Iron Man Weekend
31 years ago, I had the chance to hold down the left side of the infield with Cal Ripken Jr. as he broke an unthinkable record. 2,130 games in a row, you kidding me? In 1939, Lou Gehrig aka "The Iron Horse," set the record of playing 2,130 consecutive games. To put that in perspective, that is playing every single game for 13.15 seasons. Day in and day out. Waking up hurt, waking up missing your family, struggling, succeeding, feeling sick, feeling great, the Iron Horse pulled through.
56 years later, here I am preparing to field a ground ball and communicating with "The Iron Man" (not Robert Downey Jr., even though that would be sweet in its own way).
Cal then continued to play in 2,632 (in perspective,16.25 seasons without missing a game) games total. Unreal. Not one player will ever touch this record. On top of being a living MLB legend, Cal Ripken Jr. was an absolute incredible teammate. With all of his success and fame, he continued to stay humble throughout.
Fun fact- Ryan Minor is the player who eventually replaced him to stop his record.
Another fun fact: Myself, Brady Anderson, & Mark Smith went back-to-back-to-back in the 2130 game. Can view below. What an atmosphere!
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