THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060608
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
An initial reaction is that Harvey Rosenfeld's lifeless writing in ``Iron Man: The Cal Ripken Jr. Story'' (276 pages, St. Martin's Press, $22.95) doesn't do justice to the living legend who will play in his record 2,131st major league game tonight.
Looking further, though, maybe it does. Ripken is nothing if not straightforward, earnest and simple, in terms of how he sees his job and how he chooses to do it. That jibes with the style of this biography.
Rosenfeld, in tracing Ripken's life from childhood to the winter of 1994 and meticulously through every season of ``The Streak,'' somehow avoids leaving the reader with an emotional feel for the remarkable Baltimore Orioles shortstop.
There is plenty of basic chronological information and repetitive background from many who played a part in Ripken's life, from his parents Cal Sr. and Vi, his siblings, former teammates and baseball executives. However, the future Hall of Famer never is brought to life.
Compounding that disappointment, readers must wade, cringing, through Rosenfeld's dank pool of cliches - abundant nods to ``third sackers,'' ``round-trippers,'' ``twin killings,'' and ``the Earl of Weaver.''
Also, after the first few references, we get the point that Cal Ripken Sr., the former Orioles coach and manager who practically invented the word ``gruff,'' took pride in never looking upon his son as anything but another ballplayer. This is beaten into our heads.
That said, it's obvious Ripken gets much of his work ethic from his father, though essentially he was raised by his mother. Vi Ripken was the one who packed up the family in Aberdeen, Md., every summer to join Cal Sr. as he managed in one minor league outpost after another.
The best part of ``Iron Man'' are the scenes in which Ripken's unearthly fortitude and dedication are described through quotes from different periods of his development. Rosenfeld effectively intersperses old articles with more recent interviews to foreshadow and illustrate the importance Ripken places on always being able to be counted on.
Which is the primary reason for his streak. Ripken didn't intend to play 2,131 straight games. It happened simply from being good, healthy and prepared enough to go to work each day. And because Ripken grew up idolizing the Orioles of his youth, none more than Brooks Robinson, it is clear he cherishes the idea of being a role model.
He wants children to idolize him, Ripken said in 1983. ``The best thing that can be said about an athlete in my opinion is that he's consistent and does the job time after time,'' Ripken said.
It is appropriate that Ripken played in the longest professional game in history, 33 innings between Triple-A Rochester and Pawtucket in 1981. It is interesting to read of Ripken's eerie recuperative powers the two times his streak was threatened by injury.
And it is incomprehensible to think that Ripken, who as a shortstop plays in harm's way more than anybody but a catcher, has not missed an Orioles game since May 30, 1982. And that 8,243 innings beginning June 5, '82 - 904 games - were played in succession.
Steady on. Ripken delights in characterizations of himself as boring. What manages to come through in the unspectacular ``Iron Man,'' however, is the unshakeable knowledge that as a model for kids, adults and even the morally bankrupt industry of baseball, there is none more right. by CNB