Tony Gwynn signed on to stay another three years as the head coach of the San Diego State baseball team just yesterday, but he's not spending his time talking about his contract. He wants to talk about Justin Masterson.

After starting his college career at tiny Bethel College in Indiana, Justin transferred to SDSU and pitched for the Aztecs in Tony Gwynn Stadium, under head Aztecs coach Tony Gwynn. And Tony hasn't forgotten Justin.

"He's the type of guy that doesn't want to shake your hand, he wants to give you a hug," Gwynn said. "He's absolutely the same guy, and you can't help but love those type of guys because he really does it the right way. He does it with a great attitude. He does it with a smile on his face. And you know what? He's competitive as heck, but you'd be hard pressed to know that if you met him off the field."

And, of course, HOF'er Tony had praise for Justin's skills as well.

"At the college level, like most guys his size [6-foot-6], he could just overpower hitters. And with his stuff, he was able to do that for the most part. But now he's learned to pitch and it looks like he's trusting his stuff, and it looks like he's having fun. It looks like he's really enjoying himself and really trying to understand how to get guys out, and it looks like he's really paying attention and doing a good job.

"When he was here, I think you could see that he had that kind of stuff where he would be successful at the big-league level, and I think he's just scratching the surface."

"[T]he Red Sox are kind of the perfect club because they have enough of everything, where they can kind of take the time to figure out where exactly he best fits. But I think they found out this year that he fits. Somewhere in those 11, 12 guys he's a guy that definitely will fit into whatever role they want to put him in."