September 6th 1995
Baltimore, Maryland
Cal Ripken, Jr. of the the Baltimore Orioles broke one of baseball's legendary records and one that few believed would ever be broken. He started in his 2,131 consecutive major league baseball game thus breaking Lou Gehrig's hallowed record.
Cal began his streak of consecutive games played on May 30th 1982 and he would not miss a start for 17 consecutive years (all with the Baltimore Orioles). In the process Cal would be Rookie of the Year in 1982 and American League MVP twice. 1983 and 1991. He would go on to play in in 2,632 games in row before voluntarily removing himself from the Orioles lineup on September 19th 1998.
Ripken retired after the 2001 season holding the lifetime record for home runs by a shortstop (345). He was named MLB All Star Game MVP 2 times, 1991 and his last All Star game in 2001, where he hit a solo home run in his first plate appearance.
In 2007 he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame where a record crowd of 75,000 fans welcomed him and San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn into baseball immortality.
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