Cal Ripken Jr. #8

Married to the former Kelly Geer (11/13/87)...Kelly, from Cockeysville, MD, is a graduate of Dulaney High School and the University of Maryland...Two children: Rachel Marie (11/22/89) and Ryan Calvin (7/26/93), born on an Orioles off day.

2000

On April 15 at Minnesota, singled off Hector Carrasco in 7th inning to become the 24th player to reach 3,000-hit milestone...Later in the season, Cal passed Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, Wade Boggs, Lou Brock, Cap Anson, and Rod Carew and is 18th on all-time list with 3,070 hits...Cal became only the 7th player in major league history to reach 3,000 hits and 400 home run plateaus, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Stan Musial, Dave Winfield & Carl Yastrzemski...Ripken joined Yastrzemski as the only American Leaguers to accomplish the feat and along with Yastrzemski and Musial, the only players to do it with one team...Played in 83 games, the fewest of any complete season in his major league career... Missed 59 games while on the disabled list from June 28 to August 31 with inflammation of his lower back...Aggravated the injury hitting a ground ball in the 9th inning on June 27 at Boston...Hit safely in 13 of 20 games after being activated from DL on September 1, hitting .307 (23-75) with 7 2B, 2 HR and 13 RBI...Homered in last 2 of the final 3 games of the season, his first home runs since June 10 vs. Philadelphia...Had a season-high 4 hits at Texas September 13, his first game batting in the 4th spot in the order since August 19, 1997...Batted cleanup 8 times in an 11-game stretch, September 13-23...Was elected starting third baseman for AL All-Star team, his 18th consecutive All-Star nomination and his 16th election, breaking Rod Carew's record...Was unable to play due to his back injury, however, marking the first Mid-Summer Classic he has missed in his career...Served as designated hitter 10 times on the season, the first DH appearances of his career...His first two appearances ever as DH came May 9-10 at Toronto...Hit 2-run sudden-death, game-winning HR in the 9th inning on May 23 off Seattle's Jose Mesa...Was his 2nd game-winning home run of season and 4th of his career...Led off 9th inning on April 19 to beat Tampa Bay, his first sudden-death, game-winning home run since July 27, 1984 vs. the Chicago White Sox at Memorial Stadium...Grounded into the 329th double play of his career on May 17 at Anaheim, passing Hank Aaron for most in ML history...Now has 335 GIDPs in his career...On November 1, agreed to terms on a one-year contract for the 2001 season.

1999

Despite appearing in just 86 games, Ripken had one of the top offensive years of his career, establishing career-highs in batting average (.340) and slugging percentage (.584)...Spent two stints on the disabled list with nerve irritation in his lower back, the first time he has been placed on the DL in his career...Missed 22 games on his first trip to the DL, April 20-May 13...Went on the DL a 2nd time, August 3-31, and missed 28 games...Missed final 13 games of the year after undergoing surgery on September 23 to decompress nerve root irritation in his back...The procedure was performed by Dr. Henry Bohlman at University Hospitals of Cleveland...Cal hit his 400th career home run on September 2 vs. Tampa Bay off Rolando Arrojo in his 2nd game back from the DL...He became the 29th player to reach the milestone and finished the season with 402 career home runs...At 39 years, 9 days old became 4th oldest to reach 400-homer mark, behind Darrell Evans (41.117), Yaztrzemski (39.336) and Winfield (39.315)...Hit safely in 49 of 61 games between trips to DL, May 13-July 31, batting .352 with 22 2B, 15 HR & 43 RBI, raising his average from .179 to .335...Hit safely in 18 of his last 20 games with an at-bat before going on DL in August, batting .400 with 11 2B, 5 HR & 17 RBI...Went 6-for-6 on June 13 at Atlanta with 5 RS, 2 HR, a 2B, 6 RBI & 13 total bases...The 6 hits and 5 runs are both Oriole records, and 13 total bases matched his career-high and tied the club record...Had one other 2-home run game, on July 24 vs. Anaheim...In his last 10 games of the season, Cal batted .474 (18-38)...Hit .365 (23-63) in 17 games after being activated September 1...Went 4-for-4 on September 10 vs. Seattle, the 26th 4-hit game of his career...Was elected as the starting third baseman on the American League All-Star Team...It was his 17th consecutive appearance and 16th straight start, and matched Rod Carew for most All-Star elections with 15...In the game, Cal went 1-for-1 with an RBI, run and HBP...In his final at-bat on July 8 vs. Toronto, passed Brooks Robinson as club's all-time leader and is now 11th all-time in at-bats with 10,765. Hit into 324th career GIDP on September 9 at Minnesota, passing Yastrzemski for most in AL history...Aaron holds ML mark with 328...Delivered a pinch-hit single in the 2nd game of a doubleheader on June 8 at Florida, the 5th pinch-hit appearance of his career and first since August 30, 1981, when he hit for Eddie Murray...ML teams used the disabled list 5,045 times between the start of his 2,632 consecutive game streak, May 30, 1982, and his going on the DL the for 1st time on April 20, 1999...Sat out April 7-8 games vs. Tampa Bay, the 1st time he missed back-to-back games since sitting 5 consecutive games in a 7-day span, Sept. 12-18, 1981, which was 5 weeks after his recall from minors...Following season, was named to Major League Baseball's All-Century Team, selected by fans and expert panel...Was one of two shortstops picked, along with Ernie Banks.

