title: Efren Reyes

text: Numerous fellow professional players have credited Reyes with being the greatest living player in the world. During ESPN television commentary on a semi-finals match between Reyes and Mika Immonen at the 2000 BCA Open Nine-ball Championship, veteran professional Billy Incardona stated that Reyes was "indisputably the best player in the world—especially when you consider all games—he can play any game as well as anyone, maybe better than anyone ... In my opinion we're watching probably the greatest player in my lifetime and I've been watching pool for the better part of forty years."


title: Efren Reyes

text: In 1995, "Billiards Digest" magazine named Reyes the Player of the Year. The following year, when Reyes was ranked number one on the United States' Pro Billiards Tour, the June 1996 issue of the magazine featured a poll of "billiard cognoscenti"—pro players, billiards writers, industry insiders and the like—to pick the best in billiards in various categories. "Billiards" own elite named Reyes the best one-pocket player of all time. The magazine wrote, "While a bevy of one-pocket geniuses abound, Efren Reyes, whose prowess in one-pocket is sometimes obscured by his 9-ball stardom, was the popular pick. Is there anything Bata can't do?"


title: Efren Reyes

text: Reyes became the first Asian to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also inducted into the One Pocket Hall of Fame in 2004. Reyes was appointed Philippine Sports Ambassador for the 2005 South East Asian Games.


title: Efren Reyes

text: Efren has been awarded the Philippine Sportswriters Association Sportsman of the Year on three occasions: in 1999, 2001 and 2006. He was given the Philippine Legion of Honor, and included in "Time" magazine's 60 Asian heroes in 2006. He was also awarded the Philippine Order of Lakandula "Champion for Life Award" in 2006. He holds the record for the AZBilliards Money List at over $2 million in earnings since 1999 (AZBilliards have recorded the results of players constantly since 1999). He is record-tying with Shane Van Boening for topping the AZBilliards Money List for the year, a record tied seven times: in 1994, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. He holds the record for earning the most money by any player in a season, winning $845,000 from November 2005 to November 2006.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Anthony Keith Gwynn Sr. (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), nicknamed "Mr. Padre", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played 20 seasons (1982–2001) in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres. The left-handed hitting Gwynn won eight batting titles in his career, tied for the most in National League (NL) history. He is considered one of the best and most consistent hitters in baseball history. Gwynn had a .338 career batting average, never hitting below .309 in any full season. He was a 15-time All-Star, recognized for his skills both on offense and defense with seven Silver Slugger Awards and five Gold Glove Awards. Gwynn was the rare player in his era that stayed with a single team his entire career, and he played in the only two World Series appearances in San Diego's franchise history. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn attended San Diego State University (SDSU), where he played both college baseball and basketball for the Aztecs. He was an all-conference player in both sports in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), but was honored as an All-American in baseball. Gwynn was selected by the Padres in the third round of the 1981 MLB draft, as the 58th overall pick. He made his major-league debut the following year, and captured his first batting title in 1984, when San Diego advanced to its first-ever World Series. A poor fielder in college, Gwynn's work on his defense was rewarded in 1986, when he received his first Gold Glove. The following year, he won the first of three consecutive batting titles. Beginning in 1990, Gwynn endured four straight seasons which ended prematurely due to injuries, particular to his left knee. However, he experienced a resurgence with four straight batting titles starting in 1994, when he batted a career-high .394 in a strike-shortened season. Gwynn played in his second World Series in 1998, before reaching the 3,000-hit milestone the following year. He played two more seasons, hampered by injuries in both, and retired after the 2001 season with 3,141 career hits.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: A contact hitter, Gwynn excelled at hitting the ball to the opposite field. After meeting Hall of Famer Ted Williams in 1992, Gwynn became more adept at pulling the ball and using the entire field, as well as hitting for more power. In the early years of his career, he was also a threat to steal bases. Widely considered the greatest player in Padres history, Gwynn regularly accepted less money to remain with the small-market team. After he retired from playing, the Padres retired his No. 19 in 2004. Gwynn became the head baseball coach at his alma mater, and also spent time as a baseball analyst. He died of salivary gland cancer in 2014 at the age of 54.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was born in Los Angeles, California, to Charles and Vendella Gwynn. He was nine when his parents decided they would move from their apartment and buy a house in Long Beach, a location they chose because of its schools, parks, and youth sports options throughout the year. He grew up with older brother Charles Jr., who played college baseball and became a teacher, and younger brother Chris, who also became an MLB player. Gwynn's parents were civil servants who were tag-team parents. Gwynn's father worked at a warehouse from 7:30a.m. until 5:00p.m., and he also coached Pop Warner football and Little League Baseball; his mother worked at the post office from 5:30p.m. until 3:00a.m. His mother and father instilled in him the value of being prepared. He filled his time playing mostly basketball, which was his favorite sport.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn's father encouraged his sons to play ball in the makeshift baseball field that he assembled in their backyard. The setup was a narrow strip of grass that was longer than wide. Pulling the ball too much resulted in it being lost over the neighbor's fence, but left field being short ruled out hitting it to the opposite field as well. Once the brothers' supply of wiffle balls was exhausted, they resorted to using a sock rolled in rubber bands, a wad of tape, or a hardened fig from a neighbor's tree. Although Gwynn was able to pull the ball in his back yard, he would naturally hit it the other way during regular games. Growing up, he attended Los Angeles Dodgers games and watched his hero, Willie Davis; the Dodgers outfielder had twice as many stolen bases as home runs (398 SB, 182 HR) in his career. Gwynn admired Davis for being black, left-handed, and "aggressive but under control"; he respected Davis' work habits as well. Unlike other kids that tracked home run hitters, Gwynn checked the box scores in the newspaper every morning to follow high-average hitters like Pete Rose, George Brett and Rod Carew.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, which was a high-profile school in sports. He was a two-sport star in both basketball and baseball. In his final two years, his Jackrabbits baseball teams were a combined 3–25–2 in the league, while the basketball teams went 53–6 and twice reached the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section 4A championship game. Gwynn had considered quitting baseball as a senior to concentrate on basketball, but his mother talked him out of it. "She said it might be something down the road and that I might be sorry later if I didn’t play", recalled Gwynn.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: As a junior, he was the starting point guard on Poly's basketball team that went 30–1 and won the Southern Section 4A title. The final was played before over 10,000 fans at the Long Beach Arena, where Gwynn scored 10 points in the 69–50 victory over Buena of Ventura. His teammates included Michael Wiley, who became a professional player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In his senior year, Poly was 23–7, and again advanced to the championship round in spite of finishing third in the Moore League. Their bid for a second straight title ended with a 57–50 loss to Pasadena. Gwynn averaged 10.3 points and totaled 178 assists for the season, and he was named to the All-CIF Southern Section Second Team. After the season, he switched to baseball, whose season was already well underway. Despite his shortened season, he earned first-team All-Southern Section honors after batting .563. Poly's baseball teams struggles taught him to remain focused and continue to execute and stay productive.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn received scholarship offers to play college basketball, but none for college baseball. He also went unselected in the 1977 MLB draft, which Gwynn attributed to his limited playing time. He wanted to play both sports for Cal State Fullerton, which was okay by basketball coach Bobby Dye, but baseball coach Augie Garrido did not believe an athlete could handle both sports in college. San Diego State basketball coach Tim Vezie wanted Gwynn to commit to playing two years of basketball before playing baseball. Gwynn also had an offer from Texas Christian University (TCU). However, he was told that he would be their first black player in 30 years, which ruled them out from his consideration. He chose to attend SDSU, calling it "the best option I had".


