Things memorable about Tony Gwynn

There were two certainties about Tony Gwynn: He could hit a baseball like few other major league-baseball players, and he was going to laugh.

After Gwynn hit a double, all-time hits leader Pete Rose, who been trailing the play, said to him: “Hey, kid, what are you trying to do, catch me in one night?” Yesterday, Rose — who was the guest manager at a minor-league game — recalled Gwynn’s work ethic and his pioneering use of video to study his at-bats after every game.

Gwynn loved to hit the other way, through the hole between third base and shortstop.

“All I keep thinking of when I think of Tony Gwynn is that line drive base hit to left field, or the one-hopper in the hole at shortstop to left field,” Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said.

Gwynn had been on a medical leave since late March from his job as baseball coach at San Diego State, his alma mater.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gwynn played point guard for the SDSU basketball team — he still holds the game, season and career record for assists — and in the outfield on the baseball team.

Texas’ Augie Garrido, the all-time winningest coach in college baseball, said at the College World Series yesterday that he tried to recruit Gwynn when he was coaching at Cal State Fullerton but told him he wouldn’t be able to play both baseball and basketball.

Because baseball would be well under way by the time basketball ended, “You’d have to be one hell of a baseball player to be break into the lineup,” Garrido recalled telling Gwynn.

Gwynn was hitting .394 when a players’ strike ended the 1994 season, denying him a shot at becoming the first player to hit .400 since San Diego native Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.