Gwynn, was more simply, and more purely, a collection of right decisions and humming execution. The elaborate lie that a pitcher crafts on each lunge to the plate, Gwynn processed it immediately, determined the appropriate action and saw that it got done. Then he could step off the field and tell you what he did. The impossible, endless mystery of baseball that was poeticized by our elders as something you could spend your life exploring, Gwynn treated like a telegram that was just waiting to be read aloud.