Ripken Media Session, 5/9/95, Boston
Q: Cal, guesstimate how many of these pre-game media events have you gone through? (concerning the streak)
A:"Not too many, Spring training was a little bit more... Can't think of the word I want to say, a little bit more difficult than other spring trainings dealing with some of the distractions associated with talking about the strike, the streak. So,... I don't know. I would say about four or five times I've gone through this."
Q: Are you getting tired of it yet? It's everywhere you go?
A:"I thought I'd be better at it but I'm still not very good at it."
Q: Much better to talk about the streak than the strike though?
A:"Yes, I'll say yes to that."(Laughter from Cal and Press)
Q: If there's one person that has to be glad the strike is over it's you. What would you have done?
A:"What would I have done? If wouldn't have been able to play baseball? I don't know. I'm glad I don't have to answer that question. I'm just glad that we're back playing. I'm glad that we went through a spring training, as abbreviated as it was, and now there's some sense of normalcy back in the world. It seems like we are actually able to go out and play baseball again."
Q: Now that you're getting closer are you still able to look at every game as one game at a time? Is it more difficult now to do that?
A:"I think even more so now than ever before. You really have to focus on your actual approach. You can't get carried away or get too far ahead. I've always been a little fearful about changing my approach or the fact that the streak gets so much attention that all of the sudden I'll become a little more obsessed with it and start looking ahead and forget about why I'm at this point anyway. I didn't set out to do it. I didn't try to do it. I just went out and tried to play the game the way I was taught to play it and you look up 10, 12, 13 years later and boom, here we are. I really try to focus in on just what's happening here today and not worry about who's even pitching tomorrow. Let's worry about today's game, get through today's game. Then, worry about tomorrow."
Q: With what you've accomplished so far has it made yourself look back a little bit?
A:"I don't allow myself to think about it but, on occasion, I have. In the offseason, when I don't think it will effect my approach so much sometimes you'll think about it. And definitely if you were to ask me, 'do you think you would have been playing in this many consecutive games' the answer would have been, 'no' without even a thought. So, to think about it and how lucky and fortunate I've been in my career in general but also how lucky and fortunate I've been to play in all of these games. I think it's amazing. For some reason, in some respects."
Q: Broadcasters and writers have difficult occupational nightmares, probably for broadcast, when you're trying to get to the set for a deadline and for writers, when you're trying to make the deadline. Do you have an occupational nightmare? Does it ever cross your mind that a cab driver might not get you to the park in time and you'll miss one?
A:"At this point, no. Teamwise, I remember a lot of times when we would be competing with Detroit and something would always happen to the bus; that there would be no bus at the runway at three or four o'clock in the morning and we would always say that Sparky (Anderson) do us, but I've never had one personally. I hope I don't."
Q: Now that you've planted that seed, do you worry about injuries since you're so close now? Do you think with only 110 games left, 'Oh my God, since I'm getting so close I will twist my ankle or something?'
A:"No. I honestly don't. Somewhere along the line, years ago, I thought that you can insulate yourself from injuries by playing all out, by playing the way the game is supposed to be played. The time when you get the chance to be injures is the time when you let up your guard for a minute or not run not runa ball out hard or basically try to avoid a collision that would take the second baseman out. It's better to go out and do what you've been trained to do all these years than to try and do something different."
Q: Could you tell us a little bit about your work ethic? Who had been influential?
A:"My approach to the game has probably been influenced all by my father. Essentially, in a team game like baseball is, your teammates relay on you to be in the lineup everyday. From the very beginning, my dad preached that it was important to be there, in the lineup, on a daily basis. Maybe I've exaggerated the point a little bit, but, I still think it's important to go out there and play in a baseball season 162 games. It's whether you play 140 or 120 games, there will always be days when you feel 70 percent. But there's something you so in the course of a game. That is the beauty of baseball. You can help your team win in the first inning by turning a double play or guessing right on a hit and run and the coverage was right and you avoid a bad beginning. It's just always been preached to me to be out there and in the lineup everyday. My father is the one that turned me in that direction."
Q: (On Cal comparing himself to Lou Gehrig)
A:"I try very hard not to think about that. The only comparison you can make between me as a player and Lou Gehrig as a player is that we have the streak in common. Other than that, he was a far better hitter than I'll ever be, probably a far better player than I'll ever be I've tried not to learn about him. I've tried not to think about him, because I just want to be me and play the game and do everything I believe is right and when the game is over sit back and say, 'I did everything I could and be satisfied with my effort.'"
Q: With this emphasis about bringing people back to the game; the streak which you're involved with now, which is one the things that is bringing fans back, does that add some extra pressure to you? Is that one of the great things that is happening to you?
