The Padres have been winning during the second half of the season mostly because of an offensive turnaround from their superstars, but the feel-good story of the year has to be the emergence of once and future first baseman Ty France.
They are 15-4 in their last 19 games heading into a three-game series that began Friday night in Cleveland.
France grew up in Orange County, was drafted by the Padres, and as a member of the San Diego State baseball team more than a decade ago is the last active Major League tie to San Diego great and Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn Sr.
Ty France in 2015 as an Aztec. (Photo courtesy of San Diego State University)That makes France Padres royalty just by association.
“Looking at it now it’s unbelievable,” France said last week in an exclusive interview with Times of San Diego. “Just the amount of knowledge he had and how good he was at being able to slow down the game for us. He was there to get you better, get you to the next level and hope you succeed.
“I mean, I still call him Coach Gwynn. That’s how I viewed him. But now being so far removed from college I understand how special that was.”
Gwynn was head coach of the Aztecs when he died at 54 on June 16, 2014, from complications of salvatory gland cancer. France was a member of that team.
Gwynn retired in 2001 after 20 seasons, all with the Padres, holding a .338 lifetime batting average, while amassing 3,141 hits and a record-tying eight National League batting titles.
He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame along with Cal Ripken Jr. on a July day in 2007 when a crowd of 75,000 poured into Cooperstown, N.Y. There hadn’t been that many fans before and not even close since.
Gwynn replaced Jim Dietz as the Aztecs coach in 2003. Along the way, some of his prominent players made it to the majors, including the electric pitcher Stephen Strasburg and his own son, Tony Gwynn Jr., now one of the Padres’ broadcasters.
His father always had high expectations for France, the younger Gwynn said.
“Ty reminded him of his approach as a hitter in terms of using the whole field,” he said. “He wanted Ty to be drafted, and he knew when he got his foot in the door he would hit.”
France was picked by the Padres in the 34th round of the 2015 draft, made it to the Padres, and lasted almost two seasons during his first San Diego tour before being traded to the Mariners in late 2020. He was batting .305 at time.
Tony Gwynn in 2007 while head coach of the San Diego State baseball team. (Photo courtesy of San Diego State University)France bounced around and played in the World Series for the Blue Jays last fall when they lost to the Dodgers on the final pitch of Game 7.
The Padres re-signed him as a free agent on Feb. 15, the eve of spring training, on a one-year deal for the princely sum of $1.35 million. He joined the team as a utility player, but played his way into the lineup and has started 117 of their 122 games at first base.
He’s hitting .295, .267 during the first half of the season and .347 since then, according to MLB statistics. Gwynn was right.
“When it comes to hitting my dad wasn’t wrong about a lot,” Gwynn Jr. said. “The question was where he would play, and he turned himself into a Gold Glove first baseman.”
France, who won his first Gold Glove last year, evidently has Gwynn’s famous work ethic. He recently took incessant throws across the diamond and grounders at first base, leaving an interviewer waiting at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Gwynn wasn’t much of a fielder either when the Padres drafted him in 1981 with a third-round pick, also out of San Diego State. His arm was weak.
During batting practice at old Jack Murphy Stadium, a Padres coach, the late Bobby Tolan, backed him up to the cyclone outfield fence so he could long-toss the ball, building up his arm strength. Gwynn started 2,122 games in right field and won five Gold Gloves.
Gwynn’s greatest adjustment as a college coach, he said at the time, was not expecting his young players to have his commitment. That’s a common malady among star players who become college coaches or big league managers. Gwynn forgot he split his time as a guard playing basketball where he’s still San Diego State’s all-time assist leader, for a single-game (18), season (221) and career (590).
Baseball was really an afterthought, although he batted .416 in 1981, his final college season.
Ty France launches a ball to former Padre first baseman Eric Hosmer during a 2020 practice. (File photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)Someone at the old San Diego Tribune used to say, “Tony could fall out of a bathtub and hit,” which he proved in his final 2001 season, batting .324 despite playing on an injured left knee.
“I don’t want to say the game was easy for him,” France said about Gwynn. “But he was so talented, he was part of the zero to one percent. He was so at that level of the game he couldn’t understand why, as college kids, we weren’t as good as he was. It took him awhile to adjust.”
France was a .337 hitter for his three college years, most of them under Gwynn, who passed away before his final season. Gwynn always attributed his cancer to chewing tobacco, a habit he never really quit.
France remembers the day Gwynn died as if it was yesterday.
“Everything we heard he was getting better,” France recalled. “He was getting past it. I was going to come back for my junior year, and he was going to be there as coach. That morning I woke up to a handful of text messages and phone calls asking me if it was true? I had no clue. And I turned on the TV, and it was all over the place.”
Gwynn played in the only two Padres’ World Series appearances, 1984 and 1998, both losses. France has a chance to do it this postseason.
The Padres are right there in the NL Wild Card race. If he does ultimately lift a trophy, he can dedicate it to Gwynn.
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