1998

END OF THE STREAK: On 9/20 vs. New York, before the Orioles final home game of the year, baseball's all-time "Iron Man" asked manager Ray Miller to remove him from the starting line-up 30 minutes before game time to end his world-record consecutive games streak at 2,632 games...Ryan Minor replaced him in the starting line up...Was first time he did not start or play since 5/29/82...Played in 501 straight games after breaking Lou Gehrig's record on 9/6/95...After sitting out 9/20, he played in each of the remaining 7 games of the season....Was batting .242 on 5/19, but hit .282 from that point on to raise his final average to .271...Reached base via hit, walk or HBP in 130 of 161 games, including 77 of last 90 games...Set AL records for Most Seasons with 150 or more games played (15) and Most Seasons with 600 or more At Bats (13)...Led AL third basemen with a .979 fielding percentage...Made his first error of season on 5/10, becoming last AL 3B to make an error in '98...Was elected as the starting third baseman on the American League All-Star team, his 16th consecutive All-Star Game and 15th straight start...Set All-Star Game record for most consecutive starts, surpassing Willie Mays' 14 starts in a row...Hit his 8th career grand slam on 4/1 vs. KC, his 7th at home and 5th at Camden Yards...Singled on 8/21 vs. Cleveland to pass Brooks Robinson for most hits in Orioles history with 2,849...Had a pair of 4-hit games, 5/12 at Minnesota and 6/19 vs. Toronto...Batted 7th in order 36 times...Hit twice in No. 7 spot in 1996, only other times since '82...On 8/5 vs. Detroit, laid down his 5th career sacrifice bunt and first since 9/10/90...Batted .308 (62-201) over his final 59 games of the season.

1997

Was Orioles every day third baseman...Following the Opening Day game, O's announced that Ripken had agreed to 2-year contract extension with an option for 2000 season...Drew 3rd career ejection 7/20 when HP Umpire Al Clark tossed him in 2nd inning after arguing strikeout call...Other ejections came in '87 and '89, both in 1st inning of games at Memorial Stadium after strikeouts...Elected to 15th All-Star Game, all consecutive, and first at third base...Went 1-2 in Mid-Summer Classic played at Cleveland's Jacobs Field...Cal's 10 sacrifice flys were T7th in the American League and he grounded into 19 double plays, T7th most in the league...Hit 500th career 2B in 1st inning 6/22 at Toronto...His HR on 5/31 vs. Cleveland gave him Orioles all-time total base lead with 4,274, snapping tie with Brooks Robinson...Drew 1,000th career walk 8/30 vs. Mets...Made three appearances at shortstop: 6/15 at Atlanta (2 inn.), 8/31 vs. Mets (1 inn.) and 9/1 at Florida (2 inn.)....Collected season-high 4H in 2nd game of 6/10 DH at Boston.