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was a two-sport star with San Diego State, playing three seasons of baseball and four of basketball. He was a two-time All-American outfielder in his final two seasons, when he led the team in hitting. A skilled playmaker in basketball, he set multiple school records for assists. He is the only player in the history of the WAC to earn all-conference honors in two sports. Gwynn was not allowed to play baseball as a freshman. He was overweight at , and Vezie wanted him to get in shape for the next basketball season.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: By the following season in 1979, Gwynn still had not heard from Aztecs baseball coach Jim Dietz about joining the team after the basketball season. However, an opportunity arose after two outfielders riding bicycles were struck by an automobile and injured, leaving Dietz in need of replacements. Freshman shortstop Bobby Meacham, who played against Gwynn in high school, convinced the coach to give Gwynn a chance. Dietz had never seen Gwynn play, but contacted him mostly because he trusted Meacham. Vezie by then had been fired, and his successor, Smokey Gaines, allowed Gwynn to play baseball. Were it not for the accident, Gwynn doubted he would have ever played baseball with SDSU. "Knowing what I now do about Coach Dietz ... [h]e's too loyal to his athletes to have allowed me to walk over after basketball season and join the team." said Gwynn.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In baseball, Gwynn was primarily a left fielder and designated hitter (DH) at San Diego State. He hit .301 in his first season, but said he "stunk defensively". In 1980, Gwynn hit .423 with six home runs and 29 runs batted in (RBI) and was named third-team All-American by "Baseball News". The next season, he was a first-team All-American after batting .416 with 11 home runs and 62 RBI. He also was named a first-team All-WAC outfielder. In his three years, he had a career average of .398 and the team went 146–61–4.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Playing basketball, Gwynn set Aztecs basketball records for assists in a game (18), season (221), and career (590). He was twice named to the All-WAC Second Team, and he averaged 8.8 points per game his senior year. Playing point guard developed Gwynn's baseball skills, as the dribbling strengthened his wrists—avoiding what he called "slow bat syndrome"—and basketball taught him to be quick, which improved his baserunning. He could dunk a basketball, though he was unable to palm the ball with his small hands. He had a quick first step in either sport, and was able to run in 6.7 seconds.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn indirectly received exposure from scouts watching SDSU that were interested in Meacham, who would become a first-round pick in 1981. Gwynn had started the baseball season late in 1981, as the basketball team was still competing, and some scouts had already seen enough of Meacham and stopped following SDSU. Also on the Aztecs baseball team was Casey McKeon, son of Jack McKeon, who was the San Diego Padres general manager at the time. Given his son's involvement, McKeon often went to Aztecs games. He was initially interested in seeing Meacham, but became more impressed by Gwynn after seeing him at an exhibition game between the Aztecs and Padres; Gwynn had just re-joined the baseball team five days earlier.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: The Padres selected Gwynn in the third round of the 1981 MLB draft with the 58th overall pick. He had gone to Padres games while he was at San Diego State, and would sit there thinking that they had the "ugliest uniforms I've ever seen in my life". Those uniforms again came to his mind after he was drafted. McKeon had wanted to take Gwynn with the Padres' first pick, but they chose two other players in the first round and another in the second. McKeon threatened to walk out of the draft room had San Diego not selected him in the third. Later that day, Gwynn was also selected by the San Diego Clippers in the 10th round of the NBA draft. According to then-Clippers general manager Ted Podleski, Gwynn might have gone as high as the sixth round if he was not a baseball player. Gwynn chose to play baseball with the Padres in what he termed a "practical" decision, citing his physical battles pushing and fighting against larger players such as Charles Bradley while playing WAC basketball.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Coming out of college, Gwynn was initially worried about the transition from using an aluminum bat to a wooden one, but his concerns were allayed once he found a bat comparable to the size he had used with the Aztecs. He led the Northwest League with a .331 batting average, and added 12 homers and 17 stolen bases in just 42 games for Walla Walla, San Diego's Class A minor league affiliate, earning him most valuable player (MVP) honors for the league in 1981. He finished the season in Class AA with Amarillo for 23 games while batting .462.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn participated at spring training with San Diego in 1982, and hit an impressive .375. However, the Padres were set in the outfield with veterans Gene Richards, Ruppert Jones, and Sixto Lezcano, and Gwynn began the season with Triple-A Hawaii. He was batting .328 in 93 games with the Islanders when he was promoted and debuted for the Padres on July 19, 1982. He started in center field against the Philadelphia Phillies in place of a slumping Jones. In his fourth at-bat, Gwynn got his first major league hit—a double—against reliever Sid Monge. Rose, who was the Phillies first baseman and later became the major-league all-time hit leader, told Gwynn, "Congratulations. Don't catch me in one night." Five weeks later against Pittsburgh, Gwynn injured his left wrist after diving for a ball and hitting the hard artificial turf at Three Rivers Stadium, and missed three weeks while on the disabled list (DL). He finished his rookie season batting .289 in 54 games, the only season in his career he hit below .300. His 15-game hitting streak was the longest on the team that season.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn reinjured his wrist playing winter ball in Puerto Rico and started 1983 on the DL. He missed the first two months of the season and struggled after his return, and his average fell as low as .229 by July 29. He asked his wife to record the games before a road trip, and he began using video recording to review his at-bats. After looking at the tapes and correcting his swing during batting practice, he became a believer in using video. He said video "turned around my career". He heated up to a .309 average for his shortened season, and his 25-game hitting streak set a Padres record. For the second straight season, San Diego finished with .500 record.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In his first full season in 1984, San Diego won their first NL West title. Gwynn was elected to start in his first All-Star Game, and he won his first batting title with a .351 average along with 71 RBIs, and 33 stolen bases; he had only 23 strikeouts in 606 at-bats. He finished third in the balloting for the National League MVP behind Chicago Cubs winner Ryne Sandberg and runner-up Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets. He had 213 hits, breaking the Padres record of 194 set by Richards in 1980. Gwynn hit second in the Padres batting order behind Alan Wiggins, and benefited from the higher number of fastballs opposing pitchers threw in response to the speedy leadoff hitter (70 SB) being on base. Wiggins' speed also disrupted the defense and opened up holes that Gwynn was able to exploit for hits. He hit above .400 when Wiggins was on base ahead of him. "Anybody can hit a fastball", said Gwynn. The duo were one of the biggest reasons behind San Diego's success. They could score fast with Wiggins getting on first, stealing second, and Gwynn singling him home. Gwynn batted .410 with runners in scoring position, and Manager Dick Williams said his records indicated that Gwynn had the best "RBI percentage" on the team.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In the playoffs, the Padres won the first NL pennant in its team history, defeating the Cubs in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) before losing the World Series to the Detroit Tigers. Gwynn batted .368 in the NLCS, and his one-out single in the bottom of the ninth in Game 4 set up Steve Garvey's game-winning homer. Gwynn hit .263 (5-for-19) in the World Series, and flew out to Tigers left fielder Larry Herndon for the final out of the fall classic. During the offseason, Gwynn took less money to stay in San Diego by signing a six-year, $4.6 million contract with the Padres. Still, his new salary of more than $500,000 salary for 1985 represented a sizable raise over the $180,000 he would have received, or the $100,000 he had received in 1984.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Wiggins entered drug rehab in 1985 and was traded later in the season to the Baltimore Orioles, resulting in Gwynn seeing fewer fastballs and more breaking balls. Gwynn said it took him a month to realize the change in opponents' strategy, and a while to adjust. His average was under .300 into June, when he got hot but then sprained his wrist on June 27 in a collision with Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia. Still, Gwynn was named with seven other Padres to the 1985 All-Star Game. San Diego was leading the NL West at the time, but finished the season in third place. After Gwynn's wrist healed, he hit .339 after the start of August and finished the season with the fourth-highest average in the NL (.317). Without an adequate replacement for Wiggins batting leadoff, his RBIs fell to 46.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn played a career-high 160 games in 1986, when he led NL position players in Wins Above Replacement (WAR). He scored 100 runs for the first time, and tied for the NL lead (107). He set then-career highs for doubles (33), homers (14) and steals (37). On September 20 against the Houston Astros, he had four hits and became the fifth NL player that century with five stolen bases in a game. He finished third in hitting (.329) after leading for most of the season. He hit only .296 in September, and he regretted paying too much attention to Tim Raines and Steve Sax, who were previously trailing him. Gwynn was honored for his defense with his first Gold Glove after leading the league in total chances and putouts (337). His 19 outfield assists that year, which were one short of the league high, were highlighted by the three Mets he threw out in one game.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Despite his financial problems and bankruptcy in 1987, Gwynn remained unfazed on the field. In the Padres home opener, Marvell Wynne, Gwynn, and John Kruk hit back-to-back-to-back homers to start the game for San Diego, the first time an MLB team had led off a game with three consecutive home runs. In June, he had 44 hits in 93 at-bats for a .473 average, the best month in his career. He finished fifth among NL outfielders voting for the All-Star game, which Padres manager Larry Bowa called "a joke". However, Gwynn was unperturbed: "People put a premium on the home-run hitters. I know what I am. I’m a contact hitter and not a home-run hitter ... I’m not going to try to be something I’m not."


