Cal Ripken Jr.‘s career was a legendary one as he played for 21 seasons, all with the Baltimore Orioles, and was an All-Star for 18 straight seasons (5th all-time) from 1983 until his final season in 2001. A two-time AL MVP, Ripken shined, beginning from his first full season in 1982 when he was not an All-Star but was the AL Rookie of the Year. In other words, his rookie cards aren’t going to show up as All-Star rookie cards, but he did earn some MVP votes.
Some major leaguers and plenty Rookie of the Year award winners fall victim to the aptly nicknamed “sophomore slump,” which is a term used to denote a player having a good first season before the league adjusts to them for his second season. Players who fall victim to such a slump must make their own adjustments in order to find continued success in the majors. Cal Ripken Jr. had no sophomore slump. In fact, his sophomore year was not only the first of his two MVP seasons, but the Orioles won the World Series that season (1983). (Editor’s Note: Ripken caught the final out of that series, a soft liner by Garry Maddox.)
Cal Ripken Jr.’s Two Special MVP Awards
Cal Ripken Jr.’s two AL MVP awards are both special in their own right. The first MVP award (1983) was a massive offensive season for Ripken. He led the AL in WAR, games played, plate appearances, at-bats, runs, hits, and doubles while slashing .318/.371/.517 with an OPS of .888 (144 OPS+), 27 homers, and 102 RBI. What makes the second MVP (1991) so special is that it was eight seasons after the first, and Ripken played in every single Orioles game in between. The Orioles knew they had a durable, dependable shortstop who wasn’t penciled into the lineup, but Sharpied. That’s extremely rare. Players get small injuries throughout a season and those small injuries can add up to something larger and sometimes playing through pain can cause a player to injure himself further. But Cal Ripken Jr. played through all of that like it was simply part of his job.
Why Ripken Was Great
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The two MVP awards, the Rookie of the Year award, the 18 straight All-Star nods, and Ripken’s extreme durability were not the entire story of his career, though he did make history due to his durability. We’ll discuss the history in more depth momentarily. Cal Ripken Jr. led the majors in WAR in three separate seasons (1983-84, 1991). He had more walks than strikeouts in seven separate seasons. Ripken received MVP votes in 10 separate seasons, including his first four full seasons in the majors. He won eight Silver Slugger awards and two Gold Gloves. Ripken finished his career with a .276/.340/.447 slash line with an OPS of .788 (112 OPS+). He averaged 23 home runs, 91 RBI, 33 doubles, 2 triples, and a 5.2 WAR per 162 games.
Cal Ripken Jr. spent his entire 21-season career with the Orioles and is only one of 57 Hall of Famers to complete that feat. The list of names that Ripken joined are household names. They include Mickey Mantle, Walter Johnson, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Bob Gibson, Carl Yastrzemski, Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, Mariano Rivera, Barry Larkin, and Derek Jeter to name a few. Okay, it was more than a few, but look at that list of names!
Cal Ripken Jr., Hometown Ironman
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The Baltimore Orioles selected Cal Ripken Jr. with the 48th overall pick in the second round of the 1978 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Aberdeen High School in Aberdeen, Maryland. Aberdeen is roughly 30 miles away from Baltimore, so Ripken was drafted by his hometown team. Three years later (1981) he was called up for a cup of coffee in the majors, appearing in 23 games and slashing .128/.150/.128 with an OPS of .278 (-19 OPS+). Not yet crossing the rookie status threshold for at-bats of 130, Ripken returned the next season (1982) to win the Rookie of the Year award and never slowed down. It was during the 1982 season that Cal Ripken Jr. began an historic streak of consecutive games played that lasted until 1998.
Lou Gehrig, Hometown Ironman
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The New York Yankees signed 19-year-old Lou Gehrig, who was pitching for Columbia University, on April 30, 1923. Gehrig was born, attended high school, and attended college in New York City, and the Yankees were the hometown American League team. After spending most of his first two seasons in the minors, Gehrig became a true big leaguer during the 1925 season when the rookie slashed .295/.365/.531 with an OPS of .896 (127 OPS+), 20 homers, 68 RBI, 23 doubles, 10 triples, and walked 46 times while striking out 49 times in 437 at-bats. The Rookie of the Year award was not around until 1947, but Gehrig received MVP votes that season. This was the season in which Gehrig began his historic consecutive games played streak that lasted until May 2, 1939.
