Ripken, Gehrig connect

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Deep in the belly of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cal Ripken Jr. donned the customary white gloves used to handle the treasured artifacts of bygone times and gently picked up the weather-beaten glove Lou Gehrig wore when he starred for Columbia University.

“There was no such thing as a backhand with that,” Ripken marveled.

In the blink of an eye, baseball’s iron men were connected again on Wednesday.

Gehrig, the New York Yankees Hall of Famer who played in 2,130 straight games, and Ripken, the man who broke what once was considered an unsurpassable mark, playing in 2,632 straight for the Baltimore Orioles.

In less than three months they will be connected forever when Ripken is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“In some ways, I’ve been trying not to think about it,” Ripken said. “I guess the process has begun. I can’t put it off anymore.”

Ripken, who played his entire career with the O’s, mainly as a shortstop, was elected in January along with former San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn.

On this day, during the Hall of Fame tour given to each future inductee, it didn’t take long for the emotions to strike.

Ripken held bats once wielded by Babe Ruth and Rabbit Maranville, gazed at the Honey Boy Evans Trophy given to Ty Cobb for winning the American League batting title in 1911, saw Gehrig’s jersey from 1939, his final season.

It felt good to at last be so close to the “Iron Horse.”

“When the comparisons to Lou Gehrig’s unbreakable record kept being made, I think I pushed Lou away and didn’t want to know about him, didn’t want to change my approach,” Ripken said. “Now in hindsight, you wish you had the chance to ask him what he was thinking, how he went through it.

“I’d love to be able to know the answer from him. Was it an extension of his approach? Did it happen by accident or did he actually set out to do that? Here, you’re able to hold his glove, get a feeling of who he was, but you still don’t get to ask the question.”

When Ripken entered the photo library, a table of images from his baseball life greeted him. Pictures of him, his dad, Cal Ripken Sr., and brother Billy were alongside original scorecards from four signature games of Ripken’s career – the 2,131st game, the final game of the streak in 1998, and one from the final game of his career.