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Gwynn's death helped change MLB culture on smokeless tobacco (The Associated Press)

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- Tony Gwynn's death from oral cancer was a turning point in baseball's culture that long tolerated smokeless tobacco.

Baseball's new labor contract, agreed to last week, bans chew among players with no current major league service time. The Hall of Famer's death at age 54 two years ago shook up many in the industry.

''What happened to Tony Gwynn, you don't want that to happen again,'' Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. said Monday at the winter meetings.

Gwynn, a longtime San Diego star, and Ripken, who spent his entire career with Baltimore, were close friends and were inducted into the Hall together in 2007 after their first-ballot elections.