A two-time MVP award winner, Gehrig received MVP votes in 12 separate seasons. There was no All-Star Game until 1933, but Gehrig earned All-Star nods from 1933 until 1939, which was the final season of his career. The Rawlings Gold Glove Award did not debut until 1957, which was well after Gehrig’s career ended.
Lou Gehrig Afflicted with Rare Disease, Ends Ironman Streak and Career
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After only eight games in the 1939 season, on May 2, 1939, Lou Gehrig decided to sit a few games to see if his body would improve. This ended his consecutive games played streak at 2,130 games, which stood for the next 56 years. He had been dealing with a debilitating, rare, and terminal disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that began afflicting him during the 1938 season. Gehrig did not play in another game. A month later, in June 1939, Gehrig received the diagnosis of ALS and retired shortly thereafter. On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig delivered a famous speech where he referred to his diagnosis as “a bad break” and that he considered himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” for being able to play in ballparks for 17 years while never having received “anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.”
ALS is now widely referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”
Lou Gehrig’s Video Game Career Numbers
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Gehrig had a legendary career and has gone down as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He led the majors in WAR once (AL twice), homers three times, RBI four times (AL five times), doubles once (AL twice), runs three times (AL four times), walks three times, slugging percentage once (AL twice), OPS once (AL three times), intentional walks three times (AL four times), and total bases three times (AL four times). That’s not to mention leading the AL in triples once, hits once, batting average once, on-base percentage five times, and OPS+ three times. Gehrig’s career slash line is a ridiculous .340/.447/.632 with an OPS of 1.080 (179 OPS+) and 113.7 WAR.
Gehrig averaged 37 homers, 149 RBI, 204 hits, 40 doubles, 12 triples, eight stolen bases, and 8.5 WAR per 162 games. Those are video game numbers. He had more walks than strikeouts in 14 separate seasons — in fact, Gehrig had almost a 2:1 career walk-to-strikeout ratio with 1508 walks versus 790 strikeouts. Gehrig’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame came 221 days after his final game at the 1939 Winter Meetings, but there was no induction ceremony until July 28, 2013. There were no induction ceremonies in 1940 nor 1941, and Lou Gehrig passed on June 2, 1941, only about two years after his retirement.
Cal Ripken Jr. Chases Lou Gehrig’s Record
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Cal Ripken Jr. was one of the most durable players in major league history. With health, sometimes it’s the luck of the draw, and Ripken seemingly drew the wild card. Gehrig’s “bad break” was an unlucky draw, but he was the first to say he was blessed to play baseball for so long before drawing that card. Ripken took advantage of his wild card and surpassed Gehrig’s ironman streak of 2,130 games on September 6, 1995. During the month leading up to Ripken breaking Gehrig’s record, Ripken reportedly received death threats.
Ripken’s streak continued for another three years until he decided it was time to sit for a game on September 19, 1998. He looked like he was trying to get comfortable while sitting on the bench, but he simply never belonged there and everyone knew it. Everyone also knew that if there was ever anyone who deserved a day off more than any other major leaguer, it was Cal Ripken Jr.
The 3,000 Hit Club
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Ripken continued making history as he joined the illustrious 3,000 hit club on April 15, 2000. He is the 24th player in major league history to join the club that requires you to club baseballs and to hit it where they ain’t. Lou Gehrig retired only eight games into his age-36 season and averaged 192 hits per season during the final three full seasons of his career. He retired only 279 hits away from joining the 3,000 hit club and likely would have easily made it to that mark within two seasons had it not been for the debilitating and rare disease, ALS.
Cal Ripken Jr.’s final game came on October 6, 2001 at Camden Yards, in the same state where it all began for the Ironman: Maryland. Ripken’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame came on July 29, 2007, a ceremony that drew a still-record crowd.
1989 Upper Deck Pack Unsealing 1
This article is the first in a series in which we open packs of baseball cards on camera. We choose one player card from the pack of cards and do a spotlight on that player. The following is the first video in the series. We hope you enjoy it as there will be many more.
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