Gwynn was the 11th player to collect all 3,000 hits with one team. George Brett of the Kansas City Royals and Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers were the last to achieve the milestone for one team in 1992. He played his entire career for San Diego, a rarity for his generation in an era of free agency. "In this era it doesn't happen. It takes a little bit of loyalty and luck. It also takes the organization wanting a player to stay with the club", said Gwynn. He regularly took less money to keep his family rooted in San Diego, which prompted criticism from the MLBPA for his setting a lower market value for other star hitters. Gwynn earned $47 million as player, but never received more than $6.3 million in a season, nor signed a contract valued over $12.25 million. Only 17 MLB players have played at least 20 seasons with one club. He is widely considered the greatest Padres player ever. "There's simply no bigger figure in baseball that San Diego's ever had", said former teammate Trevor Hoffman. "The San Diego Union-Tribune" placed Gwynn No. 1 in their 2014 ranking of the city's most influential sports figures. He eschewed the added fame that might have come from playing elsewhere, opting instead to stay with the small-market team that had just seven winning seasons and three playoff appearances during his two decades with them. Gwynn transcended sports and became a civic icon. "It's rare, and becoming rarer, that one man is so identified with a franchise and a city as Tony is with San Diego and the Padres", said political columnist and baseball writer George Will. Grantland called him "quite simply, one of the most beloved figures in the history of the city of San Diego."