Tony Gwynn may have embodied the game of baseball better than anyone else who has played. It was not because Gwynn, who died of cancer on Monday at age 54, was among its greatest hitters. It was because of the wonder he found in the game and the joy he took in applying his daily discoveries.

Gwynn liked baseball as a child in Southern California. He and his brothers would cut up socks, tape them together and practice hitting. He was enthralled by Willie Davis, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ All-Star center fielder. But basketball was his first love.

“Like a lot of kids, you kind of think baseball’s boring — that’s the perception,” Gwynn said in 1999 as he closed in on his 3,000th career hit. He added, “Really trying to learn all I could about the game, you began to understand the nuances of the game, and it became really fun.”

Gwynn, a San Diego Padres right fielder who retired in 2001, said proudly that he learned something new at the ballpark every day. It was a simple but powerful lesson, easy to forget in a sport with a punishing schedule: six weeks of training before a six-month, 162-game grind.