Celebrate 2,131 with the Bird Tapes

Twenty-nine years ago today, Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's Ironman record. To commemorate, I'm unlocking part of Ripken's vintage interview and giving you a pop quiz. How much do you really know?

For as long as baseball is played, September 6 will be celebrated in Birdland. On that night in 1995, with the eyes of the entire sports world trained on Baltimore, Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. extended his consecutive-games-played streak to 2,131 in a row, breaking the legendary Lou Gehrig’s major league record — a hallowed mark many had believed was unbreakable for decades after Gehrig’s streak ended in 1939.

I was on hand that night at Camden Yards as a columnist for the Baltimore Sun. Years later, I wrote a book about Ripken’s streak, the night he passed Gehrig and the whole, quirky history of endurance in baseball. Simply titled “The Streak,” the book was shortlisted for the Pen/Faulkner Award honoring the best sports book of 2017. (Anyone interested can click on this link to check out the book.)

Given all that, and with the Bird Tapes going strong, I can’t let September 6 pass without acknowledging and saluting such a hallowed Orioles moment.

It normally takes a paid subscription to the Bird Tapes to access to my vintage interviews with Orioles legends, but in the spirit of 2,131, I’m unlocking part of my conversation with Ripken from 1999, in which he delves in great detail into his father’s influence and his formative years with the Orioles. It’s available below for all to hear.

I’m also giving you a chance to test your knowledge with the 2,131 quiz I’ve put together. If you know all the answers, you’re officially an expert on Ripken, Gehrig, their streaks and 2,131. (The answers are below, after the play button for the interview.)

The 2,131 Quiz

1. In the last game Ripken sat out before his streak began on May 30, 1982, the Orioles’ shortstop was a) Mark Belanger, b) Bobby Bonner, or c) Lenn Sakata.

2. True or false: In the early years of the streak, Ripken not only played in every game but also didn’t sit out an inning for more than five years.

3. When Gehrig became baseball’s all-time Ironman in 1933, he broke the major league consecutive-games record held by a) Ty Cobb, b) Everett Scott, or c) Babe Ruth.

4. True or false: Like Ripken years later, Gehrig started every game of his streak with the intention of playing nine innings.

5. On the night of 2,131, the Orioles’ manager was a) Davey Johnson, b) Phil Regan, or c) Johnny Oates.

6. True or false: Rock star Joan Jett, one of the Orioles’ most passionate fans, sang the national anthem on the night of 2,131.

7. After the bottom of the fifth inning, when the game became official and Ripken officially had broken the record, he took an impromptu celebratory lap around the field that lasted a) 12 minutes, b) 22 minutes or c) 44 minutes.

8. True or False: Ripken not only hit a home run on the night he passed Gehrig, but also the night before, when he tied Gehrig.

9. The winning pitcher for the Orioles on the night of 2,131 was a) Scott Erickson, b) Mike Mussina, or c) Kevin Brown (the pitcher, not the broadcaster).

10. True or false: When Ripken broke Gehrig’s record, he became the world record holder for consecutive games played.

11. True or false: Current MASN broadcaster Ben McDonald, a teammate and close friend of Ripken’s during the streak, missed 2,131 because he was on a rehab assignment as he recovered from a shoulder injury.

12. After he broke the record, Ripken continued to play every day for another a) 251 games, b) 501 games, or c) 1,001 games before deciding to end his streak.

13. On the night Ripken ended his streak, he was replaced in the Orioles’ lineup by a) Mike Bordick, b) Jeff Reboulet, or c) Ryan Minor.

14. True or false: No major leaguer has played in as many as a thousand games in a row since Ripken, let alone approached his record.

Here’s the Ripken interview:

(To hear the rest of my interview with Ripken and gain access to my entire archive of vintage interviews with Orioles legends such as Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Earl Weaver, Eddie Murray and many others, click on this link and upgrade to a paid subscription.)

Quiz Answers:

1. Bonner started at shortstop for the Orioles in the second game of a doubleheader on May 29, 1982. Early in his pro career, Ripken was awed by Bonner, who’d come from college baseball and was more developed. The Orioles had hoped Bonner could replace Mark Belanger, but he withered under manager Earl Weaver’s relentless scrutiny, creating a positional opening Ripken eventually filled.

2. True. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Ripken played in 8.264 straight innings, easily the longest such streak in major league history. It ended on September 14, 1987, when his father, as manager of the Orioles, pulled him from a game in Toronto after the top of the eighth inning, with the Orioles trailing, 18-3.

3. Everett Scott, a shortstop more proficient in the field than at bat, received considerable renown for playing in 1,307 straight games between 1916 and 1925, effectively introducing the idea of a durability streak in baseball. He was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in the middle of the streak.

4. False. Gehrig barely played in a handful of games during his streak. While dealing with a bad back on July 14, 1934, he led off the game with a single and was removed for a pinch runner. In a 1975 paper, a SABR researcher reported that Gehrig was relieved by a pinch hitter eight times, by a pinch runner four times and in the field 64 times during his streak.

5. Regan was near the end of his only season as the Orioles’ manager. He had replaced Oates, and was replaced by Johnson in 1996.

6. False. Jett sang the national anthem at Camden Yards on September 5, the night Ripken tied Gehrig. Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis played the national anthem on the night Ripken passed Gehrig.

7. After Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Palmeiro pushed him out of the Orioles’ dugout with orders to acknowledge the fans, who wouldn’t stop cheering, Ripken took a counterclockwise lap around the field that lasted 22 minutes.

8. True. Ripken only hit 17 home runs in 613 plate appearances in 1995, but he saved his best for when the whole sports world was watching,

9. In a vintage performance, Mussina gave up two runs on five hits and struck out seven before leaving the game with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Rather incredibly in hindsight, he threw 140 pitches. (Erickson was the winer the night before.)

10. False. After Ripken passed Gehrig, he was still shy of the record held by Sachio Kinugasa, a Japanese star who’d played in 2,215 straight games between 1970 and 1987. Kinugasa flew in from Japan to see Ripken break his “world” record in Kansas City on June 14, 1996, and the two became friends.

11. False. The Orioles wanted to send McDonald on a rehab assignment right before 2,131, but with the team 20 games out of first place in early September, and thus, nothing at stake, McDonald balked and asked if he could wait until after 2,131 to begin his rehab assignment. The Orioles let him stay in Baltimore to see 2,131.

12. When Ripken chose to sit out the last game of the 1998 season, he had played in 2,632 straight games — 501 more than the night he passed Gehrig.

13. Minor was a rookie playing in just his ninth major league game when he replaced Ripken at third base on the night the streak ended.

14. False. Miguel Tejada played in 1,152 straight games for the Oakland A’s and the Orioles between 2000 and 2007. But he was still more than nine seasons of games away from Ripken’s record when his streak ended. And with the rise of analytics leading to a decline in the perceived value of playing every day, no other player has come anywhere close to Ripken’s record, which truly has the look of a mark that will never be broken.