title: Tony Gwynn

text: That year, Gwynn had two five-hit games, the first of eight in his career. He won his second batting title that season after hitting .370. It was the highest average in the NL since Stan Musial hit .376 in 1948. He also stole 56 bases and became the first NL player to hit .370 and steal 50 bases. Gwynn never went more than eight at-bats without recording a hit, and he had a hit in 82 percent of the 155 games he batted. His 218 hits also led the league. He led the league in WAR, and was second in stolen bases, triples (13), and on-base percentage (OBP) (.447); he also ranked fourth in runs scored (119) and 10th in walks with a career-high 82. His average, hits, runs and triples were all Padre records. Although he only hit seven homers, Gwynn was second in the league with 26 intentional walks, which was indicative of the reverence for his hitting prowess. He finished eighth in the voting for NL MVP, but continued to resist altering his hitting style to hit more home runs to earn more respect. The same year, Wade Boggs in the American League (AL) won his fourth batting title in five years, hitting .363 with 24 home runs, but finished ninth in MVP voting.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: During the last three months of the 1987 season, a finger on Gwynn's left hand would lock when he gripped a bat. It would come open barely enough for the bat to slip out from his grip. He had surgery on the hand during Spring training the following season. Early in 1988, Gwynn was on the DL for 21 days after spraining his thumb after tripping rounding first base in Pittsburgh. He was hitting .246 as late as July 2, 1988, but won the batting title with a .313 average. Gwynn batted .406 in July and .367 in the last 73 games of the season. He denied that injuries impacted his hitting, instead attributing his struggles to "mechanics". He struck out a career-high 40 times that season, while his .313 average was the lowest to win a title in NL history. In the 112 years before, only nine batting leaders hit below .330, the previous low being Larry Doyle's .320 in 1915. For the 25 years ending in 1988, batting leaders averaged .343. Gwynn hit 119 points higher with runners on base (.382) than with the bases empty (.263), the largest differential in the NL that season. He tied Pedro Guerrero for the highest average with runners in scoring position (.371). During the season, McKeon replaced Bowa as Padres manager, and moved Gwynn from right to center field. Gwynn also reached 1,000 career hits on April 22 with a single off Nolan Ryan of the Astros. On September 17, he passed Dave Winfield as the Padres career leader in hits with his 1,135th off Jim Acker of the Atlanta Braves.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In the 1989 season, he was hurting in September while he was in the race for another batting title. His right toe made it hard for him to put a shoe on, and his left Achilles tendon was sore and prevented him from pushing off properly when swinging. His batting average dropped, but he insisted on playing until his manager forced him to sit out for two games. The Padres were battling the San Francisco Giants for the division title in September, but they were eliminated from contention the game before hosting a season-ending three-game series with the Giants. Although the race for the division was over, Gwynn was still trailing San Francisco's Will Clark for the batting title, .333 to .332. Gwynn went 3-for-4 in the last two games, finishing at .336 to claim his third title. "I lost to the best", Clark said. Gwynn became the first NL player to win three consecutive batting titles since Musial in 1950–52. In December 1989, Gwynn fell to being the seventh-highest-paid Padre at $1 million a year, and he questioned the team's salary structure. He felt he deserved more money than players like Jack Clark, who signed a lucrative deal with the New York Yankees before being traded to San Diego. Gwynn's request for a contract renegotiation was denied.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Widely respected by his peers and known as one of the most dedicated players in baseball, Gwynn in 1990 was accused by some teammates of being selfish and caring more about his batting average than winning. First baseman Jack Clark, most notably, stated that Gwynn should be swinging with runners in scoring position instead of bunting and protecting his batting average. Clark did not approve of Gwynn bunting with runners on first and second with nobody out, believing he was trying to either bunt for a hit or get credit for a sacrifice if he failed. On the other hand, Gwynn felt he was advancing runners for the team's "game changers"—Clark and Joe Carter—which was consistent with McKeon's style. Gwynn said he resorted to bunting to advance the runners because he was not a good pull hitter. "No one bothers Tony Gwynn because he wins batting titles, but the Padres finish fourth or fifth every year", said Clark, who also stirred controversy on his prior teams. Teammates Mike Pagliarulo and Garry Templeton sided with Clark, who also said Gwynn was " overweight", leading to his lower stolen base total.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Stung by the criticism, Gwynn was miserable the rest of the season and became withdrawn and distrustful among his teammates. Conscious of being perceived as selfish, he altered his hitting style by attempting to pull the ball to move runners in situations where he would normally hit to the opposite field. Rumors that he might be traded affected his play. In September, Gwynn was upset when a figurine of his likeness was hanging in effigy in the Padres' dugout, and race became an issue due to the undercurrent of lynchings being evoked with Gwynn being black and Clark being white. The Padres said a groundskeeper was responsible, but Gwynn believed it was a cover-up. Clark denied any involvement. After breaking his right index finger mid-month in Atlanta while trying to make a catch at the wall, Gwynn missed the final 19 games of the season. He left the team for the season to avoid contact with the media and teammates. He was further upset that neither management nor other teammates came to his defense at the time. He later regretted saying he wanted to avoid his teammates in general instead of being more specific which ones he was referring to. "It just involved one great guy, and that's Tony Gwynn, and anything they want to say about Tony Gwynn is going to be news. It got all blown out of proportion", Carter said. Gwynn countered, "I've been doing the same things my whole career, playing the same way. Now, why is it an issue? Because Jack Clark says it is." Gwynn finished the season batting .309, ranking sixth in the league but the lowest average of any full season in his career; he had entered the season with a .332 career average. However, his 72 RBI that season were a then-career high. He also began experiencing soreness and swelling in his left knee. The cartilage under his kneecap was wearing out, which doctors attributed to his playing basketball and baseball year-round for seven years from high school through college.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn and Clark said they could continue to play together, but Clark signed with the Boston Red Sox as a free agent in the offseason. Gwynn felt appreciated after he was signed to a three-year contract extension for $12.25 million, including a $1 million signing bonus. McKeon praised Gwynn, saying, "He's one of the most unselfish players I've ever managed. In '89, when he was going for a batting title, he was giving himself up to move runners along." Dick Williams, who managed Gwynn from 1982 through 1985, said of Gwynn, "I don't think I've ever had a player who worked harder, cared more and was more deserving of his awards." Clark continued to criticize him, which Gwynn attributed to jealousy. Gwynn responded with his own criticism of Clark: "Let's talk about him walking 104 times, being a No. 4 hitter. Let's talk about his not flying on team flights. Let's talk about him getting booted out of games on a called strike three." In 1992, Gwynn sympathized with Clark, who filed for bankruptcy after bad loans by his agent. "I really appreciated the things Tony said about my situation", Clark said.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn in 1991 passed Gene Richards as the Padres' all-time leader in steals and triples. He reached a season-high batting average of .373 in June, and late in the month was among the league leaders in RBIs. His left knee began causing him problems before the All-Star break, and he had been suffering from shin splints as well. He injured his left knee on August 5 at Houston while sliding into second base. He played through the injury, missing just one game over the next weeks. He had fluid drained from his knee on August 31, and played just once in the week that followed while surgery was discussed. He attempted to finish out the season, but lasted just five more games. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to clean out the knee and smooth the articular cartilage, missing the final 21 games of the year. Gwynn was leading the league in hitting at .326 late in August, and had enough plate appearances already to qualify for the title, when many people—including his father and Padres announcer Jerry Coleman—advised him to take care of his knee and secure another batting title. However, Gwynn was still reeling from Clark's criticism over his conditioning and being selfish, and he wanted to continue playing. Gwynn finished the season ranked third in batting at .317, behind Terry Pendleton (.319) and Hal Morris (.318). After the All-Star Game, he hit just .243.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 1992, Gwynn ended the season on the DL for the third straight year. On September 8 in a 16-inning game in San Francisco, he had the third five-hit game of his career and his first since 1987. He sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the same game, and played just four more innings the rest of the season. He required arthroscopic surgery on the knee. Gwynn met Hall of Famer Ted Williams for the first time during the 1992 All-Star Game, which was hosted at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium (known later as Qualcomm Stadium). At the time, Gwynn considered himself to be an accomplished hitter, content to hit singles and doubles. Williams called Gwynn "a big guy" and challenged him to hit for more power. He chided Gwynn for using a "toothpick" for a bat. His encounter with Williams spurred him to think more about hitting, and he began to hit for more power. "I've never been a home run guy, never been a big RBI guy, but from that point to the end of my career, I was much better at it", said Gwynn.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn entered the 1993 season anticipating that he would be better after his past two surgeries, and he had also incorporated Williams' advice into his swing. The Padres lost 101 games that year for the team's worst record during his career. They finished last in the division, behind even the Colorado Rockies, who were an expansion team in their inaugural season. San Diego that season had traded most of its star players—including Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, and Tony Fernández—in fire sales. Gwynn finished with a .358 average, the then-second best average of his career, but Colorado's Andrés Galarraga won the title at .370. Gwynn batted .587 on pulled balls, compared to his .315 in 1991 before Williams' pointers. He was affected early in the season by a sprained thumb, but he hit .400 (76-for-190) over the second half of the season. On June 10, Gwynn missed the opportunity to hit for the cycle when mannager Jim Riggleman replaced him in the seventh inning of a 14–2 rout against the Dodgers after he had hit for a home run, double, and triple in his three prior at-bats. Riggleman was not aware that he needed a single to complete the cycle. Still wary of Clark's earlier criticism that he was selfish, Gwynn did not contest his removal, which angered his manager when he found out after the game. On August 4 against the Giants, Gwynn had the only six-hit game of his career. He might have gone 7–for–7 if not for an excellent play at first base by Will Clark. Gwynn recorded his 2,000th hit with a single off Colorado lefthander Bruce Ruffin on August 6. His last game was September 5 before undergoing arthroscopic surgery to clear "loose bodies" from his knee. It was the fourth consecutive year his season ended early, and the third straight season it was due to left knee surgery.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: After the season, Gwynn's father, Charles, died young at the age of 57 from heart problems. Two days earlier, Charles had argued with Gwynn that he should leave San Diego, questioning the Padres' commitment to winning. Gwynn eventually concluded, "No, I like it here, I should stay." He contemplated leaving baseball after his father's death; however, he recalled his father always telling him to "never be a quitter, work hard".