1996

Baseball's all-time "Iron Man" played in all 163 Orioles games...On 7/15 he started at third base for the first time since 6/30/82...Had made two other appearances at third, his last coming on 7/8/82...Had made 2,216 consecutive starts at shortstop, a major league record for any position, until starting six games at third base, 7/15-21...On 4/6 he made his first error since 7/18/95 as he saw a string of 74 consecutive errorless games snapped...On 4/13 vs the Twins, Cal collected his 819th extra base hit, moving past Brooks Robinson into 1st place on the Orioles all-time list...The hit came in the form of his 450th double...On 4/19 at Texas he became just the 3rd player with 100 or more career RBI against the Texas Rangers, joining George Brett and Reggie Jackson...Batted 7th in the batting order on 5/14 at Oakland...It was the first time he batted that low in the order since his first year in the majors, '82...On 5/28 at the Kingdome, Cal enjoyed his first career 3 HR game and collected a career-high 8 RBI...It was the 15th time that an Oriole homered three times in a game and the first since Randy Milligan in '90...In the 9th inning of that game he homered as did brother Bill...The 2nd time they have homered in the same inning and the 6th time that brothers have accomplished the feat...On 6/3 he was named A.L. "Player of the Week" for the 9th time in his career...On 5/29, also in Seattle, he hit his 334th career home run, moving past Eddie Murray for first place on the Orioles all-time list...On 6/11 he homered in his third straight game, matching a career-best...Played in consecutive game 2,216 on 6/14 at Kansas City setting a new consecutive games world record...The previous mark of 2,215 was held by third baseman Sachio Kinugasa who played with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan's Central League...On 9/15, his first homer that day was the team's 240th, tying the '61 Yankees for the most by a team in a season...His second home run that day was hit immediately after Bonilla's marking the 16th time that the O's have hit back-to-back home runs this year, tying the big league mark held by the '77 Red Sox and '82 Brewers...Named as a starter on the American League All-Star team for the 13th consecutive season...Surpassed 100 RBI in a season for the 4th time in his career, giving the Orioles four 100 RBI men (Anderson, Bonilla, Palmeiro)...It was the first Orioles team to have four players with 100 RBI...On 9/19 at New York, in the 2nd game of the doubleheader he smacked his 483rd career double, passing Brooks Robinson for the most in Orioles history...On 8/9 at Comiskey Park he collected his 2,500th career hit, a single off Bill Simas...Broke Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive years playing all of club's games (14) and most years leading the league in games played (8)...Both represent major league marks...Following the season, Cal toured Japan with a team of Major League All-Stars.

1995

On 9/5 and 9/6 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards against the California Angels, Cal became baseball's all-time "Iron Man" tying and breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record of 2,130...In the record-tying and record-setting games he went a combined 5-for-9 and hit home runs in each of the games...Homered in three straight games, 9/4-6, matching career-best...A specially designed baseball emblazoned with the "Streak Week" logo was used in the games of 9/5 & 9/6, marking the first time ever that a special ball was used to honor an individual...Honors that Ripken received after the '95 season included: Associated Press and United Press International "Male Athlete of the Year"; Associated Press "Sports Moment of the Year"; Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News "Sportsman of the Year"; one of People magazine's "25 Most Intriguing People"; one of Newsweek magazine's "Newsmakers of '95"; and the "Toast of the Town" by the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America...It marked the first time that a non-New York athlete received the award...Won Espy Awards for "Male Athlete of the Year" and "Showstopper of the Year"...Cal led all AL shortstops with a .989 fielding percentage, 144 games played and 100 double plays turned...Scored two runs on the 4th of July to become the Orioles all-time leader in runs scored, tying and passing Brooks Robinson...On 9/3 drew his 890th career base on balls, surpassing Boog Powell to become the Orioles all-time leader...On 7/11 in Arlington, TX Cal extended his AL record for shortstops with his 13th All-Star appearance (all consecutive)...In the Mid-Summer Classic, Ripken was 2-for-3 with singles off Philadelphia's Tommy Greene and Montreal's Carlos Perez.

1994

Enjoyed his finest season since his MVP year in '91...Batted over .300 (.315) for the fourth time and drove in 75 runs, second on the club to Palmeiro's .319 average and 76 RBI...Led major league shortstops with a .985 fielding percentage...Led the AL with 46 multi-hit games, second in the majors to San Diego's Tony Gwynn (54)...Batted .364 (44-122) with runners in scoring position, 8th best in the league...Was one of five major leaguers to play in every game in '94, along with Frank Thomas, Mike Bordick, Paul Molitor and Jeff Conine...Only he, Conine and Molitor started every game...Batted .340 in April...It was his third best April average, surpassed by .352 in '84 and .341 in '87...Hit his 300th career home run on 5/24 at Milwaukee...Led AL shortstops with 13 home runs...Led major league shortstops with 75 RBI...Played in his 2000th consecutive game, 8/1 at Minnesota.

