COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Two of them were the faces of their franchises, batting champs who debuted with their teams and never left. A third flashed his Gold Glove artistry in L.A., Seattle and Boston, then found a special home in Texas. The fourth was a beloved managerial icon.
For Joe Mauer and Todd Helton, for Adrián Beltré and Jim Leyland, their baseball journeys spanned every time zone in North America. Then their roads converged on a stage in Cooperstown on the same magical Sunday, the day they were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.