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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Two players who began their careers at opposite ends of the spectrum nearly three decades ago ended up in the same place on Sunday -- with their names etched on plaques at the Baseball Hall of Fame.For Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza, the culmination of their long journeys was tinged with tears all around.I stand up here humbled and overwhelmed, Griffey said, staring out at his family and tens of thousands of fans. I cant describe how it feels.The two became a piece of history on their special day. Griffey, the first pick of the 1987 amateur draft, became the highest pick ever inducted. Piazza, a 62nd-round pick the next year -No. 1,390 -- is the lowest pick to enter the Hall of Fame.Griffey played 22 big-league seasons with the Mariners, Reds and White Sox and was selected on a record 99.32 percent of ballots cast, an affirmation of sorts for his clean performance during baseballs so-called Steroids Era.A 13-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove Award winner in center field, Griffey hit 630 home runs, sixth all-time, and drove in 1,836 runs. He also was the American League MVP in 1997, drove in at least 100 runs in eight seasons, and won seven Silver Slugger Awards.Griffey, who fell just three votes shy of being the first unanimous selection, hit 417 of his 630 homers and won all 10 of his Gold Gloves with the Seattle Mariners. He played the first 11 seasons of his career with the Mariners and led them to the playoffs for the first two times in franchise history.Thirteen years with the Seattle Mariners, from the day I got drafted, Seattle, Washington, has been a big part of my life, Griffey said, punctuating the end of his speech by putting a baseball cap on backward as he did throughout his career.Im going to leave you with one thing. In 22 years I learned that one team will treat you the best, and thats your first team. Im damn proud to be a Seattle Mariner.Dubbed The Natural for his effortless excellence at the plate and in center field, Griffey avoided the Hall of Fame until his special weekend because he wanted his first walk through the front doors of the stately building on Main Street to be with his kids, whom he singled out one by one in his 20-minute speech.There are two misconceptions about me -- I didnt work hard and everything I did I made look easy, Griffey said. Just because I made it look easy doesnt mean that it was. You dont become a Hall of Famer by not working, but working day in and day out.Griffeys mom, Birdie, and his father, former Cincinnati Reds star Ken Sr., both cancer survivors and integral to his rise to stardom, were front and center in the first row.To my dad, who taught me how to play this game and to my mom, the strongest woman I know, Junior said. To have to be mom and dad, she was our biggest fan and our biggest critic. Shes the only woman I know that lives in one house and runs five others.Selected in the draft by the Dodgers after Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, a close friend of Piazzaa father, Vince, put in a good word, Piazza struggled.He briefly quit the game while in the minor leagues, returned and persevered despite a heavy workload as he switched from first base to catcher and teammates criticized his erratic play.Mom and dad were foremost on his mind, too.Dad always dreamed of playing in the major leagues, said Piazza, just the second Hall of Famer depicted on his plaque wearing a Mets cap, after Tom Seaver in 1992.He could not follow that dream because of the realities of life. My fathers faith in me, often greater than my own, is the single most important factor of me being inducted into this Hall of Fame. Thank you dad. We made it, dad. The race is over. Now its time to smell the roses.Piazza played 16 years with the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, Padres and Athletics and hit 427 home runs, including a major league record 396 as a catcher. A 12-time All-Star, Piazza won 10 Silver Slugger Awards and finished in the top five of his leagues MVP voting four times.Perhaps even more impressive, Piazza, a .308 career hitter, posted six seasons with at least 30 home runs, 100 RBI and a .300 batting average (all other catchers in baseball history combined have posted nine such seasons).Though the Dodgers gave him his start, Piazza found a home in New York when he was traded to the Mets in May 1998.Three years later, he became a hero to the hometown fans with perhaps the most notable home run of his career. His two-run shot in the eighth inning at Shea Stadium lifted the Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the first sporting event played in New York after the 9/11 terror attacks.Piazza paid tribute to that moment.To witness the darkest evil of the human heart ... will be forever burned in my soul, Piazza said. But from tragedy and sorrow came bravery, love, compassion, character and eventual healing.Many of you give me praise for the two-run home run in the first game back on Sept. 21st, but the true praise belongs to police, firefighters, first responders that knew that they were going to die, but went forward anyway. I pray that we never forget their sacrifice.Attendance was estimated at around 50,000 by the Hall of Fame, tying 1999 for second-most all time. Jordans Shoes Online Wholesale .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Air Jordan Clearance . -- Chicago Bears cornerback Tim Jennings was selected Monday to his second straight Pro Bowl, while guard Kyle Long made it after a solid rookie season. http://www.airjordanoutletsale.com/ .