Cal Ripken Jr.: More Than Baseball's Iron Man

Baseball Digest, Sept, 2000 by Phil Rogers

Orioles' veteran has distinguished himself not only for his durability, but for collecting 3, O00-plus hits and slamming 400-plus homers

HOLDING COURT ON THE DUGOUT STEPS, CAL RIPKEN JR. SEEMED VERY MUCH a man at peace with his place and time. Another game would begin in about an hour, but Ripken was in no hurry to go screw on his game face.

His inexorable march on 3,000 hits reached its conclusion last April 14 when he lined a single to center field off Minnesota's Hector Carrasco in the seventh inning of Baltimore's 6-4 victory over the Twins at the Metrodome, his third hit of the game. Since the historic mark, there was time for reflection about baseball and life.

Ripken once considered them one and the same, but that has changed in recent years. The death of his father and a new understanding of his mortality have given the 39-year-old Maryland native a new appreciation of every day he wears a Baltimore Orioles uniform.

"So many good things have happened to me in the game of baseball," Ripken said. "When I do allow myself a chance to think about it, it's almost like a storybook career. You feel so blessed to have been able to compete this long."

Ripken is baseball's iron man. And then some.

There is so much more to Ripken, it's almost a shame that his career will be defined by his tireless pursuit of the late Lou Gehrig. Long before Ripken's victory lap around Camden Yards, the dozens of handshakes and stops to chat with fans he knew by name, Ripken was one of those rare guys who could do it all, and his 3,000-hit achievement underscores that. He became the 24th player to reach 3,000 hits.

Ripken always has been among baseball's smartest, most dedicated players. Some believe he is the best shortstop ever. But the one distinction nobody can question is the streak of 2,632 consecutive games.

Now he has another that says at least as much about him as a ballplayer.

"I was relieved," Ripken said after reaching the plateau. "I felt a weight was lifted from my shoulders."

He's only the seventh member of the ultra-select 3,000-hit club also to have 400-plus home runs. The others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Stan Musial, Dave Winfield and Carl Yastrzemski.

Think about those names a moment.

Baltimore natives will talk all day long about Ripken as a complete player. But those who don't remember baseball before the Clinton presidency may think of him only as the guy whose ego wouldn't allow him to take a day off even if he was hurting and the Orioles were out of contention.

The latter perspective overlooks the achievements that got Ripken started on his road to the Hall of Fame. Among them:

* He led the A.L. with 211 hits, 47 doubles and 121 runs scored when he was only 23, leading the Orioles to the world championship.

* He hit between 21 and 34 homers a year from 1982 to '91, when the Orioles were based at Memorial Stadium, not their current bandbox. Although never regarded as a power hitter, he outslugged Cecil Fielder and Ken Griffey Jr. to win a home run contest at the '91 All-Star Game in Toronto.

* He committed only three errors in 161 games at shortstop in '90. Ripken handled 428 consecutive chances without an error at one point in '90. Ripken led A.L. shortstops in double plays eight times, another record.

* His first stolen base was a steal of home, executed during a double steal.

If not for these kind of contributions, Ripken would not have had the chance to become baseball's greatest fixture. But the consecutive-games streak that began innocently enough in 1982 reached such epic proportions that his spot in the lineup became a daily subplot that often overshadowed everything else with the Orioles. It left him open for criticism, including direct or subtle accusations of selfishness.

While the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 7,000 points during Ripken's 17-year streak, stock in him seemed to rise and fall according to the fate of the Orioles. They won the World Series in '83, his second full season, but haven't been back.

"In the past, I considered the emphasis on the streak to be an assault on him," younger brother Billy Ripken, a Baltimore teammate for seven seasons, told the Baltimore Sun. "There was an awful lot of blame pointed his way whenever something went wrong with the Birds. Usually, it was because he was tired and wasn't helping the team. It was venomous, I thought."

Ripken played every day for more than three years after breaking Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games. He took himself out of the lineup on September 20, 1998, which lessened the shock when he went on the disabled list in April and August last year.

Ripken's transformation from the realm of the infinite to the finite was completed in September, when he underwent back surgery.

When Ripken arrived at the Orioles' camp last spring, no one knew how he would hold up. But longtime teammates immediately noticed changes both in Ripken and in the way he is perceived.

"It seems like ever since '95, there has been a question following him," Orioles right-hander Mike Mussina said. "There always seemed to be a question about his motivation for playing every day, then afterward the question about how long he would keep doing it, then the questions about his back. But I guess since Cal sat down, the questions haven't seemed quite as loaded."