On July 29th, 2007, Tony Gwynn makes his Hall of Fame speech.
Yesterday, the MLB channel on YouTube uploaded quite a few Hall of Fame acceptance speeches. One of them happened to belong to Mr. Padre himself, Tony Gwynn.
I myself have never seen it. I know, how can this be possible? But, it's true. I've never seen the Hall of Fame induction speech before right now as I type this. I'm 9 minutes in and Tony was already worried about wearing brown. I'm going to like this.
Now, I really don't know what to say here. This is one of those instances that words down here can not do justice to the words above in that video. For me, it is nice to see this speech. Nice to know he is getting the honor he deserved. Yet, in a way, it is strange to truly enjoy it because there was so much of his career that I was not around for.
In 1996, I started to enjoy baseball and go to games a few times a year. Walking into Jack Murphy Stadium, I knew I was going to enjoy myself. That's when I first saw Tony Gwynn on the field. He was hitting like no one else out there and I was impressed. And he was 36. By the time I was able to enjoy the greatness that is Tony Gwynn, he was 14 years into his Hall of Fame career. 14 years of playing a game he loved that I never saw. But, during the final 6 years he walked onto the field, I enjoyed watching him play. It was nice to see him out there from 1996-2001, but watching this speech right now, I know that I missed out on a lot of things. At least now I know that I can add this speech to things I have not missed.
If you haven't seen Tony Gwynn's speech, go ahead and check it out. It's quite a treat. And if you have seen it, watch it again. It's worth it.
