Ripken to Retire As Legend After 21 Years
June 19, 2001 3:14 am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cal Ripken, whose record of 2,632 consecutive games played for the Baltimore Orioles may never be broken, has announced that this season will be his last.
Ripken, 40 and known as baseball's Iron Man, is in his 21st season with the Orioles. He told Tuesday's Washington Post he wanted to spend more time with his family and that he hoped eventually to run a major league franchise.
"It's inevitable that you can't play forever," he told the Post. "I've maximized my window of opportunity as well as anyone. (Baseball) has given me a lot of joy and happiness and satisfaction. I'm proud of what I've been able to do.
"But I'm ready to do other things," he continued. "I'm ready to be home and be available to my kids and family. ... I'm sure I'll miss certain parts of (playing). ... But when you put your heart and soul into it at the level I have every single day, you can minimize some of your regrets."
Ripken said he decided to retire after this season "two or three weeks ago" and pondered it to be sure. His final game is to be at New York's Yankee Stadium on September 30.
It was at the same stadium where the previous holder of the consecutive games record, the late Lou Gehrig, gave his farewell speech in 1939. Gehrig's record was 2,130. Ripken broke the record in 1995, the newspaper said.
In 1990, Ripken's fielding percentage was .994, the highest for a shortstop in major league history. He is finishing his career at third base.
As for the rest of this season, "I'm not doing this to have a farewell tour or to have people look at it as their last chance to see me," Ripken told the Post.
"What I really want to see happen for the rest of the year is to thoroughly enjoy the game -- what I've been doing my whole life, for what it is. I want to just enjoy the freedom of just coming to the ballpark and enjoying it," he said.
Ripken said he chose to announce his decision now to give the Orioles, currently third in the American League East with a 32-36 record, an opportunity to fill his third base position for next season.
While what was called "The Streak" dominates Ripken's career, during the last few years he has been troubled by injuries. A back injury kept him out of parts of the 1999 and 2000 seasons and his spring training preparation was hampered this season by a broken rib.
In an accompanying column in the Post, sportswriter Thomas Boswell gives Ripken credit for helping bring baseball back to popularity after a 1994 strike.
"No one told him to sign autographs until the last fan in the stands had been satisfied. But he knew that baseball needed that commitment to generosity in the wake of the 1994 strike.
"The sight of Ripken 'signing for the ballpark' night after night, when the sport was in trouble, will outlast any home run he ever hit."
