25 Years Ago ... 6 Sep 95

[VirginiaLonghorn 4902]

Cal Ripken, Jr. played consecutive game 2131 breaking the previous record established by Lou Gehrig.

P.S.  He went on to play another 501 consecutive games before taking off his first game in 16 seasons.

Edited September 6, 2020 by VirginiaLonghorn

[Beau Vine 55859]

Most overrated baseball feat of my lifetime.

[Guest Lobo]

Most overrated, really?  Yeah, we tend to romanticize it but it was damn impressive given he played a high-volume position, for a shitty team that rarely had to rest him for the playoffs (in the bulk of those middle years), and wasn't just taking token at-bats towards the end and still performed after a long season in October (.336 BA in 28 post-season games).  If playing 162 games every year was so easy, because baseball is so easy, how come more people don't do it?  Particularly spry young Dominicans with access to great drugs?  If he had done the record while clipping .230 and averaging 10 hr's a season, I'd agree and say, "Yeah, who fucking cares...mediocrity 6 games a week for a whole season is just that."  But he performed and excelled for a grueling pace.  

Now, here's the fun fact about Ripken's streak.  He began it in the 1982 season and it ended during the 1998 season.  We know what he did in between, but here's a weird quirk of baseball.  During that whole run, there were SEVEN seasons in which Ripken didn't lead the league, nor tie for the league-lead in games played.  SEVEN times, Ripken...despite his streak wasn't on top of the games player leaderboard.  Now obviously schedule quirks and rainouts will lead to a couple of those, but seven times...he wasn't ahead of the class despite enduring the epic run.  Same thing happened to Gehrig seven times.  The game smiles upon different people in different ways.  

[Helobious 9817]

19 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Most overrated baseball feat of my lifetime.

You serious Clark? I guarantee it will never ever come close to being broken. It’s rare these days to see someone play in more than 150 games in a year.

[Fudge Nuggets 19453]

It’s the equivalent of a QB setting a record for pass attempts on the relevancy scale. 

[Beau Vine 55859]

Everyone else realizes that it's simply not smart to play all 162 games, so they don't.

[gsoda3 3362]

It’s the equivalent of a QB setting a record for pass attempts on the relevancy scale. 

No, it's equivalence on the relevancy scale would be of a football player setting a record for most games played consecutively.

[Fudge Nuggets 19453]

1 hour ago, gsoda3 said:

8 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

It’s the equivalent of a QB setting a record for pass attempts on the relevancy scale. 

No, it's equivalence on the relevancy scale would be of a football player setting a record for most games played consecutively.

Jeff Feagles holds that record.  Wooooh.

[Dewey 3330]

It was espn (surprise)  that hyped this record up, they acted like it was a 200 game hit streak. Everyday it is was , "yep, theres Cal, make that 1,997 games!" 

Its certainly a commendable record, but it certainly was overhyped. The Baltimore Sun sold a record newspapers the day after,  im sure espn enjoyed a ratings boost.