1993

Led major league shortstops in homers for the 9th time in last 11 years and in RBI for the 8th time...Led AL shortstops in assists (495) for 7th time in his career, tying AL record...Led AL shortstops in total chances (738) for the 5th time...Led the majors in at bats (641) even though he received a career-high 19 intentional walks, 6th in the AL...Had twice as many homers as any other AL shortstop...Detroit's Travis Fryman (11) was closest...Fryman's 55 RBI were also closest to Ripken's 90...Won his 7th Silver Slugger Award.

1992

Went from career-highs in homers, RBI and extra-base hits in '91 to career lows in those categories in '92...Failed to become only the 6th player in ML history to hit 20+ homers in each of his first 11 full ML seasons...Became the O's all-time right-handed home run leader when he hit two at Milwaukee 6/23, nos. 268 and 269, topping Brooks Robinson's mark (268)...Following that game, went a career-high 73 games (291 at bats) without a home run, 6/24-9/13...Was named AL "Player of the Week", 9/13-20 (12-for-24)...It was the 7th time he received the honor...July was his first homerless month since the first two months of his career (August-September of '81)...Batted .178, his worst month since those same two months in '81...Had a 16-game (.355, 22-62) and a 17-game (.414, 29-70) hitting streak just four days apart 5/20-6/29...1,000th career RBI came at Oakland on 8/31 on a two-run single off Kelly Downs...Made one error for every 62 chances...The rest of the AL handled 30 chances per error...Was second in the AL in successful total chances with 733, 3 behind California's Gary DiSarcina...A poll of Major League managers conducted at mid-season by Baseball America selected him as the best defensive shortstop.

1991

Became second player in major league history to win a league MVP, Major League Player of the Year (The Sporting News, AP and Baseball Digest), All-Star Game MVP, and a Gold Glove in the same season...The only other was Dodgers' shortstop Maury Wills in '62...Finished third in the AL in homers (34), most by a shortstop in 22 years (Boston's Rico Petrocelli hit 40 in 1969)...Most homers by an Oriole since Ken Singleton hit 35 in '79...Became only the 10th player in AL history to hit more than 30 homers and strike out less than 50 times...The others: Don Mattingly (1985-86); Ted Williams (1941-46-47-49-57) Joe DiMaggio (1937-38-40-48-50); Lou Gehrig (1932-33-34-36-37); Earl Averill (1931-32-34); Hal Trosky ('34); Al Rosen ('53); Al Simmons (1929-30) and Ken Williams ('22)...Became first righthanded hitter in the AL to do it since Al Rosen in '53...Led the major leagues and tied a club mark with 85 extra-base hits...Led the major leagues with a then club record 368 total bases...Led majors with career-high 73 multi-hit games...2nd in the majors with 210 hits, one shy of his own club mark, set in '83...Was also second in doubles with 46, one shy of his own club record, set in '83...Was second in slugging percentage (.566, 47 points higher than his previous high, .519 in '83)...Became one of only five in Orioles' history to hit .300, with 30+ homers and 100+ RBI joining Jim Gentile, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, and Eddie Murray and later joined by Rafael Palmeiro in '95...Led the league in batting for 47 of 48 days, 6/4-7/21...Was AL "Player of the Month" in September (.349, HR-8, RBI-27)....Also shared AL "Player of the Week", 9/23-30, with Rickey Henderson...Was the last player to bat in Memorial Stadium history when he bounced into a 5-4-3 double play off Detroit's Frank Tanana at 5:07 p.m. on 10/6/91...Led AL shortstops in fielding percentage (.986) for the second straight year, in putouts (267) for the fourth time, in assists (529) for the sixth time, total chances (807) for the fourth time, and double plays (114) for the fifth time...Committed two errors 5/24 vs. NY in one game for the first time since 6/14/87.

