Cal Ripken Jr. Plays 1,000th Consecutive Game

On June 25, 1988 Hall of Famer and Baltimore Orioles great, Cal Ripken Jr. plays consecutively for 1,000 games. He would go on to play a total of 2,131 consecutive games breaking the record previously held by Lou Gehrig, in 1995 and in 1998 he would see his consecutive game streak end at 2.632.

To this day Ripken Jr. is still holds the most games played consecutively.

 

Ripken Jr. giving a curtain call farewell to his fans at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Ripken Jr. finished his career with a .276 batting average, 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, 1,078 extra base hits, 603 doubles, 1,129 walks 1,647 runs and 1,695 RBIs in 3,001 games played. All of which are Baltimore Orioles records.

Ripken Jr. was the 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, and was a 19-time All-Star; making the All-Star team in every season he played except for his Rookie campaign. He was the All-Star Game MVP twice in 1991 and 2001, and is still the All-time leader in MLB All-Star fan balloting with 36,123,483 votes. He has the most starts at shortstop for the American League in an All-Star game with 15, and 17 in total with two at third base.

He won the World Series once with the Orioles in 1983, was a two-time Gold Glove winner in 1991 and 1992. He was an eight-time Silver Slugger award, including four straight from 1983-1986. He was a two time American League MVP in 1983 and 1991. Ripken was the 1991 Home Run Derby winner and in 1992 he received the Roberto Clemente and Lou Gehrig Awards.

In 1999 Ripken Jr. was named to Major League Baseball’s All-Century Team. That same yea he was ranked number 78 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

Ripken Jr. had his iconic number eight Baltimore Orioles jersey retired in 2001, that same year he was ranked the third greatest shortstop all-time in The New Bill James Historical Abstract.

He was elected into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007 with 98.53 percent of the vote on the first ballot in which he appeared. The third highest for a player ever, and the highest ever for a position player.