Cal Did It His Way

2,632. It is a number that will go down in the annals of baseball as recognizably as 56 and 755.

Cal Ripken, Jr., arguably the best shortstop of the last two decades, decided on Sunday to end his major league record of consecutive games played by pulling himself from the Baltimore Orioles' lineup shortly before the team's final home game of the season versus the New York Yankees.

Ripken's decision brings to an end the most impressive mark of durability in the history of professional sports. For 17 years, Ripken defined commitment and perseverance by choosing to play in every game regardless of pain, soreness or fatigue. And he didn't just play, he excelled.

Ripken was the 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, a two-time Most Valuable Player, a 16-time All-Star and a member of Baltimore's 1983 World Series championship team. Even in 1998, after a generation of never taking a day off, Ripken has continued to put up the solid numbers that have defined his career.

Why, then, did Cal Ripken end The Streak now?

The way Ripken chose to bring The Streak to a close does not sit well with me. It doesn't gel with who Cal Ripken has been for the last 17 years.

Let me make one thing clear. I have always been, continue to be and will always be an adoring fan of Cal Ripken, Jr. In my mind he is the epitome of what a professional athlete should be--a dedicated player who has devoted himself to his profession because he loves and respects it, and not merely because it provides him with a lucrative paycheck.

But I see a potential problem with the manner in which he chose to end The Streak. I am afraid that it was the record, and not the natural course of the game, that most influenced Ripken's decision.

Baseball players take days off for certain reasons. Injury is the most obvious. Sometimes a player is simply tired during the grind of a 162-game regular season and needs a rest.

Other times a player will pull himself because he feels he is not helping his team appropriately. And still other players are benched by their managers for poor performance or as a disciplinary measure. Ripken cited none of these reasons for his absence from Sunday's game.

Instead, Ripken said in the post-game press conference that he just felt the time was right for The Streak to end. He said he had thought of taking the last day of the season off in Boston, but he ultimately felt that The Streak should end where it began and where Ripken has spent his entire career.

Ripken also said that he chose to bench himself now, specifically, because the Orioles no longer had a chance to make the playoffs. That statement implies that Ripken feels his team is worse when he is not in the lineup, so he definitely did not sit out for the good of the team. Ripken basically said that he decided not to play because it was the right time to bring The Streak to a close.

It appears that Ripken, the man who has always said that The Streak did not influence his decision to play every day, based his decision not to play on the very existence of The Streak.

This reality raises a troubling question: how many times during the last 2,632 games did Ripken keep himself in the lineup only because The Streak existed? I don't know. Does it matter? I think so.

Part of the reason that professional sports records are so coveted is because they occur in the natural course of a game or a season or a career. The Streak should not have dictated Ripken's decision to play or not to play. Motivation should be as important as the action it produces.

Ripken said he did not want people to be sad, but I have to be, both because The Streak is over and because of the way it ended.

That said, would Ripken's motivation, even if it were impure, diminish his accomplishment? Probably not. Ultimately, the guy still played in 2,632 consecutive games. If I were an employer and had a worker who did not miss a day of work in 17 years, I don't think I would care why he showed up, especially if he were one of the best in the business. Perhaps that makes me a hypocrite.

Ironically, however, Lou Gehrig--the man who held the record for most consecutive games played until Ripken broke it in 1995--also ended his streak by pulling himself out of the starting lineup on May 2, 1939. But Gehrig, a career .340 hitter, was batting .143 in 1939 and suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the illness that would eventually take his life and bear his name. Gehrig took the day off because he wanted to help his team.

Ripken, however, is a career .276 hitter who was batting .275 this season--hardly a slump. In fact, Ripken has been on fire for the past two months. He is batting .358 in his last 52 games, and his .978 fielding percentage leads all American League third basemen this year. The Iron Man apparently had different motivations than the Iron Horse, but perhaps these facts also provide an explanation of another sort.

Throughout this season, Baltimore columnists have called for Orioles manager Ray Miller to bench Ripken, saying that he was contributing to the Orioles' underachievement. The numbers seem to indicate otherwise, so perhaps those columnists should seek alternate employment.

But maybe Ripken decided that now that his team's season was effectively over, he would end The Streak so that it would not be an issue next year. That would have been a noble motive, but Ripken didn't mention it.

All Cal had to say was, "I didn't want Ray Miller to have to sweat during the offseason about playing me next year." That would have been fine. "I was just tired and wanted a day off," would have been perfectly acceptable also. But Ripken didn't say that either. Then again, maybe he didn't have to.

The bottom line is that Cal Ripken, Jr. has set a standard for dedication, consistency and excellence that will probably never be equaled. And the truth of the matter is that the nature of a record such as The Streak makes it difficult to ignore during its existence--it would have been unrealistic to expect Ripken to endure The Streak without ever allowing it to influence him to some degree.

Still, part of me wishes that it had ended differently. Maybe I am just bitter that it's over. After all, is there any ending that would have really pleased me?

Maybe it is because of the enormous amount of respect I hold for Ripken that I now question his action. Maybe, like Anaheim Angels' outfielder Tim Salmon, I am just bothered by the fact that I cannot figure out what Ripken was thinking.

Salmon said of the end of The Streak, "I just don't understand. To sit out just to break it does not make sense."

It does not make sense to me, either. But does it really have to? No.

The reality is that after 17 years and 2,632 games, Cal Ripken, Jr. has earned the right to end The Streak as he sees fit. Even Salmon realizes that.

"Maybe he just wanted to break it on his own terms instead of missing a game because of injury," Salmon said.

Maybe he did. Maybe he earned the right to. But he should have said that. But maybe he earned the right not to.