The elder Gwynn is a Padre icon.

Imagine being the son of a Hall-of -Fame player.  Imagine trying to carve a name for yourself in the game that he played to perfection.

You pull up to your home field stadium – -onto the street named after your dad.  Then you stroll out onto the field, stretch a bit, jog a little, and see the bronze statue of your father on the grassy knoll beyond the center field fence. 

Last, but not least - as you glance out towards center field – you come upon your dad’s retired number 19.

Well, that is now the case for Tony Gwynn, Jr.  He was just acquired in a trade between the San Diego Padres and the Milwaukee Brewers.  In exchange, the Brewers received outfielder Jody Gerut.

“He’s not worried about it. I’m not worried about it. He just got an opportunity to play,” said Gwynn Sr., who occasionally does commentary for Padres’ TV broadcasts.

That’s easy to say coming from the man with no pressure on him.  An opportunity to play would be what the younger Gwynn had prior to being traded to the organization that his father was the backbone of for two decades.  Now, what he has is pressure in the shadows of his father’s grand legacy.

“You think of a place and someone of that magnitude to follow, you want to go to a place where they will probably understand that,” the all-time San Diego saves leader and former Padre Trevor Hoffman said.

Well, I think the general public understands the magnitude of Gwynn Sr.’s greatness quite well.  And that just might be the problem.