Phillies give Tony Gwynn Jr. an emotional start in San Diego

SAN DIEGO - With a few days left in triple-A Lehigh Valley's season, Tony Gwynn Jr. chucked his size-10 red sneakers. The most difficult season of his life would soon end, and he prepared for his trip home to Southern California.

"I didn't want to pay the extra money for the overweight bags," Gwynn said.

He laughed Tuesday, as he wore teammate Freddy Galvis' red shoes. Gwynn arrived at 19 Tony Gwynn Drive to find his name atop the Phillies lineup. He would play in the shadow of his father's bronze statue beyond the center-field wall.

He stepped to the plate at 7:10 p.m. local time. A cameraman followed his every step. Petco Park feted him with a hearty ovation. Gwynn is this city's son, a status crystallized by his Hall of Fame dad's death in June. The Phillies were under no obligation to recall Gwynn, a 31-year-old outfielder, for the season's final month. They did.

Then, when Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg saw the upcoming series in San Diego, he thought it best to reward Gwynn.

"Just the significance of what his dad meant to the Padres," Sandberg said, "and to let Tony play in front of his family."

Gwynn called his mother, Alicia, about four hours before first pitch. He told her he would start. But he was not sure whether she would attend. The Padres held a memorial service at Petco Park a week after Tony Gwynn died.

"It might be too tough for her to come still," Gwynn Jr. said.

He did not need to leave her a ticket, though.

"She finds her way in," he said.

The Phillies released Gwynn a little more than a month after his father succumbed to oral cancer, and the grieving son wondered whether baseball was the proper method to cope. Gwynn entered Tuesday with a .467 OPS, the fourth-worst among players with at least 100 at-bats this season.

He struggled to find clarity early in the season's while he traversed ballparks across the county and his dad's health failed.

"There was doubt," Gwynn said. "In my mind, I didn't know if I wanted to keep playing. It's just a lot. You can only go through so much before you start to question if you're doing the right thing for your family and yourself. But it only took me about 24 hours to figure out that I wanted to keep playing. I've been around baseball for my entire life."

Gwynn will spend the last week as a defensive replacement and pinch-runner. He'll look for an invitation to spring training with a club, just as he did last winter with the Phillies.

His four days in San Diego, where he makes his offseason home, served as a reminder of his love for the game. He spent the time with his wife and three daughters. He looked up at the retired No. 19, saw the street sign with his father's name, and cherished it all.

He jogged to center at Petco, where he played in 2010 as a member of the Padres, and heard fans in the right-field bleachers. "Tony! Tony! Tony!" they yelled. He tipped his Phillies hat.

Cory Spangenberg, the Padres' first hitter, crushed an A.J. Burnett pitch to deep right-center. Gwynn dashed toward the spot, and it was as if he ran toward his father's statue high above a grassy hill.

He has never visited the monument.

"It was a statue that I could go see at any time," Gwynn said. "I could get in the car and drive 25 minutes and come see it. But, obviously, now there's a little more significance behind it."

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