1990

Created an all-time standard for consistency at shortstop by committing only three errors in 161 games (681 tc) for a percentage of .996...Also crafted streaks of 95 errorless games and 428 errorless chances, both all-time marks for a shortstop...Even though he hit for his lowest average for a full season in the AL, still led the O's in nine offensive categories...Played his 1308th consecutive game June 12 to move into second place on the all-time list ahead of Everett Scott (Yankees-Red Sox, '18-'25).

1989

Led the club in hits (166), doubles (30) and RBI (93) and was second to Mickey Tettleton in homers (26 to 21)...Combined with Brother Bill for seven hits (Cal-3 and Bill-4) on 8/2...The only brother combo to surpass that combined total was the Waners (Paul and Lloyd) who had three and five respectively for the Bucs on 6/25/32.

1988

Shared Most Valuable Oriole honors with Eddie Murray for the second time...Ranked third in the league with a career-high 102 walks...Was 0-for-29 in April, the longest hitless streak of his career...Starting 4/19, hit safely in 16 of 17 games and hit .527 (29-55) to raise average from .047 to .316 on 5/8.

1987

Became the first Oriole other than Eddie Murray to lead the club in RBI during the '80s...Ken Singleton was the last in '79...Concluded consecutive innings streak, which began in '82.

1986

Led AL shortstops for fourth straight year in homers, RBI, runs and slugging (.461)...Was second in fielding percentage to Tony Fernandez at shortstop, .982 to .983...Led club in runs, hits, doubles, homers and total bases (289)...Was first other than Eddie Murray to lead club in homers (25) since Ken Singleton in '79...Murray had led six straight years.

1985

Was second in the AL to Rickey Henderson in runs scored (146 to 116), his third straight year with over 100 runs...Hit .321 (53-165) with men in scoring position...Was first or second on the club in 12 offensive categories.

1984

Batted over .300 for second straight year...Set AL record for assists by a shortstop (583)...Batted .311 (46-148) with runners in scoring position to lead club.

1983

Was AL MVP and "The Sporting News" Player of the Year...Played every inning of every game for the first of four straight seasons...Shared Most Valuable Oriole laurels with Eddie Murray...Played on AL's first winning All-Star Team since 1971, and also played on the winning team in both the ALCS and World Series...Led majors in hits with a club record 211 and doubles (47); was second with 76 extra-base hits to the Expos' Andre Dawson (78) and was runner-up to major league leader Jim Rice (344) in total bases (343)...Led the AL with 121 runs, just one off Frank Robinson's club record set in '66...No Hall of Fame shortstop has ever had 211 hits in a season...Hughie Jennings and Dave Bancroft are the leaders, each with 209...Batted a combined .273 (9-33) in nine post-season games...Drove in O's only run in ninth inning of ALCS Game 1, won by LaMarr Hoyt, 2-1...Made final putout of WS when he caught Garry Maddox's line drive in bottom of ninth, Game 5.

1982

Led all major league rookies in doubles, homers, RBI, total bases (284), games (160), and runs...Missed only three games all year, none after 5/29 (his games streak began the following day)...Played 44 straight errorless games at third base from 4/24 -6/14...After a glittering Opening Day on which he went 3-for-5 with his first big league double, homer (off KC's Dennis Leonard) and RBI, he plunged into a 4-for-55 slide...Was batting only .117 (7-60) on 5/1 after 18 games and his career big league average over two seasons was at that point .121 (12-99) in 41 games...The next day, 5/2, he picked up a pair of scratch hits and was beaned by fellow rookie Mike Moore...Missed only one game after the beaning, however, and batted .281(151-538) from 5/2 to the end of the season.

1981

Was recalled from AAA Rochester on 8/8 after the major league player strike was settled...Made big league debut in the first game after the strike, vs. KC in Baltimore on 8/10 as pinch runner after Ken Singleton led off the 12th with a double...Scored winning run in "sudden death" when, after an intentional walk to Eddie Murray, John Lowenstein singled off RHP Renie Martin to drive him in...His first hit was a single off Chicago's Dennis Lamp on 8/16, also at Memorial Stadium...Played in 12 games at shortstop (9 starts) and six at third base...Despite his early recall from Rochester, was voted "Rookie of the Year" in the International League, and was named to the loop's All-Star team at third base...In survey of IL's managers and coaches, was picked as top major league prospect in the league...Played in 85 games at third base for Red Wings and 35 at shortstop (primarily when Bob Bonner was injured).