BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Streak Amazes, He Should Know

He appeared in every game for 7 1/2 years, ultimately surpassing Billy Williams and setting a National League record of 1,207 consecutive games.

As impressive as that streak remains, Steve Garvey would have needed to play every game for 5 1/2 more seasons to get where Cal Ripken Jr. is.

Extending a streak that began on May 30, 1982, Ripken appeared in his 2,110th consecutive game Tuesday night.

The Baltimore Orioles’ shortstop needs only 21 more to break Lou Gehrig’s major league record of 2,130.

For Garvey, riding the Ripken soul train from his Southern California home, the streak represents an amazing accomplishment.

And particularly, he said, when weighed against the risks and demands of Ripken’s position, the wearying nature of more than a decade of scheduling idiosyncrasies and coast-to-coast travel, and the philosophy of many players to equate less with more.

“What Cal has accomplished is the ultimate statement of a professional player to the game, his organization and the fans,” Garvey said.

“The streak will be remembered as one of the greatest accomplishments in sports and the ultimate example of what a professional athlete’s attitude and approach should be.

“Cal should be an inspiration to his peers and a role model to younger players. He should bring a smile to former players like myself, who may find his attitude, his willingness to play in pain, more characteristic of their generation.

“The tendency now is for a player to put economics first and figure he can squeeze another $6 million or $8 million or $10 million out of the game by pacing himself, playing 140 or 150 games a year.

“I don’t hear many guys talking about playing every game any more, like Pete Rose and Dale Murphy did when I was playing. It should be the ultimate goal, but nobody wants to pursue it.”

In the 13 years of Ripken’s streak, 3,664 players have been on the disabled list. Ripken has had 29 double-play partners at second base, and the other major league teams have started 521 shortstops.

At what point the streak becomes a streak is difficult for either Garvey or Ripken to say. Neither set out thinking about Lou Gehrig or Billy Williams, but at some point, Garvey said, the streak “takes on a life of its own, becoming part of your consciousness, whether you try to think about it or not.”

He added, “It’s 75% philosophy, determination and will, 20% divinity and 5% luck. You’ve got to want to play every day. It’s got to be ingrained, as it obviously is with Cal. Only a few guys have it, or seem to have it.

“You have to be lucky in many instances to escape injury, but you also have to be successful enough to stay in the lineup and you basically have to play for successful teams that aren’t always looking to make changes.”

Garvey’s streak began with the Dodgers and ended with the San Diego Padres. It never captured the widespread attention of fans and media that Ripken’s streak has, possibly because teammates and others perceived Garvey to be more ice man than iron man, whose persona they found a little too planned and perfect.

His was a career worthy of Hall of Fame consideration and Garvey--in demand as a motivational speaker and head of his own management and consulting firm--still finds it strange that he has to defend the type of player and person he was.

He still thinks it strange that, as players draw criticism for sitting out with various excuses, he and Ripken often had to defend their desire to play while people suggested they would benefit from a rest.

With the unbreakable about to be broken, no one now has the temerity to suggest that Ripken should leave the lineup, even though he recently went one for 17 and is batting .233 since the All-Star break, contributing to the Orioles’ 14-19 pratfall out of the American League East race.

It is as if the mellow Orioles have chosen to become mere supporting players to Ripken’s streak.

As baseball searches for positives amid the lingering refuse of the strike, Ripken, perhaps, has become sacrosanct. But veteran relief pitcher Jesse Orosco, frustrated by the team’s play the other day, challenged Ripken or someone to step forward and shake up the Orioles.

“Somebody’s going to have to step up and be a leader,” Orosco said. “Whether it’s Ripken, [Rafael] Palmeiro or [Brady] Anderson, somebody needs to do something. This is too good a team to play like this since the All-Star game.”

Ripken has always led by example. He is not a firebrand, a clubhouse holler guy. Neither was Garvey, who said his own experiences with critics were part of his baseball education.

“Why would someone criticize you for playing every inning of every game?” he asked. “That’s what it’s all about. The criticism was kind of a rude awakening, but I tried to look beyond it, to ignore it.

“I always felt I was contributing whether I was hitting or not. Sure, you have slumps, but it’s not just the hits that count. Your presence on the field is important too. It creates an aura of dependability and stability with your teammates. They know they can depend on you day in and day out.

“I also felt I had a better chance of breaking out of a slump by playing and making adjustments than by missing a game or two.

“It’s easy enough to find reasons to sit out, but it’s a real character builder to play through pain and I generally found I did better when I did. I felt terrible, for example, the day I hit the home run off Lee Smith [in the 1984 playoffs]. I must have gotten hold of something bad the night before. I took a couple swings in batting practice, then had to go in and lie down. It turned out to be one of the two best games of my career.”

Garvey broke Williams’ National League record of 1,117 in 1982 and added another 90 games.

He had a recurring nightmare about learning the Dodgers were playing a rare day game as he drove on the freeway in late afternoon, arriving at the stadium as the last out was made, his streak ending ingloriously.

“A lot of things cross your mind as you approach the goal, in my case Billy Williams,” Garvey said. “If you’re going to miss a game after 7 1/2 years, you want it to be legitimate. You make sure to check the schedule to know when the games are.”

Garvey’s streak ended on a wild pitch in the first inning of the first game of a doubleheader at San Diego.

“Pascual Perez was pitching and it seemed like everything he did was a little different,” Garvey said. “I was on third with two outs when Pascual air-mailed a pitch over the batter’s head. The ball bounced off the padding on the backstop, giving the catcher a play. Perez comes up to take the throw, but instead of positioning himself on the pitcher’s side of the plate, he kind of straddles it. I had to choose between taking his legs out or trying to slide around him.”

Garvey chose the circuitous route with a headfirst slide, but caught a thumb behind Perez’s heel. The dislocation was so severe that it ruptured the ligaments, making it impossible to stabilize.

“I pushed the dislocation in, thinking we could tape it, I could pinch-hit in the second game and then get some real treatment,” Garvey said. “But when I took my other hand away, the thumb just collapsed and I knew it was over.

“There was kind of a hollow, sinking feeling walking up to the clubhouse, but a day later I was able to put it in perspective and feel fortunate to have gone as far as I did.”

Now fourth on the list behind Gehrig, Ripken and Everett Scott, Garvey said, “I look on it as the ultimate expression of my philosophy and contribution to my team and I’ve told Cal he should be proud and happy, that he’s set a shining example and that he should never let anyone talk him into ending the streak merely because someone thinks he needs a rest.”

Ripken is beyond that and will soon pass Gehrig, pushing one of baseball’s unbreakable records to a point at which it is unlikely to be broken again--given that playing every day, as Garvey suggested, is no longer the ultimate goal.