title: Tony Gwynn

text: For years during Gwynn's career, media preseason predictions declared that "this season" he would become the first player to hit .400 since Williams in 1941. Relatively healthy in 1994, Gwynn batted .394, his career-high and the highest in the National League since Bill Terry hit .401 in 1930. He also had a league-leading .454 OBP. From April 22 through the 24 against Philadelphia, he had eight consecutive hits and reached base nine straight times, tying Padres records held by Winfield and Bip Roberts, respectively. Gwynn was batting .383 at the All-Star break; however, talk of a strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) was looming, and he wanted to get to .400 before that date. He hit .423 over 28 games in the second half, and heated up to .475 though 10 games in August, when the season ended prematurely on August 11 due to the baseball strike. He was 6-for-9 in the last two games and 3-for-5 in the eventual finale, falling short of batting .400 by three hits. Fans were awaiting an end to the strike and for Gwynn to resume his quest for .400, but hopes of the season restarting were dashed when the World Series was canceled. He later commented, "I'm not unhappy or bitter that the strike came. I look at it this way: I would have sooner fell short due to the strike than if I would have hit .400 and then the strike came. Then people would have thought I would have collapsed down the stretch, instead of being at .390 when the strike came and being so close." That year, Gwynn pulled the ball with greater regularity. He was 10th in the league with a slugging percentage of .568, which was also his career-high. His 12 homers in 419 at-bats was a higher rate than in 1986, when he hit a then-career high 14 homers in 642 at-bats. He won another batting title (.368) in 1995. For the second straight year, he did not go longer than two games without a hit. He led the NL in batting with runners in scoring position (.394), and he had a then-career high 90 RBI. Gwynn hit in 15 straight games in July, his longest hitting streak since his 18-game run in 1988. He hit 28-for-65 (.431) with 15 RBI during the streak. Although he missed batting .400 in 1994, he batted .403 during a 179-game stretch between July 3, 1993 and May 9, 1995.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 1996, the Padres won the division with 91 wins and returned to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Gwynn called it the worst injury season of his career. His hurt heel in April was diagnosed as an inflamed bursa sac. He tried multiple shoes to alleviate the pain, and was on the DL for a month at midseason. He played the rest of the year in pain, and surgery after the season revealed a 40 percent tear (or fraying) at the top of his right Achilles' tendon. On September 28, Gwynn hit a patented single between third base and shortstop to score two runs and break a 2–2 tie in the eighth against the Dodgers, clinching a playoff berth for the Padres. He called it his most memorable regular-season hit until his 3,000th career hit. Gwynn's brother, Chris, also played for San Diego that season and hit the game-winner in the season finale in extra innings, completing a three-game sweep over Los Angeles to win the division. Chris had only hit .169 entering the game, and some fans were convinced that he was on the team only because of his brother. Earlier in the week, Gwynn had criticized fans for booing his brother. "Today, I'm just Chris Gwynn's anonymous brother," said Gwynn, who also won his seventh batting title that day. Although he was four plate appearances (PAs) short of the minimum to qualify for the title, MLB Rule 10.22(a)—which also came to be known as the Tony Gwynn rule—allowed hitless at-bats to be added to his record to qualify. Gwynn, who batted .353 in 498 PAs, would have dropped to .349 with the extra at-bats, still five points better than second-place Ellis Burks' .344. In the postseason, the Padres were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in the opening round.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In April 1997, Gwynn signed a three-year contract extension for $12.6 million. Recovered from his Achilles problem the year before, he was able to plant his front foot to pull inside pitches. That season, Gwynn reached career highs with 17 home runs and 119 RBIs. He batted .372 for his eighth batting title, second only to Ty Cobb (12). He led the NL in hits for the seventh time, tying Rose's record. The 220 hits led the majors and was a new team record. Gwynn led the majors with a .459 average with runners in scoring position. In his 16th season, he became the oldest major leaguer at age 37 to reach 100 RBIs for the first time. His RBI total was the second-highest in club history. He also hit a Padres record of 49 doubles, ranking second in the league, and established a career-best of 324 total bases. On June 7, Gwynn hit his 100th career home run off of Donne Wall of Houston, becoming the third Padre to reach the mark. He was batting .402 on July 14, the latest in the season he had ever been at .400. However, his average tailed off as he suffered from kidney stones later in the month, and he also battled problems with his left knee that required postseason surgery.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 1998, Gwynn batted .321 and helped the Padres win a franchise-record 98 games and their second pennant. He began the year with his first-ever opening-day home run, and continued his trend of hitting for more power with 16 homers for the season. The Padres reached the World Series in 1998 after defeating Houston and Atlanta in the playoffs. However, the Padres lost to the Yankees in a four-game sweep, despite Gwynn hitting .500 (8-for-16) in the series; the rest of the team batted only .203. Gwynn hit a home run off the second-deck facade in the opening game at Yankee Stadium against pitcher David Wells, which he called his favorite hit and highlight of his career. "That's the biggest game in the world, a World Series game. And the fact that it was in New York in Yankee Stadium. I'll remember that forever", he said.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Calf injuries forced Gwynn to miss 44 games in the first half of 1999. At the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park in Boston, he escorted Williams to the mound, and steadied his friend in throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. It was Gwynn's most memorable All-Star moment in his career. As he approached 3,000 career hits in July, two unidentified Padres said there was too much focus on reaching the milestone. Additionally, Jim Leyritz, after being traded from the Padres to the Yankees, said Gwynn lacked the "intangibles" of a team player. In the next game in San Diego, Padres fans gave Gwynn a standing ovation after he was removed for a pinch runner following his 2,994th hit. He approached 3,000 hits on the road, first playing in a series against the Cardinals. On August 4, he collected three hits, including a grand slam, to reach 2,998 hits, receiving a standing ovation from the St. Louis crowd after each hit. The following day, Gwynn collected hit number 2,999 in the same game that the Cardinals' Mark McGwire hit his 500th home run. Gwynn got his 3,000th hit on August 6 with a single in the first inning off Montreal Expos pitcher Dan Smith. He had four hits in the game. His 2,000th hit was also on August 6, which is also the birthday of Gwynn's mother. The milestone was delayed by a left calf injury that season which sent him to the DL twice, forcing him to miss 44 games. He reached 3,000 in 2,284 games, the third-fewest games among the 22 players to reach the mark behind Cobb (2,135) and Nap Lajoie (2,224). No player born after 1900 got there in fewer games or at-bats (8,874) than Gwynn.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn, who turned 40 in 2000, had a left knee injury that required his knee to be drained seven times before he underwent season-ending surgery. He was limited to playing just 36 of the Padres' first 71 games, and he started only 26 games in right field. He batted .408 from May 19 to June 23 to raise his average from .196 and finish the season at .323. Gwynn had microfracture surgery performed on his knee, which involved tiny holes being created to promote cartilage growth.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: The Padres bought out their $6 million option on Gwynn for 2001, paying him $2 million instead, and he became a free agent for the first time. After weeks of negotiation that were at times bitter, Gwynn re-signed with the Padres for 2001, agreeing to a one-year, $2 million contract with a chance to earn another $3.7 million in performance incentives. However, he was hampered that season by problems to his right leg, which had been his "good leg", and was limited to just 17 games on the field. In the first half of the season, he missed 64 games due to a right hamstring that resulted in two stints on the DL. After returning, he began having problems with his right knee. He was limited to pinch-hitting duties and started only one game after mid-July due to a torn meniscus in the right knee. Gwynn formally announced on June 28 that he would retire at the end of the season, and subsequently received an ovation at each stadium the Padres visited. He was honored as a non-playing squad member at the 2001 All-Star Game. During the game, he and Cal Ripken, who had announced his retirement nine days before Gwynn, were presented the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award by Commissioner Bud Selig. On October 6, 2001, at Qualcomm Stadium, Gwynn had a pinch RBI double off Gabe White of Colorado for the final hit of his career. He considered starting the next day in the final game of the season, but he was not confident he could handle a fly ball. In his final appearance, he pinch hit in the ninth inning, grounding out to shortstop. Although he was limited to only 112 plate appearances, Gwynn finished the season with a .324 average, his 19th consecutive season batting at least .300.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was an aggressive hitter who was able to expand his hitting zone and frequently hit bad balls that were out of the strike zone. He rarely struck out and generally did not draw many walks. His philosophy was to "see the ball and react". He was less concerned with getting a hit in a particular at-bat and was more focused with being comfortable at the plate, having a fluid swing, and making solid contact. Over the course of the season, he figured it would result in success. Gwynn saw the ball better than any of his peers, identifying the type of pitch as the ball left the pitcher's hand. He rarely recognized the rotation of the ball, and did not look to the pitcher's arm speed for clues. He had excellent 20–10 vision that later decreased to 20–15. Gwynn tried wearing glasses around 1994 but stopped, fearing he "looked like a dork". His peripheral vision allowed him to stare directly at the pitcher and still adjust his hitting based on the defense's setup, even if players shifted before the pitch was released. He would identify gaps in the defense based on where fielders were positioned, and then wait for a pitch which allowed him to hit the ball where he wanted.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Among Gwynn's primary strengths was his patience in allowing the ball to reach the strike zone before starting his swing. His bats were as small as anyone used during his career, and their lightness allowed him to wait longer before committing to his swing; he was rarely fooled by a pitch. Growing up, he was not overparticular about his baseball bats, using anything that was available. Gwynn started with a 34-inch, 32-ounce aluminum bat in college. As a junior, he had to replace it after it got dented, and came across a 32-inch, 31-ounce model that was more to his liking. At his first minor league stop at Walla Walla, the shortest bat they had was 34 inches. To Gwynn's surprise, he uncharacteristically started hitting home runs. On their first road trip to Eugene, Oregon, he acquired a couple of 32-inch bats that he could better handle. In the first 12 years of his MLB career, Gwynn used a 32½-inch, 31-ounce bat. In his final eight years, he employed a 33-inch, 30½-ounce bat. Gwynn wanted his wooden bats light like his aluminum ones in college. Instead of having the barrel of his bats shaved, as many batters do, he had them "cupped", with the end of the barrel hollowed out like the bottom of a wine bottle. His small hands required that he use thin-handled bats. His bat control made him a good hit-and-run batter, although some former teammates complained he would swing for a hit even when a player was trying to steal, depriving his teammate of a stolen base.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was able to hit the ball to all fields, but liked to hit balls the opposite way to the left, between third base and shortstop. He dubbed it the "5.5 hole", since baseball scorekeeping designates third base using a 5 and shortstop with a 6. Gwynn preferred an outside pitch, waiting as long as possible and using his strong wrists to quickly hit the ball. He was not considered a home run hitter, reaching double-figures just five times, but he was a gap hitter with power to drive hits between outfielders. Opposing outfielders typically played him deep. Gwynn became a complete hitter after following Ted Willams' advice to drive inside pitches instead of finessing them, which Gwynn learned he could do without sacrificing his average. He initially thought that home runs were "boring", and he concentrated on his craft of making contact. However, Williams said Gwynn was "wasting an opportunity", and convinced him to turn on inside fastballs more and capitalize on his strength and power pitchers pitching him inside. Applying Williams' approach, Gwynn employed the entire field, and was no longer satisfied with mostly hitting to left field. His home runs increased, and he drove in more runs. Forty-three of his 135 career home runs were in his final three full seasons (1997–99). Gwynn credited his later improvement to Williams and his book, "The Science of Hitting", which he said that he read "four or five times a year". He and Williams became friends, and they often talked for hours about hitting. Gwynn lamented not having met Williams earlier and possibly adjusting his hitting approach sooner.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn's physical appearance belied his athleticism. He stood , thick around the middle and thighs. Even at his athletic prime when he could really run, he weighed around and was considered pudgy. His roly-poly frame was a self-described "body by Betty Crocker", a reference to the food product brand. Towards the end of his breakout season in 1984, he conceded that his "extra weight hasn't helped me. My bat's slower than it has been all year." At the time, he attributed his weight gain to soft drinks: "It's killing me. It's always been a weakness. I've gotta cut down on the soda pop." Jim Murray of the "Los Angeles Times" opined in 1993 that Gwynn's "deceptive" looks and not "look[ing] the part" contributed to his regularly being overlooked in the voting for league MVP. Gwynn was sensitive about his weight. His knee injuries over his career prompted the Padres organization, media, and fans to question his weight, conditioning, and eating habits. However, he rejected the notion that his weight led to his injuries. Gwynn contended that his weight was only a topic when he was struggling, and not when he was performing. He also believed that the criticism stemmed mainly from his not fitting people's profile of what an athlete should look like. He said he had "a football player's body", with his father, grandfather and brothers also being big. Gwynn said his hitting style put a lot of torque on his knees. He started experiencing problems with his legs in 1986, when he suffered from shin splints. In his career, he had 13 operations, including eight involving his knees. Limited by injuries, he played over 135 games just once in his final 11 seasons. Gwynn used to run a great deal to keep in shape, but his last five years were mostly limited to working out in the gym. His actual weight is generally thought to have been under-reported during the latter part of his career, when it was officially listed between .


