Cal Ripken Jr. made 19 All-Star Game appearances during his historic Hall of Fame career, but one stands above all the rest for baseball’s modern-day Iron Man.

It only took one pitch from Chan Ho Park to carve the moment into Midsummer Classic history.

Making his final All-Star Game appearance in 2001, the 40-year-old Ripken waved to the standing crowd at Seattle’s Safeco Field, dug in for his first at-bat and turned on the leadoff pitch, depositing it over the left-field fence. His third-inning homer broke a scoreless tie and helped the American League squad to a 4-1 win, earning Ripken the nod as the game’s Most Valuable Player and tying a bow on his legendary career.

"When it hit and it was out and it was official, the shot of adrenaline, the rush, the consistent feeling of goosebumps down the back of your neck [was amazing]," Ripken told The Baltimore Sun after the game. "Maybe I could have run a three-minute mile at that point."

The relevance of the moment was not lost on the 47,364 fans at the ballpark or anyone in either dugout, many of whom had grown up admiring Ripken from afar. Two innings prior, starting shortstop Alex Rodriguez switched positions with Ripken in a surprising tribute, sending the veteran back out for one final inning to the position he redefined. Ripken begrudgingly went along with the swap with the encouragement of AL skipper Joe Torre.

“It was really magical,” Torre said afterwards. “And Cal is such a class individual. His legacy in baseball is not how [well] he played, but the way he played. It's wonderful."

The homer was Ripken’s second in 49 career All-Star Game at-bats, though the first was just as notable. His three-run blast won the 1991 Midsummer Classic in Toronto, with Ripken earning game MVP honors then as well. He is one of four players to win the award twice, along with Willie Mays, Gary Carter and Mike Trout.

Ripken’s homer off Park, though, stands out on the short list of the most memorable Midsummer Classic moments this millennium. And it almost didn’t happen, as it took a last-minute push via the fan vote to send Ripken to the game in his previously announced final MLB season.

“Selfishly, I think I wanted to be back just one last time, in order to say goodbye,” Ripken told Bleacher Report in 2012. “Once I was voted in, I think the attitude was to kind of take it all in, soak it up, kind of remember. And the other part about it was, I wanted to play well. You know, I really wanted to do well. Not to leave a mark or not to say goodbye, but I just wanted, for my own personal pride, to play well.”

After his retirement, Ripken was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2007, garnering 98.5 percent of the vote. It was a legacy all but assured well before he connected that evening in Seattle.

“What did you say, Joe? Goodbye?” Tim McCarver marveled on the broadcast, after Ripken rounded the bases. “What a goodbye.”