The last chase?

A players' strike ended Tony Gwynn's pursuit of a .400 season in 1994. Will anyone else ever even come close?

Have you heard the one about…

…the one strike Tony Gwynn couldn’t handle?

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On the morning of August 12, 1994, Tony Gwynn woke up batting .394.

With 45 games remaining on the schedule, the sweet-swinging Padres right fielder was suddenly doing more than charging toward yet another National League batting title. He was making a legitimate run at one of the most mythical numbers in all of sports.

.400.

50 years after batting .406 in 1941, Ted Williams said, “If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again.”

Ted Williams batted .406 for the Red Sox in 1941. More than half a century later, nobody had done it since. Not Stan Musial. Not Willie Mays. Not Roberto Clemente. Not Pete Rose. Not Wade Boggs. Not Ichiro, even in the year he racked up a record 262 hits. Not even Rod Carew or George Brett, who each once came heartbreakingly close.

Now, Gwynn had put himself in position to chase Baseball immortality.

And then Baseball stopped.