ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995           TAG: 9512270088
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B-4  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press 

ANOTHER OVATION FOR RIPKEN

In a year when baseball needed all the healing it could get, Cal Ripken provided plenty by doing what he always has done.

He went out and played. Every day. Every game.

And in early September, he reached one of the sport's most revered records, playing in his 2,130th consecutive game, matching the mark set by Lou Gehrig. To mark the occasion, he hit a home run.

The next night, Ripken was back for the record-breaker, No. 2,131. And he hit a home run that night, too.

When the record was official, recorded on a huge banner on the B&O Warehouse that sits just outside Baltimore's Camden Yards, the fans interrupted the game with a 22-minute standing ovation, a tribute to what the Orioles iron-man shortstop had accomplished.

``I'd like to think that outpouring was for the game, not me,'' Ripken said.

And then he went out and played again, and again, and again, pushing the record by season's end to 2,153 games.

Ripken's relentless pursuit of Gehrig's record was voted Associated Press Story of the Year on Tuesday, receiving 155 of 252 first-place votes cast by sports editors, broadcasters and writers. The Ripken story finished with 2,221 points, almost a full thousand points ahead of the death of Mickey Mantle, which was second with 1,280.

Third place went to Michael Jordan's return to pro basketball after his baseball adventure (1,213), followed by Northwestern's sudden football success and Rose Bowl bid (1,024). NFL franchise moves, including the midseason announcement that the Cleveland Browns would relocate in Baltimore next season, finished fifth (1,019).

The top five were followed by the end of the baseball strike (986), San Francisco's fifth Super Bowl championship (604), the Cleveland Indians' season (542), Greg Maddux's fourth straight Cy Young Award (521) and the return to tennis of Monica Seles (505)

In the NFL, franchise moves received 14 first-place votes while the 49ers' Super Bowl victory got none.

Ernie Irvan's return to auto racing from near-fatal injuries was No. 20.

LENGTH: Short :   49 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Cal Ripken's pursuit of Lou Gehrig's record was 
          voted top story of the year.