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up. Discount Jordans . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. Wholesale Jordans . As the crowd erupted, Davis knocked the ball off the glass and back into his hands. With 1:14 to go in overtime, Davis sixth block also became his 17th rebound. That, along with his 32 points -- which tied a career high -- proved too much for Denver to overcome, and the Pelicans held on for their third straight victory, 111-107 on Sunday night. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The celebrations are done and the torch extinguished, but now that the Olympics are gone, Rio is left with questions about what will become of the citys plan to convert the Olympic Park into a bustling recreational district with luxury apartments and offices.Amid a continuing national recession, the consortium behind the park has sold less than 7 percent of the Olympic Villages 3,604 apartments, and real estate experts worry a similar fate is ahead for the main Olympic site where the city is hoping private companies build housing and offices in close to half of the parks land.Right now we are in the bottom of a well. Nobody is making offers on apartments, and there are many apartments sitting empty, said Claudio Tavares de Alencar, president of the Latin American Real Estate Society.When Rio de Janeiro was picked as the Olympic host city seven years ago, the country was a darling of the emerging markets. Rich oil fields had been discovered and, in 2010, the nations economy grew by 7.5 percent. Bidding wars for apartments were common then, and in 2005 some 1,500 apartments built for the Pan American Games sold out just hours after they went on the market.The financial landscape is far different now. Brazils economy contracted 3.8 percent last year and is expected to keep shrinking, affected by a slowing demand for iron ore and other commodities. Across the nation, more than 5 million people have lost their jobs since the end of 2014.Theres an oversupply of apartments all over Rio, obvious by the sight of partially built towers. After years of rising, prices per square meter have dropped 6 percent in the last year and a half to 10,241 reals, or about $3,200, according to real estate index FipeZap. With financial institutions charging prohibitively high rates for lending, real estate agencies have begun offering incentives such as honeymoon trips or private school tuition.Rio 2016 organizers and city officials have not talked about how the weak market could affect the potential for development of the 12.7-million-square-foot Olympic Park and its environs. But Leonardo Schneider, vice president of Rios housing union, said residential and commercial space are key pieces of the puzzle and that too many buildings around the park are unfinished or vacant.The problem is how we fill up those apartments, said Schneider. As good as it sounds to live in the Olympic Park, its going to take some time to find occupants and transform the area.Carlos Carvalho, the billionaire who developeed the Olympic Park and village, has infuriated many in a country that desperately needs subsidized housing for saying the athletes village caters to the citys elite.dddddddddddd It is called Ilha Pura -- Pure Island -- and apartments average 1.4 million reals ($435,000), offering amenities such as pools, a spa and a beauty salon. Penthouses of 1,700 square feet go for up to 2.3 million reals ($700,000). Another wealthy developer is building luxury marble and glass high-rise apartments around the Olympic golf course, with units that will start at about $2 million.They are very nice-looking apartments, said Idenir Cunha, a 67-year-old retired physicians assistant who lives in an older complex nearby. If I had the money, I would love to buy one. But in the middle of this crisis, who does?London 2012s village was turned into an affordable-housing complex, where people paid below-market purchase prices. In Rio, a study by real estate data company Geoimovel found that the villages apartments were advertising for well above the average price of most apartments with same features in Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood of flashy shopping malls and lavish high-rise apartments that is home to the Olympic Park and athletes village.Many in Brazil protested the 39.1 billion Brazilian reals, or $12 billion, in public and private money that went to building Olympic venues and infrastructure, and the spending isnt over.The city will pay more than $300 million to dismantle or convert some of the sporting venues inside Olympic Park. The arena that housed fencing and taekwondo will be turned into a school for about 1,000 students with a focus on sport. A racetrack will be added to the park. And salvaged materials from one of the stadiums will be used to build four schools elsewhere, the city says.Brazil faced scrutiny for building expensive venues for the 2014 World Cup that wound up being barely used after the event. Some of the stadiums that cost several times their initial estimates were built in remote areas without first-division soccer teams and are now playing host to weddings or are used as parking lots.With the Olympics, everything was conceived in terms of what it would become after the games, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said this weekend in an interview with Globo TV. As for white elephants? No way, he said.------Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter http://twitter.com/agomezlicon ' ' '