I smiled as I drove down Tony Gwynn Way outside of Petco Park. Anytime I heard Gwynn’s voice — he had a country music singer’s twang — in the press box, I headed in that direction.

Note how Gwynn patiently and thoughtfully answers each question in this 11:36 interview, which is an eternity for a big star. Yesterday, I did a post on writers recalling Gwynn.

Seeing as how Gwynn happened to be perhaps the greatest hitter of the second half of the 20th century not named Ted Williams, I was most definitely going through the SID to track him down.

I had interviewed Tony a few days before the strike began, ending his bid to reach the .400 batting average last achieved in 1947 by baseball titan and Tony’s idol Ted Williams.

A mourner places flowers at the base of the Tony Gwynn "Mr. Padre" statue outside Petco Park Monday in San Diego. Gwynn, an eight time National League batting champion and a member of Baseball ...

Tony, fittingly, ranks 19th all-time. Gwynn had just passed 2,300 career hits earlier that week. He was still well short of 3,000, but he could see it on the horizon.

San Diego State baseball coach and Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn does a TV interview Feb. 13, 2014,after undergoing treatments for oral cancer. (FOX5 News/San Diego) It's not hard to understand why so ...

SAN DIEGO — Tony Gwynn was so much more than baseball. Exactly 15 years to the date of his death Monday, I met Tony for the first time. I was born and raised in San Diego as a huge baseball fan.

This was Tony Gwynn, with 15 All-Star Game appearances, five Gold Gloves and seven Silver Slugger Awards. And cancer. I learned he was coaching with bandages wrapped around his head and neck.

Weak from the oral cancer that would kill him, Tony Gwynn found enough energy to provide a warning for a video aimed at convincing baseball players to avoid smokeless or "spit" tobacco.

The Union-Tribune brings it back today on what would have been Tony Gwynn’s 64th birthday. There was a most welcome interruption during spring cleaning of the garage a few weeks ago.