A:"Well, I don't think it's put any additional pressure on me. I try to sit down and understand why my particular situation would be one of.... I think that baseball is a special game to me and to a lot of people. We all look to statistics and history. We compare one generation to another generation and this particular thing that is happening to me, the consecutive game streak, I think it symbolizes down, deep inside what we all feel about baseball that we're able to compare different eras and that baseball has such a rich history. From that regard, everybody is happy about it, everybody likes it...it kind of brings out a special feeling about baseball that may be different than some other games. If that's going to be positive, then that's good."
Q: With all this attention, are you taking more kidding from your teammates?
A:"I think over the years I've been taking more kidding from my teammates but I don't know...that's another fear of mine that this whole streak thing will be distracting for them, which is the last thing or the worst thing that could happen as far as I'm concerned. Say we're in a pennant race or in a position to win and the streak gets in the way and becomes a distraction to the team. I hope that does not happen."
Q: Wouldn't it be kind of funny to get a lineup card from the dugout around 6:00 and find that your name wasn't in it just to see how many newscasters interrupted their programs from Baltimore to Los Angeles?
A:"That would get everybody. It wouldn't get me. I stopped looking at the lineup card along time ago."
Q: If you hit a slump and the team were in a pennant race, would you suggest you sit out? (Ripken replies, confused,"If the team were in a slump...") You know if you were in a slump and the team was in a pennant race and you've gone through these things before. Would you sit out?
A:"Would you guarantee that the team would be better if I was out of there?"
Q:"How would you analyze it?"
A:"Well, I'd probably analyze it the same way as I always do. I come to the ballpark and I want to play in that game today and if the manager wants me in that game today then I'll be in that game today. It really breaks down pretty simple. I don't have the power of choice to say that I'm going to be playing or I'm not going to be playing. The manager still has that power, although some people might argue that now. (If the manager wants to put me in the lineup.) A long time ago, when there was criticism about the streak and they said if I was out of the lineup... and they said that the team would be better off and my question to that is, 'If there was somebody else better that you want to put in that would make the team better than why would that not be happening on a more regular basis?' So I don't know. The best thing you do is put out the best team you can on that particular day to try to win."
Q: Sometimes a rest would help you as well, not only for the team but to keep you as a better player for the stretch.
A:"Well, I think that's an individual thing. Some people are good players by playing every single day and some people benefit by not playing everyday. I don't know. In my particular case, I couldn't actually say. I think I'm better playing every day, but I don't have anything else to compare it to."
Q: If the Orioles were the only team not to play replacement players and it wasn't possible for your owner Peter Angelos to keep the streak alive what about the decision by Mr. Angelos?
A:"Without really getting into any deep meaning, what it meant for me was Mr. Angelos was doing something he believed was right. I don't take it any further. I don't give myself any more importance than there is necessary. Some people say he did it in support of me. I personally have had the chance to meet and know Mr. Angelos a little bit and I think he did something he felt was right and to really make any more out of that,... I couldn't."
Q: If the streak was not going as it is, would there have been times when you would have taken yourself out of the lineup because of a nagging injury?
A:"No, I don't think so. I've had some of my better days because of nagging injuries. My biggest fault is that I try to do too much sometimes or sometimes an injury. I hyper extended an elbow in Seattle and you went to swing the bat in the on deck circle it hurt. But, if you swung the bat and hit the ball it didn't hurt. So it kind of elevated your concentration to the level that all of the sudden I went to one of the hottest streaks in my career because I just stayed within myself and just made sure that when I swung the bat I made contact. So, yes, it's kind of a strange game, sometimes you can feel 100 percent, sometimes you can feel like Superman and go out zero for four with four strikeouts or come in and feel like there's no way I can play today and you end up with four for four and you end up making some good plays in the field and help your team win. So, I don't know. I seem to have had some of my better days when I've been nursing nagging injuries."
Q: It must be a strange feeling to be involved in some of the publicity driven type of events when the only thing you really have to do is show up unlike Cobb, who had to get another hit or Rose who had to get another hit or Gehrig who might have been in a different streak...DiMaggio I should say. How do you feel about that aspect of it?
A:"My situation is different from all those other situations. There are other situations that are performance driven. I just come out and want to play every single day and I'm not controlling the media interest. I'm just accommodating it. I'm just trying to be accommodating. There's no additional pressure. The only thing that I have to guard against is that it doesn't affect my daily approach or doesn't become a distraction to myself personally. I understand the interest in the story and I understand my responsibility to be accommodating as much as I can but, I also have a responsibility to the team to actually go out there and approach the game the same way I approach it."
Q: The Hall of Fame. Do you ever think about that someday?
A:"Absolutely not."
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