Word: cal
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From a purely baseball point of view, it is difficult to place Cal's record on a par with Aaron's home run record or DiMaggio's hitting streak for one reason: these other players actually had to perform on the field to achieve their marks...
...course a player can't make it through 2,131 consecutive games without being supremely talented and conditioned, as Cal was (and is). But there can be no question that, in the end, Ripken owes his place in baseball history primarilly to Lady Luck...
...matter how fit or determined Cal was, there was no sure way he could avoid a takeout slide at second base or a fastball in the head. All he could do was hope it wouldn't happen. And guess what? It didn...
That's not to say that Cal is unique--sheer luck has helped or harmed the career of every athlete. But in the case of this record, it plays a larger role than ever before...
...entirely different question is whether Cal, as he claimed repeatedly, always put the welfare of the team before the streak...