The best ever?
End of Streak latest chapter in remarkable season
Posted: Monday September 21, 1998 01:07 AM
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Pair of history makers: Ripken is congratulated by former teammate David Wells, who threw a perfect game earlier this season AP |
BALTIMORE (AP) -- In a season when 61 became a number of the past, Cal Ripken made
2,632 a number for the ages.
Hours after Mark McGwire
bashed his way deeper into the record book by hitting home run No. 65,
Ripken made history in a much simpler manner Sunday night.
The humble hero merely told his manager, "I think the time is right,"
and his 16-year streak of playing every game for the Baltimore Orioles was
over.
A startling end, for sure. And yet another amazing moment in what has
become one of baseball's most incredible seasons ever.
* McGwire and Sammy Sosa in a
home-run race that has captivated the country, and beyond. One week to go
and it's still not over Big Mac leads Sosa by two, not counting the one
that McGwire may have lost Sunday afternoon because of an umpire's call.
* The New York
Yankees trying to become the AL's winningest team ever, closing in on
the mark of 111 victories by the 1954 Cleveland Indians.
* Races going down the last days. Sosa and the Chicago Cubs, out of the
World Series since 1945, and the New York Mets chasing for
the NL wild-card spot, the Texas Rangers and Anaheim Angels going
head-to-head for the AL West.
* The Florida
Marlins completing the biggest tumble for a World Series champion,
turning into the majors' worst team.
* Rookie Kerry Wood striking out 20.
* David
Wells pitching the 13th perfect game in modern history.
For the first time in weeks, Sosa and McGwire are taking a back seat to another major baseball milestone AP | |
* Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez's defection and debut.
* Roger
Clemens and Greg Maddux
aiming for record fifth Cy Young Awards.
* Big trades galore. Mike Piazza
dealt from the Dodgers to the Marlins to the Mets, Randy Johnson
going to Houston.
* A commissioner, at last, as Bud Selig took away the "interim" from his
title and spoke proudly about how baseball has finally bounced back in this
expansion season, four years after a strike wiped out the World Series and
soured fans on the game.
"In 1995, that night when he broke the record was so great, especially
given the nightmare of 1994," Selig said, giving credence to the argument
that baseball's resurgence may actually have begun the night Ripken broke
Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak of 2,130.
"What he's done, he's done a great thing for baseball," Selig said.
So have all the others in a incredible season full of stunning
accomplishments and enduring memories.
The most picturesque of them all, no doubt, was McGwire hoisting his
batboy son after breaking Roger Maris' 37-year-old hOme run record with
Sosa joining the nationwide celebration.
And now this, a sight no one could ever remember seeing Ripken sitting
on the bench.
What a season! And it isn't even October yet.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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