There are a lot of things Tony Gwynn could have chosen to do when he hung up his Louisville Slugger after the 2001 major league season.

Simple things like kicking back and playing a lot of golf or giving Tom Emanski a run for the baseball video business. Time-honored baseball retirement pursuits, such as making the rounds of autograph and card shows, not to mention polishing that first-ballot Hall of Fame acceptance speech for next year.

But not "Mr. Padre."

The man who chased .400 for the 1994 season is pursuing something almost as elusive, getting his alma mater, San Diego State, to the College World Series. A player who won eight National League batting titles and five Gold Gloves, is trying to achieve something more difficult, transforming his hometown team into a true college power.

Job One, Gwynn says flatly, "is to get to the College World Series. I'm not here for the fluff. We're trying to win the whole thing." Something few Hall of Famers — or those on deck — undertake.

After three years of building, the team Gwynn puts on the field at Les Murakami Stadium tonight at 7 against the University of Hawai'i in the season opener will be 97 percent his, lock, stock and fungo bat.

After 3,141 major league hits, the 45-year-old Gwynn has dug in for his toughest at-bat.

Hard to figure but UH, which hasn't been to an NCAA regional in what seems like ages (1992), has still been there more recently than San Diego State (1991). The Rainbows have been to the College World Series (1980) and the Aztecs never have.

In that the Aztecs remain something of a head-shaking riddle. They are blessed with seemingly all the ingredients necessary to be a pinnacle program, but cursed by the inability to get there. They have optimum weather and a fertile recruiting area. They get better walk-ons than some schools get scholarship players. Still, in 31 seasons that produced 1,231 victories, Jim Dietz, Gwynn's predecessor and mentor, never got a team to Omaha even with Gwynn, Travis Lee, Mark Grace, Craig Nettles and Bud Black sprinkled across the rosters.

"For us, we've done everything except the winning," Gwynn said. "Our field is nice. We've got nice amenities. We've had good kids (come) into the program. We've done everything except win. That's the hard part. We're gonna try and focus on that."

It is what, he said, prompted him to tell ESPN he'd take a sabbatical from TV commentary. "Because I'd rather be doing this."

When Gwynn applied for the SDSU job he said he brought his baseball card in lieu of a resume. Indeed, his fame has gotten him into the homes of top recruits where, he says he has learned a pointed lesson: "The bottom line with kids is they want to go somewhere where they can win," Gwynn said. "Some place where they can go to the College World Series; be on TV. And we haven't gotten to that point yet."

That, Gwynn maintains, "is where the excitement comes in" and where the challenge is to be found for somebody whose baseball legacy hardly requires polishing.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.