Ripken Media Session, 5/23/95, Oakland
Q: Are you doing anything different in the offseason? I know you enjoy playing pickup basketball. Now that you're getting so close do you say maybe I shouldn't play basketball or do some things with the kids or are they holding back in the family? Maybe other people are looking at you differently?
A:"I didn't change anything about what I did in the offseason and I don't really try to run your life depending on how it may impact on your ability to play every single game. In some ways I really escalated my workouts because I think when you get older you have to kind of escalate a little bit more to get the same kind of results. If you knew some of the specific things we were doing (like) what happens in basketball games some people might look at me like I was pretty crazy for risking that. I always believe that it's part of the big picture. You workout really hard in the offseason. You put yourself at risk a little bit to gain the benefit of being in better shape. I try not to govern my life by not worrying about anything that could happen. I just try to go out and do what I normally do."
Q: How about your kids? They have to know what's happening. Are they still jumping on you, on your back or are they kind of holding back?
A:"I guess my kids are still young enough that they don't understand. I think my daughter is getting old enough to know that I'm a baseball player. It hasn't changed my behavior, hopefully my behavior hasn't changed and hopefully the people around me hasn't changed about how I approach things."
Q: Let's forget about Gehrig for a second. George Hilderbrandt told me that the iron man's streak is umpiring 3,520 consecutive games. Are you thinking about maybe going after that and attacking that historic figure? (Press laughs) Do you think a lot about Hilderbrandt?
A: (Cal laughs)"No. Not at all. Maybe I'll handle him the same way I've handled Lou Gehrig—not to know about him either. The fact of the matter is, I've never set out to do anything break any sort of record or to play in this many consecutive games. It's just something that has happened to me. It's now gotten to the point where you have to deal with it in order to manage it so it doesn't interfere with your daily approach."
Q: Cal, you've said that even if your record was in jeopardy, you wouldn't cross the line or anything like that. Does it take a long time to come to a position or was it an instant thing where you said, 'no I'm with the cause?'
A:"I thought it was, as I say a no-brainer. I thought it was just simple. We all live life, what we believe is right, what we believe is wrong and that was a real simple and easy decision for me. I didn't have to deliberate on it. I didn't have to think about it. It was clear, cut to me that would be the easiest. Of any decision I've had to make, that was pretty easy."
Q: So, if you didn't have the record it wasn't going to be a devastating thing 20 years from now?
A:"No, I don't know. The strangest thing is that over the last year or so I've come to a point where I'm kind of at peace with the whole thing. I didn't know how to deal with... I used to fight the notion that I was going out there and playing for the streak. You get criticized that you are in a slump and you get criticized for other things and I used to fight that because I felt it was so inaccurate. The last year and a half I've come to a conclusion that people are going to have a strong opinion for or against. You know how that goes. I've accepted the fact that they're going to have opinions. I know it's a story of interest and you deal with it accordingly. I know how I approach it and what it really means to me and I'm comfortable with it. So, in the offseason, if I was to lose it or if the streak were to end or something outside of your control or something outside your approach; it still doesn't take away your approach which is the important thing to me."
Q: What does it mean to you in the upcoming (muffled) frustration?
A:"Several things. In the team game, I was always brought up to believe that it it's important for me to be in the lineup everyday and it's important for you to be there and counted on upon by your teammates. We all have to work together in order to try to win, which we pull towards, as far as a common goal. In a team game, the shortstop counts on the second baseman who counts on the third baseman. Another hitter counts on the guy in front of him to get on. In order to score a run it involves a little bit of teamwork. In order to make a play it involves teamwork and the professional game, to try to win a certain number of games. I was always taught that it was important to be out there in the lineup, to be there, and to be consistent and to be counted on out there everyday. That's just how I approach things. That's just how I believe it's the right way to approach it."
Q: When your Dad was managing the Orioles and towards the end when he was struggling was that difficult for you? Did you ever say, 'hey Dad, maybe someone else is looking and trying to help him help the team?' Was that a tough decision?
A:"No, I've had different personal things that were going on. My situation is obviously different. I had a brother and I had a father that were on the same team. That was different altogether and at the same time, I lost a brother, lost a father from this team. On a personal basis, those things kind of effect me but I've always tried to look at it like, you have to come to the ballpark ready to play and if you're capable and healthy enough to play and if the manager wants you to play then, you will play. That's how I've lived it and that's how I've thought about it. If there was someone better that would help the team better on a daily basis, on a team basis, or on an individual basis then they should be out there no more deserving than me so be it but, I haven't had to deal with it."
