Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508210085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Energizer Bunny?
As Ripken keeps going and going toward Gehrig's major-league record of 2,130 consecutive games played, baseball is reminded of an earlier time.
Ripken may have a base salary of $6 million this season - Gehrig was paid $405,905 in his career - but the Baltimore shortstop plays the game with a blue-collar approach.
It isn't just that Ripken plays every day, it's how he plays.
Barring an injury or a rain out - or, horror of horrors, some laborious intervention by Bud Selig or Don Fehr - Ripken will break Gehrig's record on the night of Sept.6 at Camden Yards against California.
Gehrig's standard is another of those that ``will never be broken,'' just as Babe Ruth's 714 homers was thought to be until Hank Aaron - another indefatigable gentleman like Ripken - hammered past the first ball yard legend with Baltimore roots.
There is a misguided notion - advanced again recently by a New York Times columnist - that Ripken should take a day off as an appreciation for the game's history and to preserve Gehrig's place in history and heroic status.
That's inane. Besides the fact that baseball needs some propping up, Gehrig isn't going to be forgotten, just as Mickey Mantle won't be forgotten.
Gehrig has the sad, debilitating disease that ended his games streak named for him, but that certainly isn't his only legacy. He is an iron horse in history, too.
As Ripken approaches Gehrig's record, maybe the major consideration should be how long will the Orioles' star continue to play every game. After all, Gehrig didn't play the most consecutive games in baseball history.
That record belongs to Sachio Kinugasa, former third baseman of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. The Japan Central League legend played 2,215 consecutive games, 85 more than Gehrig, from 1970 until his retirement in 1987.
Ripken could catch Kinugasa in June of 1996. It would stand to reason that Ripken will keep playing, if for no other reason than Gehrig's streak hasn't seemed to consume him. He plays on because, to him, there's no reason to ask out of the lineup.
Besides, perhaps Ripken's own streak should be put into a different context than Gehrig's shadow. Ripken's run is more impressive when compared with that of his peers.
Larrupin' Lou performed in an era when playing every day was more common. Ripken was one of only five major-leaguers to play each of his team's games last season, even though it was a strike-shortened one.
Frank Thomas ranks second among active players in consecutive games played. The Chicago White Sox's first baseman still is about 1,900 games behind Ripken. Beginning the season, Florida's Jeff Conine had the second-longest streak. He was at 277, Ripken at 2,009.
Impressive numbers, sure. However, they don't stand by themselves. The longest previous consecutive games streak by an Oriole belongs to Steve Brodie, who had 547 for the old National League Birds back in the 1890s. Brodie was Roanoke's first major-leaguer.
Back when Ripken's streak began, in 1982, the only question surrounding his career was manager Earl Weaver's decision to move the 6-foot-4 rookie from third base to shortstop. Too tall, some said.
So, he's the tallest shortstop ever to play regularly in the majors. And play regularly, he does. If Ripken finishes the season with his streak intact, he will have played every Baltimore game for 13 consecutive seasons.
The last time he didn't start was May 29, 1982, when Floyd Rayford played third in the second game of a doubleheader after Cal had started the opener. The next day Ripken was back. A month later, Weaver moved him to short.
Ripken played 8,243 consecutive innings from 1982-87. His father, Cal Sr., ended that streak as Orioles manager by removing him in the eighth inning of a late-season rout by Toronto.
He has left in the first inning of two games during the streak - by ejection. Only four other times has Ripken gone to the showers before the seventh-inning stretch.
He's played more than 99 percent of the Orioles' innings during the streak. He has played more consecutive games at one position than anyone else in baseball history. Ripken has started every game of his streak; Gehrig started 2,128 of 2,130.
Two other figures stamp Ripken as special. During his streak, more than 3,400 other players have gone on the disabled list. The other 27 major-league clubs have used a total of more than 470 starting shortstops.
The last thing Ripken and baseball need now is a break of any kind.
by CNB