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was a leading base stealer in the first half of his career. He was also able to hit triples, reaching double figures four times. As he became slower in later years while his body grew and his injuries mounted, Gwynn would anticipate pitchers' moves and would sometimes steal bases by breaking for second base before the pitcher started delivering the ball to the hitter. Defensively, he improved considerably and was among the best right fielders at quickly going to the line, cutting the ball off, and throwing to second base. He worked on his defense, constantly checking right field walls in ballparks to study how balls bounced off them. His running ability also helped him on defense. When he entered the majors, Gwynn was not a very good right fielder nor an accurate thrower. For a long time, he worked on his defense harder than he did his hitting. While he was a natural hitter, he was most proud of his five Gold Gloves, calling his first one from 1986 his most treasured piece of memorabilia. He became a perennial leader in outfield assists. Although his arm was not particularly strong, Gwynn learned to use his body to build momentum into his throws. In college, he could not even throw the ball from center field to second base without it hopping first.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was hard-working and renowned for his work ethic and devotion to extra batting practice. On the road, he stayed in his hotel room, studying video of his at-bats or playing video games. In an era before laptops and tablets, Gwynn bought his own video equipment and lugged it from town to town along with tapes of his games. His wife traveled with a Betamax video cassette recorder that was the size of a suitcase to tape his at-bats. Still, the Padres were the last MLB team to hire a video coordinator. Gwynn later invested in close to $100,000 in video equipment that he shared with his teammates. Few hitters were as meticulous as Gwynn with his detailed notebooks and videotape, which he spent hours studying. He studied pitchers, watching them in the bullpen and on television or video, to learn their tendencies on every count. Gwynn spent hours watching video and analyzing his swing frame by frame. He had one tape of each team, which included his at-bats against that team in the season. "Tony taught me more about hitting than I ever taught him", said Merv Rettenmund, his hitting coach for nine years with the Padres.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was friendly and accessible to both the media and fans. Even on the occasions that he began an interview tight-lipped, he almost inevitably opened up and offered abundant material. He spoke with a twang in his high-pitched voice, often filled with loud, infectious, childlike laughter. Gwynn possessed a cheerful personality, being friendly towards others while being critical of himself. He considered himself "a good player ... but I knew my place. I was not a game-changer. I was not a dominant player". His demeanor was even-keeled; Rettenmund said, "You couldn't tell if [Gwynn had] gone 3-for-3 or 0-for-3." After his father died in 1993, Gwynn followed his advice and became more outspoken and more of a team leader.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 1997, SDSU's baseball facility, Smith Stadium, was extensively renovated with $4 million from Padres owner John Moores. At Moores's request, the stadium was renamed Tony Gwynn Stadium.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame in 2002, and the team retired his No. 19 in 2004. He was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2016.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 2007, a 9½-foot (), bronze statue of Gwynn was unveiled in the park just beyond Petco Park's outfield in an area named Tony Gwynn Plaza. The address of Petco Park is 19 Tony Gwynn Drive.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 2014, the Mountain West Conference posthumously renamed its baseball Player of the Year Award to the Tony Gwynn Award. At the 2016 All-Star Game in San Diego, MLB announced that the annual winner of the NL batting title would be known henceforth as the "Tony Gwynn National League Batting Champion".


title: Tony Gwynn

text: On January 9, 2007, Gwynn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, being selected on 532 out of 545 ballots (97.61%), the seventh highest percentage in Hall of Fame voting history. He was relieved that he did not exceed Tom Seaver's record of 98.8 percent. Gwynn considered his selection to be validation for the value of contact hitters, who are not as celebrated as power hitters. He was inducted alongside Cal Ripken Jr. on July 29, 2007. Ripken and Gwynn are two of the 46 players in the Hall of Fame who played their entire major league career for only one team. Both were elected almost unanimously in their first year of eligibility.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: The Gwynn-Ripken induction weekend was notable for a number of attendance records, which were announced during the ceremony. 14,000 people visited the Hall of Fame Museum on July 28, a record number for a single-day. Baseball attendance for all games played on July 28 also set a single-day record. The induction ceremony also had the greatest collection of Hall of Famers present, 53 of the 61 living members. A record crowd estimated at 75,000 attended the induction ceremony, shattering the previous record of 25,000 in 1999. In 2002, Gwynn was also inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface. A week before his induction, Gwynn appeared on a Wheaties box.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was a 15-time All-Star, voted 11 times by fans to be a starter. He accumulated 3,141 hits and a career batting average of .338, and hit .371 in two World Series. Gwynn was often lauded for his artistry at the plate, and his Hall of Fame plaque refers to him as "an artisan with the bat". "The New York Times" called him "arguably the best pure hitter of his generation". Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, against whom Gwynn had more hits than any other pitcher, called him "the best pure hitter in the game. Easily". A 1997 "Sports Illustrated" cover declared Gwynn as "The Best Hitter Since Ted Williams". Gwynn won eight NL batting titles, tying him with Honus Wagner for the league record— second only to all-time Major League leader Ty Cobb, who won 12 AL titles. He finished in the top 10 in batting for 15 consecutive seasons. From 1984 though 1997, he finished in the top five in all but one season (1990), when he missed it by one hit. He recorded five of the 14 highest season averages since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Gwynn hit above .300 in an NL-record 19 consecutive seasons, exceeded only by Cobb (23). The only season Gwynn failed to bat .300 was his first, when he hit .289 in 54 games. Seven times he batted over .350, the most of any player since World War II. He was just the fourth player in MLB history to hit above .350 for five consecutive years. During that span (1993–1997), which was preceded by his first meeting with Williams, Gwynn averaged .368 while leading the league each season except 1993, when he hit .358 to finish second. The four consecutive NL batting titles he won starting in 1994 had not been matched since Rogers Hornsby won six straight beginning in 1920. Gwynn is the only major leaguer to win four batting titles each in two separate decades, and he batted .351 over his final 10 seasons. Six times he led the NL in both batting average and hits in a season, and five times he reached the 200-hit milestone.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn's .338 career average is the highest of any player who began his career after World War II, and ranks 17th all-time; he and Williams are the only ones of the top-17 to play after 1938. Gwynn had the fourth-highest career average of any player with 3,000 hits, and the highest of anyone who was born after 1900. Playing in an era when around 75 batters struck out 100 times in a season, Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times a year. He had eight seasons, including six consecutive, when he had fewer than 20 strikeouts. Ten times in his career he finished the season as the hardest player in the NL to strike out. Since 1975, Gwynn is one of only two players that batted .300 in a season while striking out at most once every 25 at-bats. He struck out only 434 times in his whole career, which averaged out to just once every 21 at-bats, or 29 times per 162 games. He became more difficult to strike out later in his career, even as pitchers were growing bigger and stronger and throwing harder. He struck out three times in a game just once in his career, compared to his 297 career three-hit games. Gwynn is one of five players with more than 500 doubles and fewer than 500 strikeouts in their career and the only Hall of Famer since 1965 to finish his career with more doubles than strikeouts. He did not draw many walks, but drew more walks than strikeouts in every season but his rookie year. Though he was not considered a power hitter, opposing managers chose to intentionally walk him nonetheless. He drew 203 intentional passes during his career, which was 50 percent more than his career home run total.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was solid on defense, and won five Gold Gloves in a six-year span. He stole 318 bases in his career, with a high of 56 and a four-year stretch when he averaged 40. Only four players in MLB history had 300 steals and a career batting average of at least .338; Gwynn was the only one of the four to have played since 1928. He was also just the 10th player to retire with over 3,000 hits and 300 steals. Gwynn in 1999 was the first National League player to reach 3,000 hits since Lou Brock in August 1979. Seven American Leaguers reached the mark after Brock and before Gwynn; all but one played at least 400 games as a designated hitter. An NL player could not be a DH until 1997, when it was allowed for the few interleague games that were played in AL parks. Just six of Gwynn's first 3,000 hits came as a designated hitter. "If you want to do it in the National League, you have to play a position", he said. "It's been 20 years since anybody has been able to do it. That tells you how tough it is to do it in this league."


