Cal Ripken Jr. Biography

1960-

American baseball player

Merely going on his playing accomplishments—a much-admired all-around slugger/shortstop, several Golden Glove and Player of the Year honors—Cal Ripken, Jr. may well be placed among professional baseball's elite. But beyond his talent, Ripken demonstrated a devotion to his game and to his team, the Baltimore Orioles, that moved him into the pantheon of sport's most notable figures. He became an embodiment of dedication by missing not a single game from his start in 1983 until 1995, when he broke Lou Gehrig's longstanding record of consecutive games played at 2,131. It would be another five hundred consecutive games before Ripken would finally "sit out" a Major League contest. "You gotta play as many games as you can," he told Ralph Wiley in a 1990 Sports Illustrated interview. "Since there are so many possible plays, you can't get it all unless you're there every day. You can't get it from a book. You play games."