Gwynn and bear it

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, May 15, 2002 | 10:03 a.m.

After winning eight batting titles, five Gold Gloves and amassing more than 3,000 hits during his 20-year major league career, it would be easy to understand if Tony Gwynn spent the next few years traveling, playing golf and waiting for his Hall of Fame induction call.

Instead, Gwynn will be on the bench of the San Diego Aztecs as a volunteer assistant coach when they open a three-game series against UNLV on Thursday night at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.

Gwynn will replace the retiring Jim Dietz as Aztecs head coach following the season. He has agreed to a three-year contract with a base salary of $100,000 per year to become just the fourth head baseball coach at his alma mater.

Nobody is happier about that than Dietz, 63, who coached both Gwynn and his brother Chris, as well as Mark Grace of the Arizona Diamondbacks during his 31 years as SDSU head coach and recently became the first baseball person in school history to have his number retired.

"This is probably the way things should be done in college sports," Dietz said.

"Usually when a coach is let go or retires there's a big upheaval. Players transfer or quit. There's a turnover of personnel and a transition period for the new coach. But Tony has spent the last season here working with the kids. This is probably a role model of how to do things like this. There was a lot of luck involved, though. He was leaving his career while I was getting ready to leave here."

Dietz said he wasn't surprised that Gwynn, whose eight batting titles rank second only to Ty Cobb in baseball history, would want to enter the world of college coaching after such a stellar big league career.

"I knew Tony had a strong interest in college sports," Dietz said. "But when he expressed his interest in the job to me, I wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting himself into. You can't just come in for a year or two and then walk away. It hurts too many people. But he thought about it and came back and said he wanted to do it."

Gwynn said he decided he wanted to coach the Aztecs last April when he stopped by to watch son Anthony, a sophomore center fielder and preseason second team All-American, play a game against UCLA. It just so happened that his son broke his left hand in that game while bunting.

"I was sitting right behind home plate," Gwynn said. "I thought about it for a long time but that night really convinced me that this was what I wanted to do. So I kind of kept my eye on the situation and kept trying to understand what the thought process was and it opened up. Then it was, 'Wham, let people know you're interested in it.' I didn't want this opportunity to slip by."

"He could make a lot more money doing other things," Dietz said. "But Tony wanted to do this. He knows there's a lot of work involved outside of just coaching baseball in college. There's academics and recruiting and fund-raising and the politics that surround college sports. When he told me he was ready to do this, I told him to get out and push for it."

Gwynn was officially introduced as the Aztecs' future head coach during a press conference on Sept. 20. The hiring was broadcast live by ESPNNEWS, something unheard of in college baseball. That kind of publicity is expected to do wonders in fund-raising for the non-revenue producing program.

"That's one thing I wanted Tony to understand when he was interested in the job," Dietz said. "I have to raise about $100,000 every year to keep the program afloat. I spend almost as much time (fund-raising) as I do coaching. It's tough."

But that shouldn't be nearly as difficult for a coach with Gwynn's name recognition and major league ties. He recently helped raise nearly $1 million for a new DiamondVision video scoreboard at Tony Gwynn Stadium, where the Aztecs play their home games.

Although he is an analyst on ESPN baseball broadcasts once a week, Gwynn, who also is a consultant for the Padres, rarely has missed practice as Aztecs hitting coach and outfield coach this season.

"Some days he gets in first, some days I do," Dietz said. "There's no doubt in my mind he is going to do an outstanding job here. I think it's a great thing both for the school and the Mountain West Conference to have someone like a Tony Gwynn coaching. He knows his baseball and has known it for a long time. He's also the epitome of what hard work can get you."

"Coaching is what I wanted to do," Gwynn said, "and I can't think of any better place to do that than my alma mater. I started here, and a lot of the lessons I learned here I took to the big leagues. Now I get the opportunity to come back and spread the information I learned.

"This is a dream gig for me. I think what I do best is teach."

So far, so good. The Aztecs clinched the Mountain West Conference regular season title last weekend at New Mexico, the first outright conference crown for the school since 1990. They'll be the No. 1 seed in next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament in Provo, Utah which will decide which MWC team will advance to the NCAA Regionals.

"This could be a sleeping giant," Gwynn said. "This could be a program that could turn around pretty quickly. I want to go to Omaha (site of the College World Series) and play for the ring."