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was the 11th player to collect all 3,000 hits with one team. George Brett of the Kansas City Royals and Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers were the last to achieve the milestone for one team in 1992. He played his entire career for San Diego, a rarity for his generation in an era of free agency. "In this era it doesn't happen. It takes a little bit of loyalty and luck. It also takes the organization wanting a player to stay with the club", said Gwynn. He regularly took less money to keep his family rooted in San Diego, which prompted criticism from the MLBPA for his setting a lower market value for other star hitters. Gwynn earned $47 million as player, but never received more than $6.3 million in a season, nor signed a contract valued over $12.25 million. Only 17 MLB players have played at least 20 seasons with one club. He is widely considered the greatest Padres player ever. "There's simply no bigger figure in baseball that San Diego's ever had", said former teammate Trevor Hoffman. "The San Diego Union-Tribune" placed Gwynn No. 1 in their 2014 ranking of the city's most influential sports figures. He eschewed the added fame that might have come from playing elsewhere, opting instead to stay with the small-market team that had just seven winning seasons and three playoff appearances during his two decades with them. Gwynn transcended sports and became a civic icon. "It's rare, and becoming rarer, that one man is so identified with a franchise and a city as Tony is with San Diego and the Padres", said political columnist and baseball writer George Will. "Grantland" called him "quite simply, one of the most beloved figures in the history of the city of San Diego."


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn's career paralleled that of Wade Boggs, who also debuted in the major leagues in 1982. Gwynn and Boggs were the premier contact hitters in an era dominated by home runs. They both won multiple batting titles—Gwynn's eight to Boggs's five—and each won four straight to join Cobb, Hornsby, and Carew as the only players to do so. Gwynn and Boggs each hit over .350 in four straight seasons, the only players to do so since 1931. They joined Brock and Carew as the only players whose careers ended after World War II who finished with 3,000 hits and fewer than 160 home runs. Gwynn, though, had a career slugging percentage of .459, higher than comparable contemporaries such as Boggs, Brock, Carew, and Rose. Among that group, he had more RBIs (1,138) than everyone but Rose.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Nicknamed "Captain Video", Gwynn used video to study his swing before it became common in baseball. When he began the practice in 1983, MLB teams were years away from using video for scouting. Hoffman said that Gwynn "revolutionized video in baseball". Gwynn prospered during the steroid era of baseball. While other players were transforming their physiques over a single offseason, his body grew pudgier and rounder. Though no longer the base stealer or defensive player he was early in his career, he continued to excel as a hitter. From 1995 through 2001, Gwynn hit a major league leading .350 while power hitters were recording the six highest single-season home run totals in MLB history.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn placed in the top 10 in voting for the National League MVP seven times in his career, including his only top-five finish in 1984, when he ended up third. In 2005, "Sporting News" ranked Gwynn No. 57 on the list of their 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and he was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. However, Gwynn's significance is muted by the non-traditional measurements in sabermetrics, which tends to favor power and the ability to get on base over batting average. As of 2014, his career 65.0 WAR ranked 34th among outfielders, and a few above him had not yet been voted into the Hall of Fame. While he had a first-rate on-base percentage of .388, he was one of only four players to hit .335 or more who did not have career .400 OBP. During his career, he finished in the top-10 in the NL in OBP 10 times. Gwynn's run production was another rap against him. He exceeded 90 RBIs in a season just once, when he had 119 in 1997, but he batted .349 in his career with runners in scoring position. "He was devastating with runners in scoring position. Impossible", former player Eric Davis said.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Despite his fame, Gwynn was renowned for his dignity and modesty. He was honored for his character and humanitarianism with the 1995 Branch Rickey Award, the 1998 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award and the 1999 Roberto Clemente Award, which "USA Today" called "baseball's Triple Crown of humanity and kindness". Tom Verducci of SI.com called Gwynn "an ambassador not just for the game of baseball but for mankind". Commissioner Selig called Gwynn "the greatest Padre ever and one of the most accomplished hitters that our game has ever known, whose all-around excellence on the field was surpassed by his exuberant personality and genial disposition in life".


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Following his playing career, Gwynn was the baseball head coach at SDSU for 12 seasons, compiling a 363–363 record including three Mountain West Conference championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances. During his last season playing for the Padres in 2001, he lobbied for the coaching position after Jim Dietz announced he would step down after the 2002 season. In September 2001, Gwynn signed a three-year contract with his alma mater to be an unpaid volunteer coach for 2002 with a base salary of $100,000 starting in 2003. In the five-year period 2007–2011, the baseball team was penalized with a reduction in scholarships for failing to meet the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate. However, Gwynn's teams improved their academic performance for the five years ending in 2012. The Aztecs finished .500 or better in five of Gwynn's final seven seasons, and they qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times in his final six seasons. As the Aztecs' coach, Gwynn oversaw the development of future major leaguers such as Justin Masterson and Stephen Strasburg, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn's bout with cancer caused him to miss time intermittently. He missed the start of the 2012 season after undergoing surgery, and missed games in 2013 while involved with a clinical trial. Days before his death in June 2014, he was given a one-year contract extension although he had been on a leave of absence since March while recovering from cancer treatment.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was also a broadcaster, working as a game and studio analyst for ESPN. He also worked postseason games on TBS, and served as an expert analyst for Yahoo! Sports. He also served as color analyst for Padres games on Channel 4 in San Diego and later Fox Sports San Diego.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In May 2012, Gwynn joined a group led by movie producer Thomas Tull to bid on purchasing the Padres from Moores. Gwynn had no financial stake in the group, and Tull withdrew his bid in June.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn was married to Alicia Gwynn, and was the father of R&B singer Anisha Nicole and major league outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr., whose major league debut (with the Milwaukee Brewers) and first major league hit on July 19, 2006, came 24 years to the day after his father's first major league hit—each Gwynn hit a double. Gwynn's brother, Chris, was also a major league outfielder. Both Chris and Tony Jr. played with the Padres during their careers. Until Gwynn's death he split time between homes in Poway, California, and Fishers, Indiana.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: Gwynn had three procedures to remove noncancerous growths from his parotid gland beginning in 1997. In 2010, he was diagnosed with cancer of a salivary gland and had lymph nodes and tumors from the gland removed. The operation left his face partially paralyzed on the right side, leaving him unable to smile. Later that year, he underwent eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He was declared cancer free afterwards, and also regained his ability to smile. Additional surgery was performed in 2012 to remove more cancerous growth and address nerve damage. Gwynn attributed the cancer to the dipping tobacco habit that he had since playing rookie ball in Walla Walla in 1981. Doctors, however, stated that studies had not linked parotid cancer with use of chewing tobacco.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: After his playing career ended, Gwynn's weight peaked at , and he underwent adjustable gastric banding surgery in 2009 in an attempt to lose weight. He did not closely adhere to the diet, and his weight loss began to stall. In 2010, his weight problem led to a slipped disc in his back that affected a nerve down his leg. He needed a walker before he had the damaged disc removed to cure the pain while walking. Later, he experienced a loss of taste for food during radiation therapy for his cancer, and while being limited to a liquid diet, he lost , all of which he regained after he resumed eating solid foods.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: During another round of cancer treatments in April 2014, a mishap occurred in which Gwynn lost oxygen and was barely able to move. He was sent to rehabilitation to learn how to walk again. On June 16, 2014, Gwynn died at Pomerado Hospital in Poway of complications from his cancer. He was 54 years old. The night before, on Father's Day, he had gone into cardiac arrest, and he was rushed from his home to the hospital.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: A public memorial service was held for Gwynn at Petco Park on June 26, 2014. The service was attended by 23,229 fans, who heard tributes to Gwynn from baseball and civic leaders, and from Gwynn's family.


title: Tony Gwynn

text: In 2018, Gwynn's family reached a confidential settlement with the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company after filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the company in 2016, charging that Gwynn had become "hopelessly addicted" to its products.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Mars, commonly known as Mars bar, is the name of two varieties of chocolate bar produced by Mars, Incorporated. It was first manufactured in 1932 in Slough, England by Forrest Mars, Sr. The bar consists of caramel and nougat coated with milk chocolate.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: An American version of the Mars bar was produced which had nougat and toasted almonds covered in milk chocolate; later, caramel was added to the recipe as well. The American version was discontinued in 2002, then revived in a slightly different form the following year under the name "Snickers Almond".


