The Iron Man Cal Ripken Jr Talks "The Streak"
The Iron Man Cal Ripken, Jr. took time out of his busy week of celebration to reflect on "The Streak" that may never be broken with Vinny and Rob.
Rob starts off the conversation letting Cal know how the 2,632 consecutive game streak spanned his lifetime and how it is a multi-generational accomplishment (1982-1998). Rob was in elementary school when the streak started and came home to Baltimore when he was 24 years old, working as a police officer in Myrtle Beach, SC to buy tickets off the street to go to the 2131 game and the streak ended just 9 days before his first child was born.
Back when Cal came up, they didn't have nutritionists but they had a little common sense; Cal said, "We didn't have all the different nutritional information and didn't have all the resources but you knew that you had to work out and build your body up to withstand the 162-game season. I did it in a very aggressive sort of way. I played basketball as part of my fun and explosive sort of activities. I started learning to lift weights and do that on my own. I built a gym in my house so I could do all those things. The diet is just common sense and regular eating with the basic 4 food groups that my mom gave me when I left the house. A lot of common sense and a good healing power, I think."
Cal talks about how hard it got at times to keep himself motivated and (more importantly) healthy throughout his streak of 2,131 consecutive starts; "I struggled, I think it was in the early '90s, and I felt like maybe sitting down might be a way to get out of your slump. When you go through rebuilding processes, there's finger pointing and you reach a point in your career when you don't know if you can get a hit or not. I remember Rick Sutcliffe offered some advice, he said, 'You do so much more for the team than just hit. You're providing defense and leadership in the middle of the field. Just go fix your hitting.' That kinda snapped me out of it. I had a bunch of injuries that could have lead to missing a game or two. I hyper extended my elbow, got hit by Jack Morrison in my throwing elbow in the second game of the season and bothered me the whole season, herniated disks, I hurt my knee in a brawl. All those things, I was able to meet the challenges of trying to play the next day and I think the biggest thing is you learn how to play with less than 100 percent and make contributions that way. I would say all players in the big leagues, the only time they might be close to 100 percent is the first day of spring training." He even talks about one of his injuries that came at an All-Star Game team photo shoot where he broke his nose.
When asked if the attention the streak gets is a bit embarrassing he says "no". He's just glad that he could be remembered for anything. He also goes on to talk about how much his father meant to him throughout his playing years and in the celebrations that ensued.
A great interview with a true great of the game. Don't miss it!
