Gwynn, Boggs and Ripken Can Party Like It's 1999 Because They Are Expected to Reach . . . : 3,000

By ROSS NEWHAN

April 4, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PHOENIX — The robust power of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and the relentless precision of the New York Yankees stamped 1998 as a season for the ages.

Will there be a sequel in 1999?

The one certainty--the one statistical countdown that will be watched from opening day--involves the possibility of a baseball first.

Three illustrious players--Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken--all figure to be reaching the coveted 3,000-hit milestone, a passport to Cooperstown, in the same season. Twenty-one players have done it, and now three may do it in the same summer. Gwynn needs 72 hits, Boggs 78 and Ripken 122.

This season’s great chase may be for singles and doubles hitters.

Gwynn and Boggs approach the prospect refreshingly excited, Ripken coolly detached. The Baltimore Oriole third baseman said he regarded 3,000 simply as an extension of the work ethic that produced a record playing streak of 2,632 consecutive games before he ended it last September.

“I’ve always said that if you play long enough, you’re going to accumulate numbers like that,” a terse Ripken said at the Oriole camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “But I can’t concern myself pursuing 3,000 hits. You’ll run out of energy doing that.”

Ripken played almost 17 seasons without missing a game. He now may miss two or three a month, but he still figures to get the 122 hits he needs, having averaged 169 over the last three years.

Gwynn and Boggs, contact hitters with 13 batting titles between them, provided a gregarious contrast.

Said Boggs, the veteran third baseman who will be used at several positions by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, “This would be the pinnacle of what I’ve tried to accomplish since Little League. It’s in the same category with 300 4wins for a pitcher and 500 homers for a slugger. It’s an elite club, sort of like climbing Mt. Everest. You’re not the first to do it, you’re just one of many to stick your flag in it, but I just want to stick my flag in it.”

Gwynn, the San Diego Padre right fielder, said that for hitters of his and Boggs’ type, reaching 3,000 hits would be “the Holy Grail, which is why I regard it with such reverence. I know my resume is solid without it, but I still feel this is the one thing we had to do to validate our careers.”

At the Padre camp in Peoria, Ariz., Gwynn was not surprised by Ripken’s laconic stance.

“For Boggs and me, 3,000 hits are a stamp of approval,” he said. “Ripken has done so many other things that have stamped his career and stamped him as a Hall of Famer. The consecutive games. The home runs and RBIs for a shortstop. I mean, he played in every game for 15 years or so. Sooner or later [achieving 3,000 hits] was going to happen. He’s got to have at least 1,000 more at-bats than I do.”

Ripken, who played his first major league game in 1981 and arrived to stay in ‘82, has 10,433 at-bats. Boggs, who arrived and stayed in ‘82, has 8,888. Gwynn, who played his first major league game in 1982 and came back to stay in ‘84, has 8,648, 1,785 fewer than Ripken and 240 fewer than Boggs.

Gwynn, however, passed Boggs in total hits last year and passed him for the highest batting average among active players two years ago.

His .339 average is the 17th-highest in major league history. Mike Piazza is second among active players at .333, Boggs third at .329.

“Boggs set a standard, and it was a standard I chased for a long time,” Gwynn said. “Knowing that Boggs and Ripken started before me and have more games and at-bats than I do, to have more hits and a higher career average means a lot to me. I had to scuffle to catch those guys, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to get to 3,000 first. That’s an incentive for me. But I also have a healthy respect for what they’ve done and I want them to get there too.

“The three of us have a chance to do something that’s never been done before, and it’s just nice to be part of that. My only thing is that I want to do it at home. I mean, I won’t sit out games to try and make that happen, but the fans in San Diego have taken the long trip with me, and I’d like for them to see me reach the promised land. I’ve spent my entire career with one team in one uniform, and that makes it even more special.”

Gwynn also would be the first to do it in the National League since Lou Brock in 1979. He has not benefited from the designated-hitter rule, as Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor and others id in their pursuit of 3,000. And as Boggs has.

“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been pretty darn consistent and able to continue playing in the field,” Gwynn said. “I still say the best thing I’ve ever done is win a Gold Glove. I never thought that would happen.

“People say to me that a Gold Glove is not a bigger accomplishment than 3,000 hits or eight batting titles [only Ty Cobb won more, 12], but I tell them, ‘You wouldn’t say that if you had seen me in the field when I first started.’ ”

Gwynn has 16 consecutive seasons at .309 or better. He had his best two years ago, batting .372 with career highs in hits, 222; homers, 17, and runs batted in, 119. Last year, battling heel, knee and hand injuries and frustrated by his inconsistency as the Padres won a National League pennant, he slipped, so to speak, to .321 with 148 hits, 16 homers and 69 RBIs.

“The last two years I’ve been much too pull-conscious,” he said. “I have to do a better job of using the whole field. I have to get back to my bread and butter, going to the opposite field, using what I call the 5.5 hole [between shortstop and third base].”

