Birthday No. 35, Game No. 2,119 : Baseball: Thursday is just another work day for Cal Ripken Jr., who is 11 work days short of Gehrig’s record.
Cal Ripken Jr. celebrated his 35th birthday Thursday night as he has celebrated every birthday since he was 21. He started at shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles.
The game against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium was his 2,119th consecutive start. Barring injury or rainout he will tie Lou Gehrig’s seemingly insurmountable record of 2,130 consecutive games on Sept. 5 in Baltimore and break it on Sept. 6.
For Ripken, who has always insisted the streak is merely an extension of his work ethic and approach, of his desire to play every day, another game represented the best of all birthdays.
“In a corny sort of way I was always glad my birthday came in summer because summer to me means baseball and I’d always be able to play baseball on my birthday,†he said Thursday. “In a corny way you can run with that any way you want.â€
Corny or not, the Ripken philosophy has brought him to where some are suggesting he should discard it before he breaks the record. Robert Lipsyte, in a New York Times column, and Larry King, in USA Today and on his national TV show, said this week that Ripken should end the streak when he has tied the record or come within a game of tying it as a tribute to Gehrig.
“I guess the fascinating part or interesting part is how everyone relates to the streak in their own special way, and I think that’s great,†Ripken said, adding that the streak to him just means he wants to play and considers it important that he does.
“As to how it should end, how it should wrap up, whether I should take a day off, my view is simple,†he said. “I didn’t set out to do this, and [with] everything I’ve said over the years about just going out and playing, it would be contradictory of me to map out some sort of strategy in which I said, ‘OK, I’m going to take a day off [before or after the record is broken],’ because it would mean I was playing for the streak and that the streak was important to me.
“I’m proud of what the streak has become, I guess, but not for the same reason everyone else is. I think it’s important to be accountable to my team and my teammates by being in the lineup, and if I get to that point [of having tied or broken the record], hopefully my approach would be the same as it is today or the day before or the day before that.â€
Nevertheless, Ripken said, he and his family will experience a “sense of relief†when he has passed Gehrig. The momentum, he said, is building and “it impacts you and everyone around you†to the extent that “you feel it during every part of the day.†Positive stress, he called it. A distraction at times. Overwhelming at times. Scary at times.
A man identifying himself as Lou Gehrig Jr. phoned a death threat Wednesday night to the Seattle Kingdome, where the Orioles were playing. There was another threat in Boston recently.
Kevin Hallinan, baseball’s security chief, was in Anaheim on Thursday night, having assigned an agent to travel with Ripken several weeks ago. Four uniformed members of the Anaheim Police Dept. stood behind Ripken as he signed autographs near the dugout railing during batting practice Thursday.
Ripken, who at times has registered under an alias on the road and opted not to stay at the team hotel, called the latest incidents unfortunate, saying he would hope a baseball player could be treated like anyone else, “but it’s out of my control, something I have to deal with and go on. I’m not going to let it take the joy out of playing, and I’m not going to let it inhibit the way I lead my life. I’m not worried about it.â€
Ripken came to Anaheim with a .260 average, 12 home runs and 60 runs batted in. He first went to bed at about 8 Thursday morning after the club’s charter flight from Seattle was delayed because of mechanical problems. He was still yawning when he arrived 30 minutes late for a stadium news conference, saying he had overslept.
“If ever I was going to miss a game this would be it,†Ripken said.
He didn’t, of course. There was a birthday to celebrate.
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