Courtesy of MCT Campus

Tony Gwynn is San Diego State baseball.

Our stadium isn’t just “Tony Gwynn Stadium.” He isn’t just our coach. And he isn’t just a former San Diego Padre. He is a living legend.

And now, that status is no longer limited to just San Diego.

Gwynn achieved baseball immortality yesterday when he was inducted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., placing his name alongside those of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ty Cobb and an amalgam of other baseball greats.

“The Hall of Fame is the greatest honor that can be bestowed upon you,” Gwynn said in a press conference at the Aztec Athletics Center. “To know that you have a plaque in there where (those guys) have a plaque, it just doesn’t get much better than that.”

Gwynn’s accomplishments leave no doubt that he deserves to be mentioned among baseball’s legends.

The 20-year veteran’s batting average was over .300 in all but his rookie season, finishing at an astonishing .338 lifetime, good for 17th all-time.

He finished with 3,141 hits, 15 All-Star Game appearances, five Gold Glove awards, eight National League batting titles and led the Padres to two World Series appearances.

It’s no wonder Gwynn was voted into the Hall by 97.6 percent of the voters, an astoundingly high rate of approval.

But there is more to San Diego’s adopted son than statistics.

To locals, there’s no question why Gwynn is revered like Lou Gehrig is in New York or fellow 2007 inductee Cal Ripken Jr. is in Baltimore.

Like Ripken and Gehrig, Gwynn gave his heart and soul to one city and one city alone.

Thirty years ago, Gwynn landed at SDSU. Aside from one year in the minors, he hasn’t left San Diego since.

However, he didn’t always dream of being a Padre, let alone imagine swinging a bat for a living. He didn’t even play baseball his freshman year on campus.

Recruited as a highly touted point guard and remembered as one of the best Aztec basketball players ever, Gwynn didn’t start on the path most Cooperstown alumni do.

“I dreamt about playing in the NBA,” Gwynn said. “It wasn’t until I got here my senior year that I realized that maybe I ought to think about playing baseball (for a living).”

After being selected by the Padres in the third round of the 1981 draft, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Two decades of MLB excellence later, he returned to his old stomping ground. He became an Aztec once again.

“I love this university,” Gwynn said. “The day after my last Padres game, I was at State.”

As much as Gwynn loves SDSU, it loves him back all the same. That’s why yesterday was so important to every Aztec and Padre fan.

We are all connected to Gwynn in one way or another. Every year a select few stand at the Hall of Fame podium and accept the greatest honor America’s pastime has to give. Yesterday, San Diego saw its guy in all his glory.

“My father said, ‘If you work hard, good things will happen,'” Gwynn said in his induction speech yesterday. “Boy, oh boy, he was absolutely right. I worked hard in this game, because I had to. I wasn’t talented enough to get by just on ability.”

But deep down, it doesn’t change the man many simply know as “Coach.”

“From here, I go back to work,” Gwynn said. “When I’m out on the field working with those guys, I’m in my element.

“These kids, they really want it. I don’t have to worry about them being overpaid or anything. Mechanically, you gotta do certain things every time you get in the batter’s box, and trying to get them to understand that is why my hair is turning gray.”

Gray hair or not, Aztec point guard or 15-time MLB All-Star, outfielder or coach, Hall of Famer or rising star, one thing remains clear.

Tony Gwynn will always belong in San Diego.

And the city wouldn’t be the same without him.

-Eric Shannon is a journalism junior.

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.