Q: You said in "Esquire" concerning a day break that you don't consider it as over. When would it be over? When do you think (it's over)?
A:"I don't know. I'd like to think that if and when that happens that the next day would be just another day and I would come out there with the same attitude as, 'there's a game today, I want to play, I'm healthy enough to play, the manager wants me to play and I will.' It's hard to answer a question hypothetically or ask how you would feel at a certain point in time. We all change. I know I've changed some of my outlook over my whole career but I'd like to think that that's how it would be."
Q: How have you been able to keep your body together? I don't even know how Gehrig did it but how have you been doing it?
A:"I think there's a lot of luck involved and physically by staying away from certain injuries. We all play with certain nagging injuries. We all have a different threshold of pain in some regards and we all have different ability to go out there and focus on a daily basis. I feel very fortunate physically to have stayed away from serious injury or even sickness that would keep you out of the lineup. The other thing was that I've had the ability to establish my career early, to focus on my job and not have to be in the platoon situation where I could go out there and prepare for each and everyday. I've played it a little simpler for me mentally. So, really I've been fortunate in a lot of ways and I have a great desire to want to be in the lineup and I've been able to."
Q: There was a time when you didn't lift weights. Is that still the case? Have you always basically with held from lifting for fear of injury?
A:"No. Well, a lot of that was ignorance on my part. I grew up with an old school mentality that weights and baseball didn't mix. My Dad is obviously from the old school and in order for me to overcome that old school mentality, as regards to keeping oneself in shape, I went slowly at it. So I would try things to see how I feel. I would continue to do things. So it was a process that I got over where I know that in the weight room that there are certain things that can help you in your conditioning and help you with your skill work. You never lose sight of the fact that you're a baseball player when you're in the weight room you're not a weight lifter, you're not a football player. You always remember what you're trying to accomplish. So, I'm slow in that regard but, I've gotten over the hump and I try to take a little bit more modern approach to staying in shape."
Q: This is all packed sort of like a grand illusory, a fact for many years. We've been talking about it on and off, I really think it started taking off and getting really strong around the All Star Game in Toronto where you were the MVP, even then (the time remaining) it was like three or four years. Now you're a couple of months away from (breaking the record) it. Are you looking forward to this now? Are you excited about it?
A:"Again, to protect myself and allow myself to really deal with it I just kind of push it away. I try not to bring any level of importance to it because I really just want to go out there everyday and play. If I start to think about it and if I start to let it invade my thoughts more so on a daily basis; I feel I won't be able to go out there and do what I need to do each and every game. So, I guess it's just my way of protecting myself that I don't allow myself to do that."
Q: How do you do that?
A:"I don't know. I just try to push it away. I really...there's an old saying in baseball that you take it one day at a time. That's probably the most overused expression and probably one that maybe believe halfway. But, in my particular case, I find that if you really concentrate on what's going on today, who's pitching today and what you are going to do in the course of a game and focus on today and don't get lost in what happened yesterday you don't get too distracted by what's going to happen in the future. It allows you to really focus and allows you to do what you can do. I really try to focus on today. Don't worry about tomorrow. When tomorrow gets here then we'll start thinking about that."
Q: Are you surprised there aren't more guys like you? I mean 2000 games is unbelievable but that kind of idea about playing everyday?
A:"I don't know. I wish I had a secret way to explain it or I wish I had a secret that has enabled me to do it; which I don't. I just know that I've loved baseball for a long time. I've been in the middle of the professional game. I've had a great instructor and a great teacher in my father. My approach has been formulated over my whole life so when I come into baseball I enjoy being out in the lineup, I enjoy being in the middle of the field. I understand the importance of being out there on a daily basis. We had a series against Cleveland, and Eddie Murray was one of my real big early influences that showed me the importance of being in the lineup everyday, the effect that it has. You don't have to get the game winning hit or the game-winning catch. It can be something that you can do in the course of the game that...maybe you turn a double play, maybe you make a guess right on a hit-and-run that helps you win ball games. In Eddie's case, it's just the presence that Eddie has in the middle of the lineup that would force the manager to make a decision in the seventh inning of the ball game. Certain players have that presence. Eddie made me realize the importance of being in the lineup every single day. So, it's an accumulation of all those things that I want to play, I want to be out there and I think it's important."
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