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In most of the world, a Mars bar is a chocolate bar with nougat and caramel, coated with milk chocolate, but without almonds. In the United States, it is marketed as the Milky Way bar.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: It was first manufactured in Slough, England under the Mars bar name in 1932 by Forrest Mars, Sr., son of American candy maker Frank C. Mars. He modelled it after his father's Milky Way bar, which was already popular in the US, adjusting the recipe to better suit European tastes. He had a staff of twelve people, and originally advertised it as using Cadbury's chocolate couverture. The bar and the proportions of the main components have changed over the years. With minor variations, this version is sold worldwide, except for the US, and is packaged in a black wrapper with red gold-edged lettering. Three million Mars bars accompanied the British task force to the Falklands in 1982.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In 2002, the Mars bar was reformulated and its logo was updated with a more cursive appearance except in Australia where it still has the pre-2002 logo. Its price also increased. The nougat was made lighter, the chocolate on top became thinner, and the overall weight of the bar was reduced slightly. The slogan "Pleasure you can't measure" was intended to appeal more to women and youths.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Various sizes are made (sizes as of 2008): miniature bars called "Fun Size" (19.7 g) and "Snack Time" (36.5 g) (both sold in multiple packs); a larger multi-pack size of 54 g; the regular sized single 58 g bar and a "king-size" 84 g bar which has since been replaced by "Mars Duo" (85 g) – a pack that contains 2 smaller bars of 42.5 g each instead of 1 large one. The regular 58 g single bar contains 260 calories.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In the second half of 2008, Mars UK reduced the weight of regular bars from 62.5 g to 58 g. Although the reduction in size was not publicised at the time, Mars claimed the change was designed to help tackle the obesity crisis in the UK. The company later confirmed that the real reason for the change was rising costs. In 2013, the "standard" Mars bar was further reduced to 51 g, bringing the change to around 20% in 5 years.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In May 2009, the Mars bar size reduced from 60g to 53g in Australia, citing portion sizes and the obesity debate as the primary driver. As of 2022, it was noted the Mars bar size has been reduced further to 47g in Australia.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In the United States, the Mars bar is a candy bar with nougat and toasted almonds coated with milk chocolate. The same candy bar is known outside the United States as a Mars Almond bar. Originally it did not have caramel, but at some point caramel was added to it. It was discontinued in 2002, relaunched in January 2010 (initially exclusively through Walmart stores), discontinued again at the end of 2011, and relaunched again in September 2016 by Ethel M, the gourmet chocolate subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. The 2016 version is the "original American recipe", which doesn't have caramel. It's available in their stores and on Amazon.com.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In 2003, the company introduced a replacement called Snickers Almond. It's similar to the Mars bar, containing nougat, almonds, caramel, and a milk chocolate coating, although there are some differences. For example, the almonds are in smaller pieces in Snickers Almond than in the Mars bar.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: The European version of the Mars bar is also sold in some United States grocery stores that stock imported food products.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: The Original Mars bar in "Believe" packaging was sold in the UK from 18 April 2006 until the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in July. "Believe" took prominence on the packaging ("Original Mars" appeared in smaller print) to indicate support for the England national football team. Advertising in other nations of the UK was tailored to reflect their own teams after public condemnation, although in Scotland the "Believe" packaging was still used – causing negative publicity.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: On 30 July 2008, the Tasmanian government announced that it had secured a major sponsor, Mars for a bid to enter the Australian Football League in a deal worth $4 million over 3 years and will temporarily change the name of its top-selling chocolate bar in Australia to Believe, to help promote Tasmania's cause.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Mars were re-branded "Hopp" ("Go!" in English) in Switzerland during UEFA Euro 2008. Like the "Believe" packaging sold in the UK in 2006, "Original Mars" was also shown in smaller print.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In 2010, to promote England's involvement in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the background of the UK Mars packaging became the St. George cross.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: This is a Mars bar which has been coated with batter and deep-fried in oil or beef fat. First reports of battered Mars bars being sold in Stonehaven, Scotland date back to 1995. The product is "not authorised or endorsed" by Mars, Inc.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Deep-fried Mars bars are available from some fish-and-chip shops in the UK (mainly in Scotland), Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and the United States.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: A similar dish has reportedly appeared in Kathmandu, Nepal where momo (dumplings) have used Mars bars as fillings, though this variation is unknown to the larger population of momo eaters.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In July 2005, Mars bars, along with the Snickers bar, were recalled due to an anonymous extortion attempt against Star City Casino in Sydney. The extortionist claimed to have poisoned seven Mars and Snickers bars at random stores in New South Wales. As a result, Masterfoods Corporation, the company that manufactures Mars bars in Australia, recalled the entire Mars and Snickers product from store shelves in New South Wales. In the later half of August 2005, the threat to the public was deemed negligible and the bars returned to shelves.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In February 2016, Mars, Snickers and various other Mars, Inc. chocolate products were recalled in 55 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The precautionary recall was issued after a customer found pieces of plastic in a Snickers bar purchased in Germany. The error was traced back to a Mars, Inc. factory in Veghel, The Netherlands.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: In May 2007, Mars UK announced that Mars bars, along with many of their other products such as Snickers, Maltesers, Minstrels and Twix would no longer be suitable for vegetarians because of the introduction of rennet, a chemical sourced from calves' stomachs used in the production of whey.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: The decision was condemned by several groups, with the Vegetarian Society stating that "at a time when more and more consumers are concerned about the provenance of their food, Mars' decision to use non-vegetarian whey is a backward step".


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Mars later abandoned these plans, stating that it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: It has been observed on several occasions that the price of a Mars bar correlates fairly accurately with the change in value of the pound sterling since World War II, much in the way that the Big Mac Index has proven to be a good indicator of the actual relative purchasing power of world currencies.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: Northern Irish pop-punk band The Undertones wrote and recorded a song called "Mars Bars", released as a B-side in 1979.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: 1960s Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers were originally known as Gerry Marsden and the Mars Bars before changing their name due to the objection of Mars, Incorporated.


title: Mars (chocolate bar)

text: The 1990 Newbery Medal winning novel "Maniac Magee" features a character named "Mars Bar" Thompson, his nickname given for his recognition of eating Mars Bars (his real first name is never revealed).


title: GeoGuessr

text: GeoGuessr is a geographical browser game created by Anton Wallén in which players guess locations from street view imagery. It was launched in May 2013. The game features multiple game modes for both singleplayer and multiplayer competitions.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The game has been described as an educational tool for geography; by playing, players can learn location-specific characteristics such as writing systems, soil types, or flora.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The "classic" "GeoGuessr" game mode consists of five rounds, each showing a different street view location. The player scores more points (to a maximum of 5,000) depending on how close to the actual photo location they guess. Games may be user-generated or random.


title: GeoGuessr

text: Alternative game modes include "Battle Royale", a multiplayer last man standing game; duels, a two-player head-to-head competition; streaks, where players identify countries, U.S. states, or world cities until they guess incorrectly; and explorer mode, a single-player game where medals are awarded for accuracy in individual countries.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The game's HUD primarily features the Google Street View imagery, as well as a compass. Users can control the movement, panning, and zooming of the image, although "GeoGuessr" allows any of these features to be disabled for harder gameplay. An inset map, using Google Maps's standard overlay, allows players to place a pin to make their guess.


title: GeoGuessr

text: Users may interpret their location from the photographs by reading road signage, finding the relative position of the Sun, identifying flora and soil types, and learning diacritics specific to particular writing systems. Players can also make use of Street View metadata to ascertain their location – for example, the Street View vehicle that captured imagery in Kruger National Park was unique in that it was green and had white roof racks.


title: GeoGuessr

text: "GeoGuessr" has both free and paid (subscription) memberships. The free mode restricts users to 5 minutes' game play every 15 minutes. Paid memberships are 2.99 per month.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The game was designed by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallén in 2013. Wallen loved to visit faraway locations on Google Street View, and initially designed a program to generate a random location in Street View before deciding to add a competitive element.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The game's development took approximately 2 weeks' work, and uses the Backbone.js JavaScript library and the Google Maps API for games using Google Street View. Wallén posted the completed game to Google Chrome Experiments on 10 May 2013.


title: GeoGuessr

text: As well as English, the game is available in eight other languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Mobile apps for "GeoGuessr" are available on the Android and iOS platforms.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The launch of the game in May 2013 was described as successful, with the game instantly going viral. Upon its release, the game was described as "insanely addictive." The start of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a renewed interest in the game and it also had a second peak in March 2021. Interest in the game has been propagated on platforms such as Reddit, YouTube and Twitch, where notable users such as Ludwig, Georainbolt, and GeoWizard have recorded or streamed themselves playing the game.


title: GeoGuessr

text: The game has been cited as an educational tool by helping users to "develop critical skills to analyze geographical and cultural landscapes", and it has been suggested that the game could enhance geographical education within the classroom.


title: GeoGuessr

text: "GeoGuessr" users have criticised some of the photographic coverage used in the game. Locations such as Zanzibar used third-party and unofficial imagery, and "GeoGuessr" players have described some of this media as grainy, blurry, and over- or under-exposed. World Travel in 360, the organisation that led the programme to supply coverage of Zanzibar, stated that "[their] mapping is better than nothing".


title: Crime in New York City

text: Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s. They have spiked ever since the post-war period. The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged, and then declined continuously through the 2000s.


title: Crime in New York City

text: During the 1990s, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) adopted CompStat, broken windows policing, and other strategies in a major effort to reduce crime. The resulting drop in crimes thereafter has been variously attributed to a number of factors, including the end of the crack epidemic, the increased incarceration rate nationwide, gentrification, an aging population, and the decline of lead poisoning in children.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Organized crime has long been associated with New York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the Roach Guards gangs in the Five Points area of Manhattan in the 1820s.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In 1835, the "New York Herald" was established by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., who helped looprevolutionize journalism by covering stories that appeal to the masses including crime reporting. When Helen Jewett was murdered on April 10, 1836, Bennett did innovative on-the-scene investigation and reporting and helped bring the story to national attention.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Peter Cooper, at the request of the Common Council, drew up a proposal to create a police force of 1,200 officers. The state legislature approved the proposal on May 7, 1844, and abolished the nightwatch system. Under Mayor William Havemeyer, the police force reorganized and officially established itself on May 13, 1845, as the New York Police Department (NYPD). The new system divided the city into three districts and set up courts, magistrates, clerks, and station houses.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Helen Jewett was an upscale New York City prostitute whose 1836 murder, along with the subsequent trial and acquittal of her alleged killer, Richard P. Robinson, generated an unprecedented amount of media coverage.


