understood hitting better in the last 50 years

Orioles wrote:I didn't watch the ASG because fuck Bud Selig, but I'm told MLB didn't pay tribute to Tony Gwynn or Don Zimmer.

Good work, MLB...

Astros wrote:With all due respect Z - at least for me, Zimmer was just as much an icon of baseball as Tony Gwynn. I'm not comparing them as players. I'm simply saying he was just one of those faces and names you knew about since you were a little kid. There were names/faces of baseball that you always knew growing up, even if you didn't exactly know why you knew them. Zimmer was defenitely one of those. He's a huge loss to the baseball world in my mind.

Zimmer met Babe Ruth (in 1947), was a teammate of Jackie Robinson (1954-56) and played for Casey Stengel (1962). He was in uniform for some of the most iconic teams in history: the team that lost the most games ('62 Mets) and the team, including postseason play, that won the most games ('98 Yankees). He was in uniform for the only World Series championship for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1955), one of the most famous World Series home runs (Carlton Fisk's shot in 1975), one of the most famous regular season home runs (Bucky Dent in 1978), the Pine Tar Game (1983), the first night game at Wrigley Field (1988), the first game in Rockies history (1993), and all three perfect games thrown at Yankee Stadium (Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone).

In the 1990s, when the New York Yankees won more than anybody else but not enough for owner George Steinbrenner, after one particular loss the owner ordered every member of the coaching and training staffs and manager Joe Torre upstairs to his office at Yankee Stadium. As many as two dozen people sat and stood around the room, their heads drooped, knowing the lashing that was about to come. Steinbrenner didn't disappoint them with his fury.

"We have to do better," Steinbrenner said. "All of us. If there is anybody in this room who thinks they are doing everything they can to help the Yankees win, you can leave right now."

Don Zimmer got up out of his chair and walked out on Steinbrenner. The rest of the room managed to suppress both gasps and laughter.

Zimmer's wife, Soot, who had been waiting in the lobby and was expecting the usual lengthy Steinbrenner summit, knew it meant only one thing to see her husband get off the elevator so soon after the meeting began.

"You've been fired!"

Zimmer wasn't fired. He survived the walkout but maintained a simmering feud with the Boss, eventually citing Steinbrenner as the reason he quit as a Yankees coach after the 2003 season.