As we all know by now, Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn lost his lengthy battle with cancer on Monday morning. He was only 54 years old.

While nearly every major news source, blog site and social media outlet has much to say about one of the greatest and most feared hitters in baseball history, my most vivid memory of ‘Mr. Padre’ is from one brief and insignificant moment in time – insignificant to everyone but me, that is.

I can’t even give you the exact date or even tell you who was pitching for the Dodgers that sunny July day at Dodger Stadium in 1999, but I vividly recall that it was only two weeks before Tony collected his 3,000 career hit.

The Dodgers were leading the Padres 4-2 in the eighth inning and Gwynn, who was 0 for 4 on the day, stepped into the batters box with two outs and the bases loaded. It was both amazing and unbelievable that the Dodgers had kept Gwynn hitless in three previous at bats – and therein lay the problem.

I remember turning to my friend Rich Chambers and saying “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, an 0 for 4 Tony Gwynn is very dangerous.”

Even Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully knew it and spoke about how dangerous an “0-fer” Tony Gwynn was over his radio broadcast of the game. (This was back when Vinny called all nine innings over the radio and everybody in the house brought portable radios to listen to his call of the games).

In the pit of my stomach and in the back of my mind I knew it would happen.

…and it did.

On a 3-2 count, the left-handed hitting Gwynn drove one through the six-hole into the left field gap for a bases-clearing double, giving the Padres a 5-4 lead and eventual win.

I remember being incredibly angry at Tony Gwynn that day (and many others before that day) for beating the Dodgers, but at the same time I was (secretly) excited to have seen Tony get one step closer to one of baseball’s greatest milestones – 3,000 career hits, which he accomplished on August 6, 1999 against the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium.

I was ecstatic when Tony was voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2007 and saddened when I learned that he was diagnosed with cancer of a salivary gland and had to have both lymph nodes removed. Gwynn attributed his cancer to the use of chewing tobacco which he had used since playing rookie ball.

We will all miss Tony Gwynn dearly and if there is one thing that we can take from his early passing it is that there is nothing, absolutely nothing good about the use of smokeless tobacco.

God Bless You, Tony.