Cal Ripken Jr. is one of the best shortstops in MLB history and revolutionized his position. Even more famous is the Hall of Famer for its incredible series of 2632 games without a break. SPOX introduces the “Iron Man” of the Baltimore Orioles – and looks back on the magical September 6, 1995, when Ripken even left President Bill Clinton speechless.
It was the 1998 All-Star Game and the first appearance of Yankee legend Derek Jeter at Midsummer Classic. On the bench next to him sat a player who had determined the shortstop position for years, no, for more than a decade, and who had already been appointed to the All-Star Team for the 16th time.
So 24-year-old Jeter leaned inquisitively aside and whispered: “What is the secret behind playing every day? How do you do that?”
“You know, Derek, I… I’ll just play.”
As far as pure endurance scores are concerned, a baseball game is certainly not at the top of the list, apart from the starting pitchers. You stand at the plate about three to six times and maybe make it a few times on base, in the defense the balls often don’t go in your own direction, and there are a lot of breaks on top of that.
Nevertheless, a regular player in the MLB is required to have enormous stamina. After all, the season – and many people disbelieve when they hear this number for the first time – has 162 games. Playoffs excepted. These 162 games are whipped through in about six months, so on average you may have a break once every ten days.
If you want to make it through these 162 games in one season, you can’t take too much time off physically and mentally. Added to this are jet lag, training, public relations, illnesses, collisions. Doubleheader or six hours of evening matches, followed by a performance the next day at 1 pm. Enemy pitches aiming at the hip, arm or even face. And, of course, shape variations.
No wonder that only five players have played all of their team’s matches this season.
No wonder Yankee legend Lou Gehrig held the record for most games in a row for more than five decades, from 1925-1939 with an incredible 2,130 games without a break. In return, it was nicknamed “Iron Horse”.
And then came Cal Ripken Jr.
Cal Ripken Jr. was born into a baseball family in 1960: Father Cal Sr. was himself Minor Leaguer and worked his way up as a coach and manager in the Baltimore Orioles farm system, Brother Billy also became a baseball professional. So the MLB career was formally planned for Junior, and although he could also distinguish himself as a pitcher in high school, the Orioles chose him in 48th place in the 1978 draft and used him in the farm system as a shortstop.
Ripken made an extremely untypical figure for a shortstop: In the infield, shortstop, the position between second and third base, is the most important defensively because most balls go in this direction. Traditionally, a rather small, agile player with a long range was used, but in return, he didn’t bring much power to the stroke. Offense was sacrificed in the case for Defense.
Cal Ripken Jr., on the other hand, was shot up to a height of 1.93 metres and weighed over 100 kilograms. Maybe that’s why he had a hard time in the Minors at the beginning, so he switched to third base, a less demanding position that was more like a player of his stature.
But he was also a good athlete, a full professional, who worked constantly on himself and went to work with the highest professionalism. And he was offensively strong and attracted attention in the junior leagues with good power-hitting. In August 1981 he was appointed to the Orioles squad for the first time, and in the following season he went to third base as a regular.
Three months later, he returned to the shortstop position thanks to his manager Earl Weaver. He moved him to the most difficult position in the infield without warning. “I hadn’t played shortstop in two or three years,” Ripken recalled later. “He said to me,’Don’t worry. Just focus on the regular plays. “And when you get used to it again, you can play shortstop like you used to.”
Thus “Rip” became one of the best short stops of all time. Until 1997, the long slag with the ice-blue eyes was the most important man in the infield, won the World Series with the Orioles in 1983 and was twice voted MVP in the American League. He won the Silver Slugger Award eight times for the best offensive player in his position, had a regular place in the All-Star team and ended his career in 2001 as one of only eight players with 400 home runs (431) and 3,000 hits (3,184).
Ripken’s offensive performances alone might have been enough for the Hall of Fame. However, it would be presumptuous to reduce it to this. Rather, he played an excellent shortstop over many years, which delivered much more than just the usual plays. He made up for possible disadvantages in terms of manoeuvrability through obsessive preparation and excellent position play and was constantly among the best fielders to be found. He conducted his teammates – and even called pitches from his position. “He was like a coach on the field,” said Phil Regan, one of his managers, in John Eisenberg’s book The Streak.
He was also the reason why many (general) managers began to rethink: short stops did not have to be small and slender at all. He paved the way for the next generation of powerful short stops like Alex Rodriguez or Miguel Tejada.
But all these achievements, the 19 appearances in the All-Star-Game, even Ripken’s admission to the Hall of Fame 2007, fade behind an achievement that made him an “Iron Man”. An achievement that was included in the list of MLB records that will probably never be broken again.
Cal Ripken Jr. and “The Streak” are inseparable.
Page 1: Ripken revolutionizes the sport
Page 2: Record series! Ripken becomes the Iron Man
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