Profile: Cal Ripken Jr., the Iron Man of Baseball

For sixteen straight seasons, Cal Ripken Jr. never took a day off work. In the process, he became baseball’s “Iron Man” and one of the great hitters of all time. His manly example on the field carries beyond sports and into all areas of life. One might think about the success men could have if they approached their labor or leisure with Ripken’s incredible work ethic.

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On May 30, 1982, the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 6–0 at Memorial Stadium. Rookie Jim Gott pitched six innings to pick up the win, while Orioles legend Jim Palmer threw eight tough innings but came away with the loss. It was just another day in major league baseball, except for one man—the Orioles’ scrawny, twenty-one-year-old third basemen who went 0-for-2 that day: Cal Ripken Jr.

Little did he know, but May 30, 1982, would mark the start of baseball’s longest consecutive game streak. Ripken started that game, the next one, every game of the 1982 season, the 1983 season, the 1984 season, and so on. When his streak finally came to an end on September 20, 1998, Ripken had played a record 2,632 consecutive games—an unbelievable sixteen seasons in a row.

On the way, Ripken shattered Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutives games in 1995, making him the new “Iron Man” of baseball. He won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1983 and 1991, and he currently holds the Baltimore franchise records in games played, at bats, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, total bases, runs batted in and extra-base hits.

A Major League baseball season is a grueling 162-game marathon. Traveling from city to city all across America, fighting injury and sickness, professional baseball players rarely play every game of an entire season. How many of us can even say we attend work or school that many days in a row?

Ripken famously said, “As long as I can compete, I won’t quit.” He had a tenacity and perseverance of will that is rarely seen in life, let alone in the world of sports. Ripken once remarked, “Stubbornness is usually considered a negative, but I think that trait has been a positive for me.”

The game of baseball takes incredible skill and talent—throwing 90-mph fast-balls or hitting a vicious head-to-toes curveball. Ripken set hitting and fielding records of his own and is recognized as one of the greatest shortstops of all time, yet he did something great that we can all relate to—he committed himself to his work every day of his career.

He said, “Whether your name is [Lou] Gehrig or [Cal] Ripken, [ Joe] DiMaggio or [ Jackie] Robinson, or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do.”

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Ripken’s work ethic and attitude were contagious. He was one of the most respected baseball players in the league and deservedly so. The great Yankees’ manager Joe Torre said, “Cal is a bridge, maybe the last bridge, back to the way the game was played. Hitting home runs and all that other good stuff is not enough. It’s how you handle yourself in all the good times and bad times that matters. That’s what Cal showed us. Being a star is not enough. He showed us how to be more.”