The Most Meaningless Record in Baseball

Cal Ripken is a decent player. I don't think anybody would seriously mistake him for Brooks Robinson, but he used to hit pretty well for a shortstop. But his range was never very good, so they used to let the grass grow long on the Baltimore infield to slow those hard grounders down, so Cal would have a chance at them. People used to say that he made up with intuition what he lacked in speed-- as if speedy shortstops at the major league level didn't have any intuition. Then they finally moved him to third base where his limited range was less of a liability. And he's still a fairly decent hitter. Well, 12 home runs this year isn't all that special for a third base man... I think Ed Sprague, God help us, has more.

Cal Ripken's real claim to fame, of course, is the streak. Everyone in Baltimore, and sometimes around the league, raves about THE STREAK. Even Sports Illustrated, which usually has more sense, occasionally chips in with a little tribute to the STREAK.

And what is this streak? Consecutive hits? Consecutive 30-home-run seasons? Consecutive successful stolen bases? Consecutive game-winning RBI's? Consecutive put-outs? Consecutive at bats without striking out? Consecutive games without an error? Consecutive games played without the use of steroids?

Nah. You see, those kinds of streaks actually help your team win victories. No, no, no-- Cal Ripken's streak is for showing up at consecutive games. That's right: he shows up. More than 2,600 games in a row by now. Hey, there he is again, Iron Man Cal!

And interesting point here is that nobody else is even close. Why? Because IRON-man Cal is so much more durable than other players, and such a consistent hitter that he deserves to be in the line up every day, whereas poor old Mark McGuire has to sit out once in a while to stay effective?

Nah. Because no other manager in baseball is allowing any other player to develop such a streak. They don't want it. They are deliberately sitting players out once in a while-- even Mark McGuire-- just so they don't get any ideas in their heads about setting a new streak. The truth is that a streak of consecutive games played doesn't help your team win, and, in fact, may even hurt your team's chances. Your manager is forced, every day, to work his line-up around the one immutable fact of your streak. Try out a new, promising third-base man for a game or two? Oops, can't. Try a left-handed batter against this strong righty? Not today, or the next day, or the next week. See if a bit of rest puts some juice back into his line-drives? Oh no, can't break up the streak!

I told some friends about five years ago that I didn't think Baltimore would ever win a World Series as long as Cal Ripken kept his streak going. So far, I've been right. Why? If Ripken is a decent player, and he is that-- though he is vastly over-rated by most-- why does the streak hurt the team? Baseball has become very competitive in the past few years. Teams like Cleveland, long the doormats of the AL, have built themselves into contenders. To maintain such a high level of competitive performance requires that the complete focus of the team be on one goal only: winning as many games as possible. Ripken's streak robs the Orioles of that kind of focus.

Ripken, by the way, is not the saint he pretends to be. He's smart and says all the correct things to reporters, but he's also a prima donna who often travels separately from the team and stays in separate hotels. He pulled strings to get his brother, Billy, the job at second base-- he hit about .200 with no power. The owner of the Orioles, Peter Angelos, loves Ripken and let his father manage the team until it became rather clear to everybody that he was in way over his head. Then he had to be fired, which created a lot of tension with Cal, and again disrupted the team's chemistry.

Cal says, why should I sit out when I can still play? I got news for Mr. Ripken: there's about 10 million other guys who all think they can play too, including your brother Billy. Until the Orioles show that they are willing to make decisions around the success of the team, instead of one player's selfish statistics, the Orioles, and their fans, will be losers. If I became manager of the Orioles tomorrow, the first thing I would do is tell Mr. Ripken that the streak is over.

September 3, 1998