Ripken Knows How to Say Goodbye Too

It’s not often you find a universal opinion anymore. It seems almost easy to find someone who will say the earth is not round, the sky is not blue, the sun doesn’t rise in the East.

But on Sunday at Edison Field there was absolute agreement, unquestioned synchronicity--Cal Ripken is a great baseball player and an undisputed role model.

This was Ripken’s last appearance in Anaheim. There was a tidy pregame ceremony where Ripken was presented with some mementos and the fans were presented with a well-edited video of Ripken highlights. There was not a great outpouring of emotion. There was respect and controlled applause and a quick tip of his cap from Ripken to the fans.

For Ripken, this was the proper send-off. He is an athlete who commands respect more than love, receives approval more than adulation. Outside Edison Field, before the gates were open, hundreds of fans gathered early.

Two of the early arrivals were 40-year-old Miguel Hernandez and his 11-year-old son Ronny. The two had driven from Henderson, Nev., a trip of more than five hours.

Ronny is a shortstop who wants to be like Alex Rodriguez. Miguel is a father who wants his son to value consistency and reliability as well as a $250-million paycheck and exquisite ability.

“Mr. Cal Ripken is one of a kind,” Hernandez said. “There will never be anybody like him, and I want Ronny to be able to say he saw Mr. Cal Ripken play one game. On the drive up here I talked all about Mr. Ripken.”

Ronny was wearing an A-Rod jersey and fiddling with a Texas Ranger cap, but he knew the answer to this: “How many consecutive games did Cal Ripken play?”

“He played 2,632,” Ronny said. “My dad told me not to forget that number because nobody will ever do it again.”

Benji Gil is the Angels’ overachieving, self-effacing shortstop. Gil stood by his locker before the game, waiting while Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson paid tribute to Ripken as the consummate professional, as a man of uncommon standards and enviable consistency. Gil wanted very much to talk about Ripken too.

This was something Gil would never say to his idol face to face. Gil would be very hesitant, maybe a little embarrassed and never bold enough to walk up to Ripken, look Ripken in the eye and say, “Cal, you’re a national treasure.”

But that’s what Gil said a couple of hours before Sunday’s game.

“I love and respect the man,” Gil said. “I have tremendous admiration for him because of the tremendous respect he has always had for the game. For someone to love baseball as much as Cal does, to me that says a lot.

“You know what was more impressive to me than the consecutive-game streak? How often he played every inning of every game. How he was on the field for every pitch. You see guys now want to sit out the last innings of a blowout, or day games after night games. Cal, he never wanted to sit out, not even for one pitch.

“Cal is such a decent person that he’s not just a great baseball player, he’s a national treasure.”

In his first at-bat Sunday, in the top of the second, Ripken grounded out to Angel third baseman Troy Glaus. In his second at-bat, in the top of the fourth, Ripken drove a fly ball to left fielder Scott Spiezio. Spiezio flipped the ball into the stands, a great souvenir.

In this third at-bat, Ripken lined a 1-0 pitch into left field for a leadoff double. He received a standing ovation and a wave of popping flashbulbs.

In the top of the ninth, Ripken walked out of the visitors’ dugout and the crowd stood. The cheering went on for nearly a minute and Ripken tipped his cap. When the count was 1-2 and it seemed he was about to close out his time at Edison Field, the crowd stood and cheered again. After a ball, Ripken took a hard, looping swing and missed. Hard. Ripken twirled around in disappointment.

The fans tried to entice Ripken into a curtain call, but Ripken is a professional and not a ham. He stayed in the dugout until Baltimore had completed a 1-0 victory over the Angels.

Ripken came back out then. He signed autographs, shook hands, wrote his name on bats, balls, jerseys, faces. He kissed babies and hugged dozens of the children who were waiting to run the bases. The Angels let the kids run the bases after Sunday games. “Get out there and run hard,” Ripken told one little boy. “You beat the boys,” he told a little girl.

That’s what Erstad said he admired most about Ripken.

“The way he handles himself in every way,” Erstad said. “The way he plays the game and then goes out and makes sure the kids all get autographs, every game, no matter what. The way he’s handled the media and all the demands and still stayed focused on the baseball, knowing that the baseball always comes first.”

Ripken said he has been touched by the three-game honoring he received in Anaheim. Ripken will be saying goodbye all season and at places such as Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, which probably carry more and deeper memories.

But he leaves in Anaheim dozens of little baserunners who went home with dirty knees and a Ripken signature. And he leaves a steadfast shortstop named Benji who understands the best of Ripken wasn’t that he played all those games in a row but the reason he played them all. Because it was the best way to respect the game he loved. By playing it.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com