In the 2004 motion picture “Mr. 3,000,” Bernie Mac plays Stan Ross, an ex-Milwaukee Brewer who bailed on his team after reaching 3,000 hits. He always treated the media badly and, as a result, hasn?t made the Hall of Fame despite his hit total.
Just when he looks on the verge of getting in, it?s discovered that, through a clerical error, he actually has only 2,997 hits, prompting a comeback at age 47. Ross? entire identity had been defined by the “Mr. 3,000” persona, and he needed those three hits to maintain it.
Given baseball?s attention to accurate record-keeping, such a thing is virtually impossible in this computer-aided day and age. But, hypothetically speaking, what if it turned out the Orioles played a game, let?s say, in the mid-1980s and Cal Ripken didn?t play that day, and no one noticed until last fall? If “The Streak” had suddenly ceased to exist, would we today not be celebrating the news that Cal is part of the Hall of Fame?s Class of 2007?
If you believe that, shame on you. You obviously don?t “get” baseball.
To define Cal by his consecutive-game streak is a huge mistake. In 20 full seasons in the major leagues (he played only 23 games in 1981), he compiled 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, and 1,695 RBI, mostly as a shortstop. He was an All-Star every year from 1983 to 2001. He won two MVP awards. He redefined the position, for crying out loud. With or without the streak, this guy?s a first ballot Hall of Famer.
I?ve never been a fan of consecutive-game streaks. OK, Lou Gehrig played in 2,130 straight games. Why did he do it? The Yankees were an absolute offensive juggernaut for most of his career. Would they have gone into a slump if he?d taken a day off now and then? His teammate, Babe Ruth, the greatest player on the planet, took days off. Why didn?t Lou?
What if Gehrig had never contracted ALS? It?s apparent that he first got sick in 1938, when he was 35. Had he played another four or five years, particularly with Joe DiMaggio protecting him in the lineup, there?s no telling what number his streak might have reached.
Cal?s managers, beginning with Earl Weaver, used to say that they didn?t rest him because they “didn?t have anybody better” to play shortstop. This is the all-time cop-out answer. Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Clemente ? every great player you can name ? took days off, and their subs were just that: subs. I?ve spoken with dozens of ex-players over the years, some whose careers overlapped Gehrig?s, and never found one who thought consecutive-game streaks were a good idea.
Cal?s place in baseball history is secure. If Ruth, Mays, Jackie Robinson, etc., weren?t unanimous, no one should have expected Cal to be either. That he received the highest vote total ever for a position player should count for something.
At yesterday?s press conference, Cal said that people had told him for years that his election to the Hall of Fame was a foregone conclusion, but that he “never believed it.”
I find that a little hard to believe, don?t you?
Phil Wood has covered baseball in the Washington/Baltimore market for more than 30 years. You can reach him at [email protected].
