Denis Poroy / AP

Tony Gwynn looks at a statue of himself at Petco Park. Gwynn, who played 20 seasons with the Padres, is set to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

“If you wanted to beat the Padres, you had face Tony Gwynn with nobody on,” Maddux said.

Mets first base coach Rickey Henderson said it was an honor to have been Gwynn’s teammate.

“He loved the game and he studied the game,” said Henderson, who got his 3,000th hit in Gwynn’s last game in 2001. “He was a scientist.”

Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, closing in on 300 wins, remembers Gwynn being the consummate professional hitter.

“There were just so many times facing him where you felt like you had him right where you wanted him and it would just be foul ball after foul ball after foul ball and you’d make that one mistake, and wham — line drive somewhere. That’s what he was so good at.”

Gwynn’s Padres lost both World Series they played in. But one of his fondest memories was homering off the upper deck facade at Yankee Stadium — off San Diego native David Wells — in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series.

In recent weeks, the Padres honored Gwynn with a party in right field at Qualcomm Stadium and unveiled a 9½-foot bronze statue of the hitter on a grassy knoll just beyond Petco Park’s outfield fence. His image is on a Wheaties box.

Yet Gwynn is probably happiest about seeing his son, Tony Jr., play for the Milwaukee Brewers. The younger Gwynn, who has had two stints with the Padres this season, was optioned to Triple-A on Wednesday.

Although the Padres swept the Brewers at Petco in June, Gwynn Jr. got a ninth-inning single off one of his dad’s longtime teammates, career saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

“It was like I was watching the World Series,” Gwynn said. “I just kind of forget that I played for the Padres for 20 years. It’s been a real kick for me. He’s learning those things that I had to.”

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“I had no idea that all the things in my career were going to happen,” he said. “I sure didn’t see it. I just know the good Lord blessed me with ability, blessed me with good eyesight and a good pair of hands, and then I worked at the rest.”

Gwynn just finished his fifth season as baseball coach at his alma mater.

Asked if he could give a scouting report on himself to one of his pitchers, he said:

“Good luck. Because again, when your mind-set is not hitting the ball out of the ballpark, it’s just putting the bat on the ball, I’m a tough guy to pitch to.”

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