title: Crime in New York City

text: The murder of Mary Rogers in 1841 was heavily covered by the press, which also put the spotlight on the ineptitude and corruption in the city's watchmen system of law enforcement. At the time, New York City's population of 320,000 was served by an archaic force, consisting of one night watch, one hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables, and fifty-one police officers.


title: Crime in New York City

text: The New York City draft riots in July 1863 were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of working-class discontention with new laws passed by the U. S. Congress during that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil insurrection in American history (with 119 to 120 fatalities) aside from the Civil War itself.


title: Crime in New York City

text: President Abraham Lincoln was forced to divert several regiments of militia and volunteer troops from following up after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly working-class men, primarily ethnic Irish, resenting particularly that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 ($5,555 in 2014 dollars) commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, mainly but not exclusively Irish immigrants, attacking blacks wherever they could be found. At least 11 blacks are estimated to have been killed. The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the East, stated on July 16 that, "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it." The military did not reach the city until after the first day of rioting, when mobs had already ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathizers, many black homes, and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In 1870, the Orange Riots were incited by Irish Protestants celebrating the Battle of the Boyne with parades through predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhoods. In the resulting police action, 63 citizens, mostly Irish, were killed.


title: Crime in New York City

text: The Tompkins Square Riot occurred on January 13, 1874, when police violently suppressed a demonstration involving thousands of people in Tompkins Square Park.


title: Crime in New York City

text: "Freakonomics" authors Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner attribute the drop in crime to the legalization of abortion in the 1970s, as they suggest that many would-be neglected children and criminals were never born. On the other hand, Malcolm Gladwell provides a different explanation in his book "The Tipping Point"; he argues that crime was an "epidemic" and a small reduction by the police was enough to "tip" the balance. Another theory is that widespread exposure to lead pollution from automobile exhaust, which can lower intelligence and increase aggression levels, incited the initial crime wave in the mid-20th century, most acutely affecting heavily trafficked cities like New York. A strong correlation was found demonstrating that violent crime rates in New York and other big cities began to fall after lead was removed from American gasoline in the 1970s.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In the 20th century, notorious New York-based mobsters Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano made headlines. The century's later decades are more famous for Mafia prosecutions (and prosecutors like Rudolph Giuliani) than for the influence of the Five Families.


title: Crime in New York City

text: The Bloods, Crips and MS-13 gangs of Los Angeles arrived in the city in the 1980s, but gained notoriety when they appeared on Rikers Island in 1993 to fight off the already established Latin Kings gang.


title: Crime in New York City

text: From the 1990s until their 2013 arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a sting operation, an Orthodox Jewish gang led by Mendel Epstein and Martin Wolmark kidnapped and tortured a number of Jewish men from Borough Park and Midwood, Brooklyn in troubled marriages to force them into granting religious divorces to their wives, some of whom Epstein charged up to $100,000 to commit the crimes.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Crime on the New York City Subway reached a peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the city's subway having a crime rate higher than that of any other mass transit system in the world. During the 2000s, the subway had a lower crime rate, as crime started dropping in the 1990s. Since the 2010s however, crimes on the subway has been on an upward trend once again.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Various approaches have been used to fight crime. A 2012 initiative by the MTA to prevent crime is to ban people who commit one in the subway system from entering it for a certain length of time.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In the 1960s, mayor Robert Wagner ordered an increase in the Transit Police force from 1,219 to 3,100 officers. During the hours at which crimes most frequently occurred (between 8:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.), the officers went on patrol in all stations and trains. In response, crime rates decreased, as extensively reported by the press.


title: Crime in New York City

text: However, as a consequence of the city's 1976 fiscal crisis, service had become poor and crime had gone up, with crime being announced on the subway almost every day. Additionally, there were 11 "crimes against the infrastructure" in open cut areas of the subway in 1977, where TA staff were injured, some seriously. There were other rampant crimes as well. For example, in the first two weeks of December 1977, "Operation Subway Sweep" resulted in the arrest of over 200 robbery suspects. Passengers were afraid of crime, fed up with long waits for trains that were shortened to save money and upset over the general malfunctioning of the system. The subway also had many dark subway cars. Further compounding the issue, on July 13, 1977, a blackout cut off electricity to most of the city and to Westchester. Due to a sudden increase in violent crimes on the subway in the last week of 1978, police statistics about crime in the subway were being questioned. In 1979, six murders on the subway occurred in the first two months of the year, compared to nine during the entire previous year. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line was known to be frequented by muggers, so in February 1979, a group headed by Curtis Sliwa began unarmed patrols of the train during the night time, in an effort to discourage crime. They were known as the Guardian Angels, and would eventually expand their operations into other parts of the five boroughs. By February 1980, the Guardian Angels' ranks numbered 220.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In March 1979, Mayor Ed Koch asked the city's top law enforcement officials to devise a plan to counteract rising subway violence and to stop insisting that the subways were safer than the streets. Two weeks after Koch's request, top TA cops were publicly requesting Transit Police Chief Sanford Garelik's resignation because they claimed that he had lost control of the fight against subway crime. Finally, on September 11, 1979, Garelik was fired, and replaced with Deputy Chief of Personnel James B. Meehan, reporting directly to City Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire. Garelik continued in his role of chief of security for the MTA. By September 1979, around 250 felonies per week (or about 13,000 that year) were being recorded on the subway, making the crime rate the most of any other mass transit network anywhere in the world. Some police officers supposedly could not act upon the quality of life crimes and were only to look for violent crimes.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Meehan had claimed to be able to, along with 2,300 police officers, "provide sufficient protection to straphangers", but Sliwa had brought a group together to act upon crime, so that between March 1979 and March 1980, felonies per day dropped from 261 to 154. However, overall crime grew by 70% between 1979 and 1980.


title: Crime in New York City

text: On the IRT Pelham Line in 1980, a sharp rise in window-smashing on subway cars caused $2 million in damages; it spread to other lines during the course of the year. When the broken windows were discovered in trains that were still in service, they needed to be taken out of service, causing additional delays; in August 1980 alone, 775 vandalism-related delays were reported. Vandalism of subway cars, including windows, continued through the mid-1980s; between January 27 and February 2, 1985, 1,129 pieces of glass were replaced on subway cars on the , , , , and K trains. Often, bus transfers, sold on the street for 50 cents, were also sold illegally, mainly at subway-to-bus transfer hubs. Mayor Koch even proposed to put a subway court in the Times Square subway station to speed up arraignments, as there were so many subway-related crimes by then. Meanwhile, high-ranking senior City Hall and transit officials considered raising the fare from 60 to 65 cents to fund additional transit police officers, who began to ride the subway during late nights (between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m.) owing to a sharp increase in crime in 1982. Operation High Visibility commenced in June 1985, had this program extended to 6 a.m., and a police officer was to be present on every train in the system during that time.


title: Crime in New York City

text: On January 20, 1982, MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch told the business group Association for a Better New York that he would not let his teenage sons ride the subway at night, and that even he, as the subway chairman, was nervous riding the trains. The MTA began to discuss how the ridership issue could be fixed, but by October 1982, mostly due to fears about transit crime, poor subway performance, and some economic factors, ridership on the subway was at extremely low levels matching 1917 ridership. Within less than ten years, the MTA had lost around 300 million passengers, mainly because of fears of crime. In July 1985, the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City published a study showing this trend, fearing the frequent robberies and generally bad circumstances. As a result, the "Fixing Broken Windows" policy, which proposed to stop large-profile crimes by prosecuting quality of life crimes, was implemented. Along this line of thinking, the MTA began a five-year program to eradicate graffiti from subway trains in 1984.


title: Crime in New York City

text: To attract passengers, the TA tried to introduce the "Train to the Plane", a service staffed by a transit police officer 24/7. This was discontinued in 1990 due to low ridership and malfunctioning equipment.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In 1989, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked the transit police (then located within the NYCTA) to focus on minor offenses such as fare evasion. In the early nineties, the NYCTA adopted similar policing methods for Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. When in 1993, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir were elected to official positions, the Broken Windows strategy was more widely deployed in New York under the rubrics of "zero tolerance" and "quality of life". Crime rates in the subway and city dropped, prompting "New York" magazine to declare "The End of Crime as We Know It" on the cover of its edition of August 14, 1995. Giuliani's campaign credited the success to the zero-tolerance policy. The extent to which his policies deserve the credit is disputed. Incoming New York City Police Department Commissioner William J. Bratton and author of "Fixing Broken Windows", George L. Kelling, however, stated the police played an "important, even central, role" in the declining crime rates. The trend continued and Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg, stated in a November 2004 press release that "Today, the subway system is safer than it has been at any time since we started tabulating subway crime statistics nearly 40 years ago."


title: Crime in New York City

text: Shoving attacks has become a noticeable problem ever since the 2000s, leading to multiple murders, as the subway lacks platform screen doors. In 2022, the New York City subway chief told commuters to stay off the platform edge as much as possible. The MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber stated that are also looking into "making changes to subway platforms", and that "these (shoving) incidents are unacceptable and have to stop." In 2022, the MTA announced that it will be trialing platform doors at three subway stations.


title: Crime in New York City

text: Two cases in 2011 – those of Bob Oliva and Ernie Lorch – have both centered in highly ranked youth basketball programs sponsored by churches of different denominations. In early 2011, Oliva, a long-time basketball coach at Christ the King Regional High School, was accused of two cases of child sexual abuse.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In Manhattan, Father Bruce Ritter, founder of Covenant House, was forced to resign in 1990 after accusations that he had engaged in financial improprieties and had engaged in sexual relations with several youth in the care of the charity.


title: Crime in New York City

text: In December 2012, the president of the Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva University apologized over allegations that two rabbis at the college's high school campus abused boys there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.