How To: Get Tony Gwynn Out

Well that's an easy one, just throw it right down the middle of course!

“He said that Gwynn was so used to hitting pitches that were out of the strikezone that I was better off throwing it down the middle,” Tomko said. “He said Gwynn wouldn’t be expecting it, so he’d probably roll it over and hit it to the right side or pop it up.”

In Tomko’s first game against Gwynn on Aug. 7, 1997, Tomko threw fastballs over the plate. Gwynn grounded out to first and popped up twice to the infield.

Interesting strategy, and it didn't only work that one game, according the article Gwynn was 2/12 against Tomko in his career. Not enough of a sample size for sure, but it's still interesting. From 1993-1997 Gwynn's 33-37 aged seasons he hit .368, if that's what your facing then you could do a lot worse than just throwing it down the middle because at absolute worse Gwynn would hit a double.

If people did this to Gwynn I wonder if they have or should try it against Ichiro? More interesting perhaps is Gwynn's success in his late 30s, if Ichiro could do that for a little longer into his 40s (nobody would argue that he's in better shape to last longer than Gwynn) then2,500 hits becomes a certainty, and 3,000 isn't out of the question.