Gwynn turns 39 on May 9. He is signed through 2000 at a modest $4.3 million a year. He says the Padres have potential replacements for him in Mike Darr and Gary Matthews Jr. and that he may ultimately have to move to the American League as a DH.

His goal, he said, is to play beyond 2000 because “the passion is still there.” His motivation also is fueled by the memory of early aspersions: doesn’t run well, doesn’t hit for power, doesn’t look like an athlete.

Gwynn has long fed off those but in recent years, he said, he has also been warmed by his reception around the National, American and Cactus leagues, a show of respect that “does wonders for the psyche.”

But he is not looking at 3,000 hits as a culmination or farewell tour, although he will be in Cooperstown five years after his retirement.

“I’d like to think that what I’ve done is worthy of being considered, but the Hall of Fame is out of my hands,” he said. “It would be the crowning achievement, but it’s way down the road. I’m not thinking about the Hall of Fame and I’m not focusing on 3,000 hits. My job . . . is to prepare for the season.”

There is a lesson to be learned from Gwynn and Boggs.

They recognized their tools and stayed with them--Gwynn to the point of continuing to watch thousands of hours of videotapes of himself against different pitchers and pitches. He was fascinated in his formative years by Rod Carew and emulated his opposite-field style.

“I still remember him slapping a single to left field for his 3,000th hit,” Gwynn said, referring to the then-Angel first baseman’s opposite-field shot off Minnesota’s Frank Viola at Anaheim Stadium in 1985.

“Other guys may not think of it as a big deal, they may think about 500 homers or 300 wins or 2,000 games played, but that’s when 3,000 hits was really stamped in my mind. So I’ve thought about it for a long time and there is no question it will be a special day when I get to it.”

For Boggs, the memory is that of a Little Leaguer watching a game-of-the-week telecast in which Al Kaline got his 3,000th hit and hearing the announcers talk about what a great accomplishment it was.

“So I was brainwashed at an early age that the measuring stick for a hitter was 3,000,” he said. “No one has a crystal ball, of course. No one knows how long you’re going to be able to play, health-wise, but when I had 2,000 hits after 10 years I kind of said to myself, ‘Wow, let’s really go after it now.’ I felt at that point it was really attainable.”

The five-time American League batting champion will be 41 June 15. He might already have been at 3,000, but his playing time has dropped significantly in the last two years. He shared third base with Charlie Hayes as a Yankee in 1997, joined the hometown Devil Rays as a free agent last year and delivered 122 hits in 435 at-bats while sharing the position with the promising Bobby Smith, who figures to play even more this year.

“Whether I platoon at third, DH some or relieve Freddie [McGriff] at first, [Manager] Larry [Rothschild] has assured me I’ll get my at-bats,” Boggs said after a workout at the Tampa Bay camp in St. Petersburg. “The worst year I ever had, I still got 103 hits, so if I get 400 at-bats I’m pretty confident I can get 78.”

Like Gwynn, Boggs is not looking at 3,000 as a termination, but it may not be his choice.

The Devil Rays, faced with picking up his 1999 option or releasing a hometown player on the verge of a milestone accomplishment, chose public-relations discretion.

It was cheap enough, considering the attention the club will receive as Boggs closes in on 3,000. He is guaranteed only $750,000, with $500,000 more available through plate appearances, but whether he is offered even that much again after attaining 3,000 is problematic.

Boggs, however, will face the issue of another contract or forced retirement when it comes. He is still having fun, he said, feeling better physically the older he gets, and approaching the 1999 season with clearer vision because of off-season laser eye surgery.

“I got tired of the daily fight with contacts,” he said. “I’d wake up in the morning and couldn’t read a clock across the room. I couldn’t pick up a fastball at 60 feet. Now I see it quicker and sharper. My vision is fabulous.”

Playing for his hometown team, Boggs would like to get No. 3,000 at Tropicana Field, but he said, “I want to get it, period. It will be special no matter where and when.

“You look at Cal, Tony and myself and it seems like the three of us have been around for ages. We all broke in at about the same time and, for Tony and me especially, our careers have more or less paralleled. Look at our numbers and they’re almost identical. As I said, for the type hitters we are, 3,000 is a pinnacle.”

And the magic number in ‘99?

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Road to 3,000

Some facts about the milestone as Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr. approach 3,000 hits:

* Never before have three players reached 3,000 hits in the same season. It has been done five times by two players, most recently by Robin Yount and George Brett in 1992.

* At 34, Ty Cobb was the youngest to get 3,000 hits. At 45, Cap Anson was the oldest. Cobb needed the fewest games, 2,135; Carl Yastrzemski the most, 2,848.

* Every eligible member of the 3,000-hit club has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Pete Rose has been banned from baseball). Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray and Paul Molitor are not yet eligible.

A comparison:

Tony Gwynn

Age: 38

Seasons: 17

Avg. Hits/Season: 172

Career Batting Avg.: .339

Wade Boggs

Age: 40

Seasons: 17

Avg. Hits/Season: 172