Ripken Continues His Other Streak in Tying Gehrig : Baseball: Solid play that has highlighted career on display as he hits home run, makes fine defensive plays in 2,130th game in row.

Earl Weaver, the legendary former manager of the Baltimore Orioles, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Camden Yards on Tuesday night.

His catcher, Cal Ripken Jr., was playing out of position, but more unusual was what happened next. Weaver pulled out a pen and asked Ripken to autograph the ball.

Why not? The Oriole shortstop was about to put his signature on a hallowed baseball record, appearing in his 2,130th consecutive game to tie Lou Gehrig.

On his night of nights, the 35-year-old Ripken showed no slippage.

He slugged his 14th home run, singled twice and handled five ground balls flawlessly as the Orioles hammered six home runs--four in the second inning--in an 8-0 rout of the shell-shocked Angels.

“I’m not in the business of script writing, but if I was, this would be a good one,” Ripken said of his and his team’s performance and the frequent and emotional tributes from a sellout crowd of 46,804.

Providing he negotiates the 20-minute drive from his home in Reisterstown, Md., Ripken should break the record tonight, when President Clinton and Vice President Gore head the guest list.

Tuesday night’s crowd saluted its hometown hero with standing ovations at every opportunity, stopping the game for more than five minutes when it became official following the top of the fifth inning.

As the banners hanging from the B&O; Warehouse behind the right-field bleachers were updated from 2,129 to 2,130, the lights from thousands of cameras flashed throughout the stands, balloons and streamers soared into the warm night and the sustained cheers of the crowd, joined by the umpires and Angels, brought Ripken out of the dugout for three curtain calls, interrupting the handshakes of his teammates.

“This is something no generation will ever see again,” said Weaver, who joined the celebration from his box seat.

“Winning the lottery is easier than playing 2,130 straight games. It’s fantastic.”

The crowd displayed its appreciation again during a 30-minute field ceremony after the game, when Ripken and his wife, Kelly, received a variety of gifts from a diverse group of luminaries, including Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Bonnie Blair, David Robinson, John Unitas and Frank Robinson.

Ripken described the night’s events as a “series of powerful moments,” particularly the fifth-inning interruption that “really got to me.”

He said he is experiencing a measure of physical and mental exhaustion, attributing it to nerves and an inability to eat or sleep well amid pressure that has continued to build toward these September dates.

He said he was looking forward to the easing of that pressure, looking forward to tonight’s record-breaking game with both “relief and terror,” knowing it represents another emotional jolt. He will drive his 5-year-old daughter, Rachel, to school this morning, but then . . .

“I’ve been trying to follow a normal routine, trying to find some peace and quiet, but waiting for the game to start tonight was like an eternity,” Ripken said. “I’m looking forward to tonight and looking forward to the end of it.”

The end of his streak, he was asked?

“I hope I’ll know when it’s time to sit out,” he said. “The aches and pains are greater than when I was 21, but I still have the desire to play. I expect to keep my approach the same as it’s been.”

The man who threw out the first ball Tuesday night would expect as much. It was Weaver, the manager during 386 games of Ripken’s streak, who moved him from third base to shortstop in 1982, 27 games into the streak.

Some in the front office fought it, thinking Ripken was too big at 6 feet 4 and 220 pounds to play a position requiring greater maneuverability, particularly after third baseman Doug DeCinces had been traded to the Angels. The Orioles have since operated a revolving door at third base, but Ripken has gone on to set 11 major league or American League fielding records.

“It was no stroke of genius,” Weaver said of the decision, adding that it was based on memories of watching the tall Marty Marion play a graceful shortstop while growing up in St. Louis and knowing that Cal Jr. had inherited the baseball instincts of his father, Cal Sr.

“He was the guy I wanted out there handling cut-offs and relays in the late innings,” Weaver said of Ripken. “He was the guy I wanted the ball hit to for the final out.”

Pitcher Mike Mussina, who starts for the Orioles tonight, has seen Ripken play the position so well that he suggested “changing the name of that position to Ripken. You’d have first, second, Ripken and third. I’d like to see that.”

Mussina has been counting the days, hoping since July to start in this record breaker. Now that it’s about to become reality, the former Stanford pitcher said it will be impossible to treat it like any other because he believes the accomplishment to be “the most impressive of our lifetime” and considers the man achieving it to be representative of “everything good about baseball.”

Weaver obviously agreed.

“No one will ever forget Lou Gehrig,” Weaver said. “The pride of the Yankees. That story will still bring a tear to the eye 30 years from now. But 30 years from now there may also be a kid going to bed and dreaming about playing 2,130 games like Cal Ripken did.

“I mean, talk about role models. This is one of a kind. This man stands alone.”

He definitely will after tonight.