25 years after breaking Gehrig’s mark, Ripken recalls celebration

It has been 25 years since Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s major league record for consecutive games played, a feat the Baltimore Orioles star punctuated with an unforgettable lap around Camden Yards in the middle of his 2,131st successive start.

Since reaching that milestone on Sept. 6, 1995, Ripken has joined the Hall of Fame, battled prostate cancer and recently celebrated his 60th birthday.

“I tell you what, in some respects it seems like it was yesterday. You can relive the moment, and everything is crystal clear,” Ripken said recently.“In other ways, it seems like it’s another lifetime. Twenty-five years is a long period of time. … We all move on.”

No matter where he goes, Ripken usually runs into folks who claim to be part of the sellout crowd that gathered to see him break Gehrig’s record of 2,130 straight games that for decades seemed unapproachable.

“People tell me all the time they were at that game,” Ripken said. “It seems like there were a heck of lot more who tell me that than 40some thousand people who were actually there.”

Those in the crowd included President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Frank Robinson. More important, as far as Ripken was concerned, his father, Cal Sr., watched the proceedings from a suite.

The best part was that the celebratory lap was completely unplanned. “No one could have choreographed that to happen any better than it did,” Ripken said. “The lap was totally spontaneous and turned out to be one of the best human moments that anyone could have.”