Gary DiSarcina was nursing an injured thumb on Sept. 6, 1995, but the California Angels shortstop had to make the road trip to Baltimore ? even if he wasn?t going to play.
DiSarcina wasn?t going to miss the epic night when Cal Ripken played in his major-league record 2,131st straight game. When the game became official in the middle of the fifth inning, DiSarcina stood on the top step of the visitor?s dugout at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and watched the coronation of baseball?s new “Iron Man.”
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“I was supposed to stay back [in Anaheim],” said DiSarcina, who was on the disabled list. “There was no way I could miss that.
“That night was surreal in the sense that there was electricity as soon as you got to the ballpark. It was bigger than the game of baseball. It wasn?t simply about Cal. Everyone hung around in our dugout to hear his speech, see Joe DiMaggio. ? When he came out to do that lap I think it was raw emotion, spur of the moment baseball emotion.”
Like Ripken, DiSarcina?s post-playing career is in the minor leagues. DiSarcina is the manager of the short-season Class-A Lowell Spinners, the New York-Penn League affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. He?s in Ripken?s hometown of Aberdeen through today for a three-game series with the IronBirds – the team Ripken owns.
“Anyone that knows Cal and the Ripkens knows that this is them,” DiSarcina said of Ripken Stadium. “This is how they do their thing. They?re first class and they?re professional.”
DiSarcina spent 12 seasons with the California/Anaheim Angels. In 1,086 games, DiSarcina hit .258 with 28 home runs and 355 runs batted-in.
He made his only All-Star appearance in 1995 ? two months before Ripken?s historic night.
At the All-Star game at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, DiSarcina recalled a brief conversation with Ripken in leftfield ? an exchange he remembers more than a dozen years later. DiSarcina said Ripken told him the famous streak was simply the result of effort, determination and luck.
“Cal has been so respected,” DiSarcina said. “It goes back to the type of player he was, the type of person he was. ? I think we know where he gets that from; he got it from his father.”
The DiSarcina file
» Age: 39
» Position: Manager
» Team: Lowell Spinners
» College: Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst
» Did you know? DiSarcina?s Spinners will be in Aberdeen tonight for a 7:05 first pitch. ? The IronBirds will visit Lowell from August 22-24. The 24th is Ripken?s 47th birthday.
