Streaking Into History Cal Ripken Ties Gehrig At 2,130 Straight Games

The Iron Horse finally heard footsteps Tuesday night. Cal Ripken’s 14-year march into baseball history placed him side-by-side with New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig on Tuesday night, and he is just hours away from an achievement so monumental that it will leave a very famous monument at Yankee Stadium with a serious credibility problem.

No one figured on this when the Yankees placed a stone in center field on July 4, 1941, to honor Gehrig, ” … whose amazing record of 2,130 consecutive games should stand for all time.”

Ripken officially equaled it at Camden Yards when the Orioles left the field in the middle of the fifth inning with a seven-run lead. The mid-game ceremony has become familiar to Orioles fans during a well-orchestrated three-week countdown, but Tuesday night’s sellout crowd of 46,804 exploded into an emotional 5-minute, 20-second ovation when an illuminated No.2,130 was unfurled on the wall of the B&O Warehouse.

The record - once seemingly unapproachable - should fall tonight when the Orioles close out a three-game series with the California Angels. Ripken, who has been in the starting lineup without interruption since May 30, 1982, came through Tuesday night’s game without a bruise, making 2,131 pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Pitcher Scott Erickson helped assure the happy ending with a three-hit shutout as the Orioles won, 8-0, but who’s going to remember the score 30 years from now? The night belonged to a teary-eyed Ripken, who made two curtain calls during the fifth-inning stretch before umpire Al Clark motioned Jeff Manto to the plate, then a third when the crowd forced Manto out of the batter’s box with another deafening roar. Tonight will belong to the ages.

The event is so significant - so steeped in American symbolism - that President Clinton and Vice President Gore are scheduled to attend tonight, apparently becoming the first chief executive and VP to watch a baseball game together outside Washington, D.C. Ripken, with his squeaky-clean image and classic American work ethic, is a spin doctor’s dream, and his record-breaking game provides the perfect photo opportunity for the nascent 1996 presidential campaign.

“It’s a pretty big event for everybody,” said pitcher Mike Mussina, the Orioles scheduled starter tonight. “We’re just fortunate to be on the field with him. He’s been playing so long and he has played with so many people, and we’re going to be out there when he does it. It might be the most impressive athletic accomplishment of our life-time.”

The proof may be in the star-studded guest list for both the tying and record-breaking games. The stands were full of familiar faces Tuesday night, including Hall of Fame quarterback John Unitas, all-time home run king Hank Aaron, Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks, actor Tom Selleck, rock star Joan Jett (who sang the national anthem) and basketball star David Robinson.

“What he has done, well, it would be easier to hit the lottery,” said ex-Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who wrote Ripken into the lineup on Day One and delivered the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday night. “It’s just fantastic … something that I don’t think any generation will ever see again.”

The Streak has always invited comparisons between Ripken and Gehrig, but there was no way to compare Tuesday night’s game with the 2,130th and final game that Gehrig played for the Yankees in 1939. No one would know the significance of that game until a weakened, confused Gehrig took himself out of the lineup the following day and went in search of a medical answer for his rapidly deteriorating physical condition.

He had broken the previous consecutive-games record (1,307 by Everett Scott) nearly six years earlier, so the streak had simply become a way of life. There was no magic number to chase. No banners to unfurl. Nothing but the inevitability that it would have to end sometime.

He died two years later of the rare neuromuscular disease that now bears his name.

Ripken’s attempt to break that record years ago spawned a growing sense of anticipation that erupted in Tuesday night’s midgame and postgame celebrations. The sellout crowd, many of whom had paid ticket scalpers far above face value to get in, reveled in a moment that was both historic and hysteric. No doubt, tonight’s festivities will be even more impressive, with special appearances by members of the starting lineup from the first game of the streak and a postgame speech by Ripken that is certain to bring the house down.

“Nobody’s going to make people forget Lou Gehrig,” said Weaver. “‘Pride of the Yankees’ will still bring a tear to your eyes 30 years from now, but maybe in 30 years, there will also be a ‘Cal Ripken Story.”’

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CAL’S COUNTDOWN President Clinton has accepted an invitation to join Chris Berman and Buck Martinez in the broadcast booth when ESPN televises Ripken’s record-breaking 2,131st straight game tonight at 4:35 p.m. (PDT). Clinton is scheduled to move into the booth in the sixth inning, after the game becomes official. … Two fans from Gettysburg, Pa., who came to Camden Yards without tickets Tuesday night pulled off quite a coup - a pair of upper reserved tickets for $12, a mere $3 over face value…. O’s trainer Richie Bancells on Ripkin: “He’s a quick healer,” Bancells said. “He’s the kind of guy who gets hit by a ball in the first inning, and the bruise is healed by the end of the game.”