Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Phil Niekro helped cut and eat a white-creamed birthday cake fringed with blue and red icing and topped with a brown 75th birthday logo. The scene was set appropriately enough in front of the plaques presented to the Hall of Fame’s famous inaugural class of 1936 — Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson.