Word: ripken
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...fans, the choice is an easy one - play the man. Even though he's not playing well, Ripken is the leading vote-getter at third base for this year's All-Star Game in Seattle on July 10. And, on the day he announced his pending retirement, all 19,600 remaining tickets for the Orioles' Sept. 30 season-ending game at Yankee Stadium were sold...
...each final stop in American League cities (see chart) Ripken will receive adulation reserved for an athlete who was the antithesis of the ills fans identify with modern sports - free agency that tests players' loyalties and the erosion of commitment caused by inflated salaries. (Buy tickets to those games. Cal will play...
...Ripken's final home game will be played on Sunday, Sept. 23. It'll be a bittersweet day for all baseball fans, but most of all for the citizens of Baltimore. He's theirs. Always was, for 21 years. It's an anomaly in today's sporting culture that a player could span his entire Hall of Fame career in one city. Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Roger Clemens - all traveling salesmen by comparison. We cheer uniforms, not players (who can keep track?) these days, but Ripken made it easy to be an Orioles...
...though it's been a few years since he was the best player in baseball, it's worth remembering when Cal Ripken was. Ripken was named Rookie of the Year in 1982 and led the O's to their last World Series title in 1983, his first of two MVP seasons (1991 the other). He's made 18 straight appearances in the All-Star Game, smashed his 400th home run in September 1999 and collected his 3,000th hit in April 2000. Pundits have questioned for some time whether Ripken should have already hung up the spikes, but really...
...NOTES: Ripken is one of only seven players to amass more than 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. The six others are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Stan Musial, Dave Winfield & Carl Yastrzemski... Pete Rose owns the 11th- and 15-longest playing streaks in major league history (745; 678). The sum of those streaks still falls 1,209 games short of Ripken's mark... Ripken holds the major league record for home runs hit by a shortstop, with 345... 5,045 players were put on the disabled list from the time Ripken started his consecutive games streak...