Ripken, Gwynn Deck the Hall

Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr., were inducted to baseball's Hall of Fame today; both were notable for their remarkable consistency over careers spanning three decades, and both spent those careers with single teams. Their loyalty was repaid by circa 75,000 fans who came to see them inducted, the most in Cooperstown history.

Ripken set baseball's untouchable streak of 2,632 consecutive games played, while Gwynn batted over .300 for 19 seasons and averaged .338 for his career; both notched over 3,000 hits. Gwynn, however, offered a different reason for his and Ripken's popularity with fans: "They could trust how we played the game and conducted ourselves—especially in this era of negativity." (More MLB stories.)