Jayson Stark was 16 years into what is now a 46-year Hall of Fame baseball-writing career when he walked into Baltimore’s Camden Yards on the night of Sept. 6, 1995, knowing exactly what was about to happen and having no idea what to expect.
Baseball’s most iconic moments are usually spontaneous in nature — the thunderbolt of Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of last October’s World Series or Kirk Gibson’s World Series Game 1-winning shot off Dennis Eckersley in 1988; Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th homer in 1974; the climax to Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game in 1956.
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But Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. breaking New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games streak to become baseball’s all-time Iron Man 30 years ago? Heck, you could see this one coming 2,131 miles away.
“Baseball history is normally unexpected — you don’t know when it’s going to be made, how it’s going to be made — and when it happens, that’s where the goose bumps come in,” said Stark, who writes for the Athletic and was a baseball columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995.
“But in this game, everybody walked through the gates knowing exactly what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. The game was going to be halfway over, Ripken was going to have this record, and what more was there going to be? And boy, was I wrong. I’ve never been more wrong about any night I’ve spent at the ballpark.”
Cal Ripken Jr. acknowledges the fans as he gets a standing ovation for playing in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the record set by Yankees legend Lou Gehrig. (Focus On Sport / Getty Images)
Three decades after he broke Gehrig’s record by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game against the Angels, a streak that began in 1982, Ripken insists there was no plan for how he would celebrate when the game became official.
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But neither he nor Major League Baseball could have written a better script for what transpired after Orioles second baseman Manny Alexander caught Damion Easley’s popup to end the top of the fifth inning, and blue-collar Baltimore witnessed the passing of the Iron Man torch to its lunch-pail-carrying son.
As a sellout crowd of 46,272 that included President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Frank Robinson rose to its feet and the banners on the B&O Warehouse behind the right-field bleachers changed from 2,130 to 2,131, fireworks erupted…