For the Record, Ripken Laps Field : Baseball: Oriole shortstop is given an unprecedented 22-minute 15-second ovation after he tops Gehrig’s legendary mark by playing in 2,131st consecutive game.

Call it a victory lap.

Call it an unprecedented response to a remarkable victory of will and ability, durability and determination.

It may never have been his goal, as he has frequently said, but Cal Ripken Jr. became baseball’s all-time iron man Wednesday night, appearing in his 2,131st consecutive game to pass Lou Gehrig and break a record many considered unbreakable.

He did it technically when the game in which he also homered--his third home run of the three-game series and the decisive run as the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Angels, 4-2--became official after the top of the fifth inning.

As the banners on the B&O; Warehouse behind the right-field bleachers at Camden Yards were updated from 2,130 to 2,131, fireworks exploded and balloons and streamers soared into the air.

And a crowd of 46,272, including President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, showered Ripken in a deafening and sustained salute that would interrupt the game for 22 minutes 15 seconds.

While teammates hoisted camcorders--”I wasn’t going to miss this Kodak moment,” said Bobby Bonilla--and the relief corps sprinted from the bullpen to join the celebration, Ripken repeatedly emerged from the dugout--TV replays showed eight curtain calls--to wave to the crowd and tap his heart, replying to the crowd’s love in kind.

He took off his uniform shirt and gave it to his wife, Kelly, sitting near the dugout as a keepsake. He hoisted his 2-year-old son, Ryan, into his arms and kissed his 5-year-old daughter, Rachel (the Ripken children had thrown out the ceremonial first ball). He waved to his parents in an upstairs box.

Then, when the crowd refused to desist, teammates coerced a reluctant Ripken to take that victory lap, pushing him on a triumphant tour of the dirt track circling the field.

He slapped the hands of fans. He hugged umpires. He embraced Rod Carew and Chili Davis and shook hands with many of the Angels standing in front of their dugout and applauding.

Later, after the game was over, a long field ceremony ended with Ripken calling Baltimore fans the best in baseball and thanking fans everywhere for cheering him “through an unbelievable year.” He said he was “humbled and overwhelmed” to have his name linked “with the great and courageous Lou Gehrig” and he said that he owed thanks to four people in particular: parents Cal Sr. and Vi Ripken for their inspiration and motivation; wife Kelly for her support, and former teammate Eddie Murray “for teaching me how to play the game day in and day out.”

For the ceremony in which former New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio said “all great records are meant to be broken” and that Lou Gehrig “would be looking down with appreciation” on what Ripken had accomplished, the Oriole shortstop walked on the field arm and arm with his parents. It was a homecoming for Cal Sr., returning to Camden Yards for the first time since he was fired as a coach after the 1992 season.

It was an unceremonious conclusion to his 36 years with an organization he now claims to have no special feelings for--one way or another.

A hard and stoic man of few words, the senior Ripken said he came to honor the son who learned lessons in baseball and life from him, frequently in minor league pit stops like Aberdeen, Md., Asheville, N.C. and Appleton, Wis.

“This is Cal’s accomplishment, not mine, not his mother’s,” Cal Sr. said. “He went out and did it. He talks about how he got his work ethic from me and maybe he did in a small way.

“I always believed that if you start a job you should finish it and you should do it right. Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but perfect practice does. I’m proud of what he’s accomplished, but I don’t think of it in terms of the streak. I hope he’s remembered for his consistency, his desire to help the team win and all of his accomplishments, not just the streak.

“What all of this is about is a man going to work every day to do his job.”

Clinton told Ripken as much in the clubhouse before the game, saying his ethic had become an inspiration to all of America.

How long that ethic will drive Ripken to maintain a streak that he calls the extension of his philosophy isn’t clear. He said he would continue to play as long as he felt he was contributing.

In a midnight news conference, Ripken said there was a “sense of relief” when he tied the record Tuesday night because “there was now an end in sight to all the attention and craziness.”

He said the spontaneous victory lap created the “very personal sense” that he was “actually in the stands with the fans.”

Ripken has refrained from learning about Gehrig because he did not want to emphasize the streak or create more pressure. He said he now intends to watch the movie “Pride of the Yankees.”

“I know things will never be the same for me as they were before all of this, but it was never my goal to surpass Lou Gehrig or become Lou Gehrig,” he said. “This was all about me and what I believe in.”

In many ways, however, it was more than that. Teammate Bonilla said Ripken has become “Mr. Baseball” at a time when baseball needed him most.

Mr. Baseball?

In the aftermath of the devastating strike and long labor dispute, it has been with class and style that Cal Ripken Jr. has given the industry an exhilarating and revitalizing alternative, a lesson in stability, a reminder that the game can be and should be fun. The Oriole shortstop has provided a humble and heroic reminder that what matters most is what happens on the field.