This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE — Ryan Ripken was there for one of the most memorable nights in baseball history — he just doesn’t remember it.
On Sept. 6, 1995, at Camden Yards, Cal Ripken Jr. (Ryan’s dad) broke the MLB record for most consecutive games played, extending his streak to 2,131 and besting Lou Gehrig’s mark. The “Iron Man” later pushed it to 2,632, a likely unbreakable number.
Not only was Ryan there for 2,131, but he and his older sister, Rachel, threw first pitches from their front-row seats to the right of the Orioles’ first-base dugout.
“The lights were on, no one was home is the phrase I always like to use,” said Ryan, who was just 2 at the time.
MLB.com: When did you first realize the significance of 2,131?
Ryan Ripken: When my dad was going into the Hall of Fame is probably when that kind of happened. I thought my mom [Kelly] and dad always made it seem [like] that was my dad’s job and tried to have all that … feel as normal as it possibly could be. When my dad would be working, my mom would just say, “This is what your dad does for work.” And then, you realize, OK, well, someone said they love your dad. I go. “Great, he must be great at his job.” So you really didn’t think much about it.
But the Hall of Fame is where it opened up my eyes. … The induction, getting in first ballot — I didn’t even understand how that all worked, but that was when it really started to come. So I’d like to say that was 2007, so I was just about to turn 14. Just because once he retired, you still kind of were sitting there and don’t really see it in that lens, right? His final year, it was the farewells, but it was again, “Oh, well, this must be what a lot of people go through.” I was only 7 or 8 there at the time.
The Hall of Fame was you got to understand it more and the history, and I’ll be honest, though — where I probably understood how hard the streak is and the record was is when [I got] into pro ball [in 2014]. You sit there and realize, “You did this for how many days and years?” And you really understood what the grind meant, and that’s where it all came together.
Ryan Ripken: I first said, “Really? I’m the one going out to do this?” I understood the reason why, because my sister and I did that first pitch back in ‘95. I’m just happy to be a part of it. In some cases, I wish that, “Hey Dad, you do that.” Because I have all the pressure on me, right? “If I make a bad throw, it’s on me, not on you.” So I want the pressure back on him. In all honesty, I’m grateful to be there.
MLB.com: The record and baseball career aside — what does your dad mean to you?
Ryan Ripken: He’s my dad. I never looked at him as the player. I’m really thankful and blessed that my parents growing up [focused on] caring about the family and caring about us. Going to Spring Trainings, my mom would make it feel like it was, “We’re going down for a trip, where Dad’s working, and then we’re going to have a beach day.” It made everything try to be normal. … That’s how I always viewed my dad.
When people ask me all the time, “How great is it that your dad’s Cal Ripken Jr.?” and, “That’s so awesome,” I do have to understand that they see it from the idol side. But I didn’t look at him that way, because I just cared about the guy that would take me out to the outfield and throw me balls, and I’d try to hit it over the Green Monster in Fenway. Or we would go and play basketball, or he’d coach my basketball team. And all those other little moments that had nothing to do with how good he was on the field, and that’s something that always sticks to me. We talk about the game of baseball, though, don’t get me wrong. If you ever want to go down a rabbit hole — and I say proceed with caution — we can both talk your ear off when it comes to the game. But that’s also special, too. I’m really grateful to have him in my life. …
I know a lot of people over time say the streak, once you get there, you’re doing it for that reason. He never did. What he taught me in those processes was, “Enjoy what you like to do. Be committed to what you do. And things will take care of itself.” But even to this day, he never once said, “This was a record that I wanted to break.” It was, “I just felt like I owed it to the others to be there and be a good teammate.” So I’d say of all of this playing stuff, how he conducted himself had more value than anything else he did during his 21 years on the field.
