White Sox: Tony Gwynn was just a regular guy

If you watched the many film clips of the late Tony Gwynn on Monday, chances are you saw Darrin Jackson.

Gwynn, a Hall of Fame outfielder who played his entire 20-year career with the San Diego Padres, died of cancer on Monday at age 54.

Jackson, who shares the White Sox' radio booth with Ed Farmer, was Gwynn's teammate in San Diego from 1989-92.

“When I was in San Diego, Tony and I were best friends,” said Jackson, who broke in with the Cubs in 1985 and also played with the Sox in 1994 and ‘99. “We would spend a lot of time together golfing, fishing. I spent time at his house back when Anthony, his son, was just a kid, watching us play ping-pong in his garage.

“I was obviously very close to him but that's who he is, Tony Gwynn. He wasn't the superstar, .338 lifetime hitter, he was Tony Gwynn, just the person that expected to be treated normal. One time we rolled up to McDonald's in his Mercedes-Benz and we roll up to the window, window opens and the kid looks out and sees Tony Gwynn in the car and his jaw falls to the floor.

“Tony just went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's me. Just give me my hamburger.' To him it was no big deal, and that was Tony.”

White Sox bench coach Mark Parent broke into major-league baseball with the Padres in 1986 and was Gwynn's teammate for five seasons.

“I could never imagine anybody working that hard on something,” Parent said. “In the off-season he would hit 1,000 balls off the tee in one day. He'll be sorely missed by a lot of people. He kind of fell away from returning phone calls lately and stuff like that.

“That's when I started missing him. I knew something was up. We had the same agent. He kind of kept me informed of what was going on. This came as a shock yesterday, as any death of somebody you know. Tony was quite a guy.”

Good hands:

There are plenty of White Sox hitters that have been battling slumps recently, and that includes right fielder Dayan Viciedo.

Heading into Tuesday night's game against the Giants, Viciedo was in a 4-for-51 slide. Viciedo got off to a hot start in April, batting .348.

“Earlier in the year, he was a little more handsy,” manager Robin Ventura said. “He knows it. It's something that he knows when he swings hard. That's a part of who he is and how he goes about it. I'd like him to use the barrel a little bit more. That's the name of the game.”

Viciedo must be listening to his manager, because he singled in the fourth inning against the Giants Tuesday and followed with a 2-run homer in the fifth.

Back in time:

In town Tuesday for the panel discussion “White Sox Baseball: A History of Cuban Stars,” 2005 White Sox hero Orlando ‘El Duque” Hernandez threw out the ceremonial first pitch to fellow Cuban Alexei Ramirez.

The White Sox had some fun with the first pitch, placing three runners on base wearing Boston Red Sox uniforms.

Trailing 4-3 in Game 3 of the '05 American League Division Series at Fenway Park, the Red Sox had the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning and Hernandez came out of the White Sox' bullpen and worked out of the jam without allowing a run.

The White Sox wound up sweeping Boston and went on to win the World Series.