In Breaking a Record, Ripken Finds Soul Mate

Cal Ripken never got a chance to talk with Lou Gehrig.

It would have nice to compare eras, to talk about what it takes to play a record 2,130 games in a row just before you’re about to play the 2,131st.

But Ripken has had a chance to talk with Sachio Kinugasa, a third baseman who played 2,215 games in a row in Japan from 1970-87.

Then Ripken played in his 2,216th, the Baltimore Orioles’ 6-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

“Having traveled this road, sometimes you want to sit down and share your feelings,” Ripken said. “You want to know, ‘Did I really do the right thing? Am I approaching this the right way?’ You’d love to have some feedback from someone who has done that. It’s very comforting and nice to know that someone feels the same way, has the same passion for the sport.”

They were the pregame battery, Kinugasa throwing out the first pitch to a crouching Ripken, and after the fifth inning, when the game and record became official, Kinugasa applauded and joined the crowd of 28,502 in giving Ripken a standing ovation.

Ripken acknowledged the cheers with a tip of his cap and a wave to the fans, then apparently tried to play down the moment by walking back into the dugout.

“Unless you’ve been lucky enough to go through it, you can never understand the embarrassment all that attention causes,” Ripken said. “It stops the flow of the game, and the game of baseball is what everyone comes out to see.”

Not on this night. The crowd cheered on, fireworks filled the sky and a fan draped two-foot-high numbers 2-2-1-6 from the second deck.

So Ripken finally emerged from the dugout and walked over to shake hands with Kinugasa.

“It seemed to be the absolute right thing to do,” he said. “The celebration wasn’t for me--it was a celebration of international baseball, of Japanese baseball. It was about two people who share a passion for the game.”

Ripken waved one final time and walked back into the dugout to finish a game in which he went 0 for 4, striking out twice and hitting into a double play.