Cal Ripken Jr.

Cal Ripken Sr. was in Topeka, Kansas, with one of his minor league clubs the night his son was born, which is roughly how the childhood went. The family kept a house in Aberdeen, Maryland, and spent the rest of the year following the father through the Orioles' farm system, where the boy took fielding instruction from whatever professionals happened to be in camp. At Aberdeen High School he played shortstop and pitched. In the 1978 state championship game, seeing rain coming and knowing the game would have to be replayed if it did not reach the fourth inning, he threw to first base nine times to stall. It was washed out. A week later he struck out 17 and won it.

He played 21 seasons and never for anyone but Baltimore. Rookie of the Year in 1982, American League MVP in 1983 and again in 1991, a World Series ring in his second full season, 19 All-Star selections, 3,184 hits and 431 home runs. He stood 6 feet 4 inches at a position built around small quick men, and answered by leading the league in assists and setting the season fielding record for shortstops. He hit more home runs at short than anyone before him, then moved to third base for his last five years. Then there is 2,632.

Six games into the 1988 season the Orioles fired his father as manager. Ripken kept playing, every day, through an 0-21 start that remains the worst in the modern game. Not everyone read the run as a virtue. In 1993, with Ripken slumping badly, Bobby Bonds called playing him every day idiotic and said that as his manager he would have sat him down. Cal Sr. himself had pulled his son from a blowout in 1987 to end a streak of 8,243 consecutive innings, and called that streak a burden he had to lift sometime. Orioles fans booed Ripken through the 1990 slump and again in 1992. The argument has never closed: whether the record served the team, or only the number.

When he passed Gehrig on September 6, 1995, the sport was in disgrace. A players' strike had cut off the 1994 season and killed the World Series, the first cancellation since 1904, and the crowds had not come back. The banner on the warehouse behind Camden Yards turned to 2,131 after the bottom of the fifth, and his teammates shoved him out of the dugout to run a lap of the warning track while 46,272 people stood for 22 minutes. Fans voted it the most memorable moment in the history of the game, ahead of Jackie Robinson's debut. In 2007 the writers elected him to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, 537 votes of 545.

Cal Ripken Jr.'s life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Cal Ripken Jr. Lifelong Learning Center company
  Adult literacy center founded with his wife Kelly 1988
• The Only Way I Know book
  Autobiography with Mike Bryan, a New York Times bestseller 1997
• Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation company
  Baseball programs for underserved children, founded with his brother Billy 2001
• Aberdeen IronBirds company
  He bought the Utica Blue Sox and moved them to his hometown 2002
• Play Baseball the Ripken Way book
  Fundamentals manual written with Billy Ripken and Larry Burke 2005
• The Ripken Experience, Myrtle Beach building
  A nine-field youth complex that cost 26 million dollars 2006

• August 10, 1981 aged 20 Debuts as a pinch runner and scores the winning run He ran for Ken Singleton in the 12th inning against Kansas City.
• May 30, 1982 aged 21 Plays the first game of what becomes the streak He had sat out the second game of a doubleheader the day before. He would not miss another for 16 years.
• October 16, 1983 aged 23 Makes the final putout of the World Series He caught a Garry Maddox line drive to finish the Phillies. He hit .167 in the series and was named AL MVP for the season.
• April 12, 1988 aged 27 The Orioles fire his father six games into the season Frank Robinson took over. The team went on to lose its first 21 games.
• September 6, 1995 aged 35 Passes Lou Gehrig in his 2,131st straight game The ovation ran more than 22 minutes. President Bill Clinton was in the stands.
• September 20, 1998 aged 38 Ends the streak himself at 2,632 games He sat out the last home game of the season. Ryan Minor, the rookie sent out in his place, at first thought it was a prank.
• March 25, 1999 aged 38 Cal Ripken Sr. dies of lung cancer at 63 He had spent 36 years in the Orioles organization. His son hit .340 that season, the best average of his career.
• April 15, 2000 aged 39 Singles off Hector Carrasco for his 3,000th hit Eddie Murray, coaching first base for the Orioles, was the first to reach him.
• January 9, 2007 aged 46 Elected to the Hall of Fame on 537 of 545 ballots Eight votes short of unanimous. Tony Gwynn went in with him.

• Lou Gehrig 1903–1941
  Yankees star whose durability, performance, and public farewell became enduring symbols of courage. broke the record of
• Joe DiMaggio 1914–1999
  Yankees center fielder whose hitting streak and celebrity made him an enduring symbol of mid-century America. honored by
• Jackie Robinson 1919–1972
  First African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era, breaking the color barrier. voted ahead of
• Hank Aaron 1934–2021
  Baseball slugger who broke Babe Ruth's home run record amid racist threats and hostility. passed the record of