Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tony Gwynn - HOF '07 - Visits Durham


Monday nights are fairly tame at the DBAP, but Tony Gwynn drew a crowd of autograph hounds on 7/26. I suspect he's recuperating from writer's cramp. Over a thousand fans lined up to meet the San Diego Padres legend. He played his entire Major League career in southern CA, but the slugger is very much appreciated on the east coast, too.

What a friendly, gracious guy! He gave autographs, posed for photos and chatted up the fans. In Durham on behalf of the Air Force Reserve, Gwynn visited both clubhouses and met with our staff.

He's a multi-tasker as you will note in the photo below...sitting at our sales manager's desk autographing stuff and doing an interview with Adam Gold at 99.9fm/The Fan over in Raleigh.

(Would somebody straighten that framed jersey on the wall, please!)

Gwynn's day job is head baseball coach at San Diego State Univ...where he coached Washington Nationals' phenom Stephen Strasburg.

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Bulls' GM Mike Birling made a list of Hall of Fame members who have visited us in the past decade:

Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., Jim Palmer, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, Hank Aaron, Ozzie Smith, Johnny Bench, Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs...plus Paul Hornung in football and Magic Johnson in hoops.

Here's a classic Cal Ripken shot from the vault. He's in our Owner's Suite sitting beneath a framed newspaper story. Our company used to own a radio station in Baltimore, and we all reveled in Cal's 1995 career milestone. He broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played - 2,131.

The Iron Man

Another favorite from the archives...

There's MAGIC in the DBAP!