Cal Ripken Jr.’s streak of 2,632 consecutive games may be MLB’s most unbeatable record.
Orioles celebrated the 30th anniversary of Ripken passing Lou Gehrig with game No. 2,131.
Hall of Famers flocked to Camden Yards to relive the magical night.
They trotted out Hall of Famers Eddie Murray and Jim Palmer and even the man who hit the Warehouse on the fly – Ken Griffey Jr. – along with the voices of this town’s most iconic moment, Chris Berman and Jon Miller.
And for a moment, Cal Ripken Jr. was transported back, back, back to 1995.
On the 30th anniversary of that magical Sept. 6, 1995 night when Ripken played in his 2,131st consecutive game, shattering the seemingly unbreakable standard set by Lou Gehrig, Ripken was feted by former teammates and opponents alike, perched atop a red convertible to wave to fans and finally delivered to home plate, where he reflected for a few minutes on this moment in time.
‘Dad used to say, it’s great to be young and an Oriole,’ Ripken, now 65, told a near-sellout Camden Yards crowd of a yarn passed down by Cal Ripken Sr. before the team’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
‘I’ve had the great good fortune to play baseball. I’ve had the great good fortune to play with the Orioles. I’ve had the great good fortune to play against some of the greatest players in the game.
‘And I’ve had the greatest good fortune to play right here in my hometown of Baltimore.”
As hosannas go, it might fall a tad short of Joe DiMaggio’s proclamation that ‘I want to thank the good Lord for making me a New York Yankee.’ Yet for a town and franchise – and feat – that lands on the side of grit and determination and only a dash of showmanship, the phrase fit.
Certainly, the Orioles did their best to convene a gathering of significant figures from a night that, as current Orioles broadcaster Kevin Brown told the crowd, ‘rekindled a belief in the national pastime’ amid the fallout of an ugly labor war.
The teammates who shoved Ripken out of the dugout that night and urged him to take a victory lap when the game was official? Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Palmeiro were there. In the middle of the fifth inning, they recreated the moment, Ripken, Bonilla and Palmeiro all donning Oriole home white jerseys as the pair shoved the Ironman back on the field and he took a few more bows. (The actual game, alas, was not yet official as the Dodgers held a 2-0 lead).
Peers from the Orioles’ last World Series winner in 1983? Al Bumbry and Murray and Palmer were there, along with Hall of Fame pitcher Mike Mussina and slugger Harold Baines.
And Griffey? He merely drilled the Warehouse with a blast from the 1993 Home Run Derby. But iconic moments deserve iconic presences.
Even former President Bill Clinton – in the booth alongside Berman when Ripken blasted a Shawn Boskie pitch over the wall for undoubtedly the timeliest of his 431 career home runs – weighed in via video message.
As Whitney Houston’s ‘One Moment In Time’ played, it all seemed like a trip back in a time machine, at least until the convertible transporting Ripken rolled by the visitor’s dugout. And instead of the California Angels it was the Los Angeles Dodgers (interleague play having debuted in 1997, after all) and future Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman perched on the railing, reaching out to try to smack five with the Ironman.
After Ripken’s remarks and a first pitch thrown out by son Ryan – 2 years old in 1995 – the time for nostalgia was over.
‘It couldn’t have played out any better,’ Ripken told the crowd. ‘That night was a celebration of an old Oriole principle – that we show up each and every day to meet every challenge thrown our way.
‘We played great that night. That simple thought gave great context to the streak. In many ways, I was just following Dad’s instructions and Eddie’s example.
‘That one-day-at-a-time approach turned into 2,632 games in a row.’
And a singular achievement they’re still celebrating.