Legends earn immortality
BALTIMORE — Cal Ripken Jr. will forever be known as the Iron Man, a fitting title for the most durable athlete in the rich history of the sport known as America's Pastime.
The nickname captures the perseverance of the former Baltimore Orioles star, who played in 2,632 consecutive games from 1982-98. It would be an injustice, however, to summarize the spectacular 21-year career of Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. solely by The Streak.
In assessing Ripken's affect on baseball, his peers and the fans who cheered for him, there are two words more appropriate than Iron & Man: awe and respect. It wasn't so much that he participated in 2,632 games; it's how he played them.
"You are who you are, and you hope your actions show who you are. But at the same time, I worry about what the kids pick up from the game," Ripken said. "You're representing the game, your team and the organization at the same time, as well as yourself. In looking back, I'm pretty proud that kids looked at me in a certain way."
Ripken rarely missed infield practice or batting practice. And, of course, he never skipped a game for nearly 17 years.
Ripken's consecutive games streak may never be broken, but that's not the only record he owns that just might last forever. In 1990, he made only three errors at shortstop over 161 games. Along the way, he set a record at the position with 95 straight errorless games and 428 successive errorless chances.
"Not everybody knows what a good shortstop he really was," said Earl Weaver, Ripken's first manager and member of the Hall of Fame. "I don't think there's any way that anybody is going to play over 150 games at shortstop and make three errors or less."
Ozzie Smith gained entry to the Hall of Fame because of his fielding prowess, but the fewest errors he had in a season in which he played at least 150 games was eight. And, the Wizard of Oz never came close to duplicating the .996 fielding percentage Ripken had in 1990.
