Tony Gwynn left a mark on just about everyone involved with baseball in any way, shape or form.
Padres legend Tony Gwynn passes away at age 54 - SBNation.com
Included within the link are several wonderful tribute pieces from the likes of David Roth, Grant Brisbee, Jon Bois, and the Gaslamp Ball staff on the life and death of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Also, the Tigers and Mariners honored Gwynn in wonderfully unique ways, as you'll see at the top of the stream.
As a side note, I had the tremendous opportunity of interviewing Gwynn back in 2011. It was my very first player interview and, like the author of the next link, reaffirmed my thoughts about wanting to pursue a career in baseball writing. What you don't see in the transcript or hear in the audio version of my interview is the near-20-minute off-the-record conversation I had with Tony, who clearly had better things to do than entertain the curiosity of a blogger but graciously chose to do so anyway. The thing I'll remember the most about my discussion with him was this word of encouragement:
"Whatever it is you want to accomplish, set that goal for yourself and don't let anything get in the way. You wouldn't be doing this right now if you weren't meant for it."
Renck: Tony Gwynn was as great in interviews as he was at the plate - The Denver Post
Troy Renck has a heartfelt piece on the life of "Mr. Padre," with some great quotes from longtime Rockie Dante Bichette.
Rockies links
Baseball Prospectus | The 2012 Redraft
The BP folks redid the 2012 draft. In this make-believe scenario, the Rockies would have taken Dodgers infield prospect Corey Seager with the No. 10 overall pick. The player Colorado actually did take in the first round that year, David Dahl, fell all the way down to ... No. 11. Eddie Butler, the No. 46 overall pick in 2012, was redrafted at No. 13. And, to further illustrate how successful that draft was for Colorado, Tom Murphy was redrafted at No. 21. He was the 105th overall selection that year.
MLB Power Rankings - Major League Baseball - ESPN
Despite their weekend sweep in San Francisco, the Rockies dropped a spot in ESPN's
On the 15th day of June, the Rockies somehow gave to me ... a five-game winning streak! Four starting pitchers injured, no Cargo, sore toe for Tulo and a Rutledge hitting quite sweet. All caroling aside, if the Rockies can tread water until the team gets healthy, it'll be a merry season indeed.
Hawkins stays focused regardless of situation | Rockies.com: News
LaTroy Hawkins is having a pretty good season as the Rockies' closer, especially when considering how inconsistently he's being used as a result of the team's wavering performance over the last few weeks. Thomas Harding has some good quotes from the 41-year-old right-hander, who is the subject of our daily Scaling the Rocks post, which will be up a little bit later on today.
Rockies Review - A Colorado Rockies Blog: Tyler Matzek can't duplicate debut as Colorado Rockies bats fall short in Los Angeles
David Martin says there's no need to worry about Matzek's step back last night, citing a myriad of factors that were working against the 23-year-old southpaw.
Tuesday Trivia
This one is a doozy (remember, last names work!):