By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff Writer
August 02, 1994

MINNEAPOLIS, AUG. 1 — Cal Ripken's 2,000th consecutive game was memorable mostly because he played it, not because he did anything magical in it. Arthur Rhodes didn't exactly steal the spotlight tonight at the Metrodome, but he borrowed a sliver of it by pitching the Baltimore Orioles to a 1-0 triumph over the Minnesota Twins before 27,712.

Ripken joined Lou Gehrig as the only men in baseball history to have played in 2,000 straight games. He received a warm greeting from the crowd, but the rest of the evening was anticlimactic. Ripken made a pair of nice plays at shortstop, but went hitless in his four at-bats. He popped out in the eighth inning with runners at second and third and one out. He was left 130 games shy of Gehrig's all-time record consecutive-games streak, and he was typically unimpressed by his achievement.

"To me, it seemed like just another game," Ripken said. "It's a nice, big, round number. I'm happy about it. I'm proud of it for a number of reasons. I would have liked to have gotten a hit. Hopefully in some small way I contributed to a win {with his defense}. ... Everyone wants me to stand up and say, 'I'm here.' But I can't do that.

"The biggest compliment that could be paid to me is, 'He plays the game the same way he did in his first few seasons.' That's my goal. I've never been obsessed with Mr. Gehrig."

The Orioles (57-46) scored an unearned run on an RBI single by Mark McLemore off Twins starter Pat Mahomes in the second inning, and Rhodes made that run stand up with his second shutout in the major leagues. He limited Minnesota to seven hits, issued only one walk and had four strikeouts. Mike Devereaux, a ninth-inning defensive replacement, made a diving catch in center field to end the game with a runner aboard.

The Orioles' previous shutout had come last Aug. 24. They went 138 games without one. The Detroit Tigers were left as the lone big league team without a shutout this year. The Orioles, who never had gone more than 60 contests into a season without a shutout before this year, remained eight games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.

"He made it look easy," Ripken said of Rhodes. "I think that's the biggest compliment you can give a pitcher."

Said Rhodes: "I had everything working real good. I wasn't just blowing people away with my fastball. I was hitting my spots with all my pitches."

The locals apparently agreed with Ripken's insistence that No. 2,000 was no big deal, and the stands were half empty. Ripken's 2,000th originally was scheduled to be played Saturday in Baltimore against the Toronto Blue Jays. But the Orioles had two games in Seattle postponed by the crumbling Kingdome roof, and the historic evening instead came in this decidedly unhistoric setting.

Orioles third base coach Jerry Narron made out the club's lineup card twice — perhaps just to be certain he got it right for the Hall of Fame, or perhaps to keep one stashed. Ripken's wife, Kelly, was in town as a surprise for her husband, and sat in the first row of seats behind the team's dugout on the first base side of the field. The crowd gave Ripken a standing ovation prior to his first-inning at-bat, and the shortstop tipped his batting helmet twice.

"I didn't know what to expect," Ripken said. "I'm a grinder. I go out there and grind it out every game. To be recognized like that in an away ballpark, I almost felt obligated to get a hit."

Other than that, though, this was a business-as-usual night for Ripken, much like every other evening he's had for the past 13 years between April and October. He hasn't missed a contest since the second game of a doubleheader on May 29, 1982. He's started the past 1,973 games at shortstop, the game's most demanding position defensively other than catcher. He's participated in more than 99 percent of the innings the Orioles have played since The Streak began.

As it now stands, Ripken would break Gehrig's record in late June of next season (on June 20 against the Yankees in Baltimore, according to one report), but the strike could push that back. His teammates are convinced that he'll break the record. Pitcher Mike Mussina jokes that Ripken will be playing shortstop for the club even when he has to be taken to the position in his wheelchair. "And," Mussina said, "he'll still wheel over to the ball and make the play."

Ripken nearly was hit by a line drive off the bat of Devereaux during batting practice. Naturally, he saw the ball at the last moment and sidestepped it. He quite simply is blessed. He was in the middle of a beanball battle on Sunday in Baltimore, but Blue Jays pitcher Juan Guzman only hit him on the rear end.

"I've always felt if you play the game the right way, play full speed and keep your concentration up, that insulates you against some injuries," Ripken said.

Ripken gave the credit for his work ethic to his father, the longtime Orioles coach and manager. One story about Cal Ripken Sr. maintains that when he once was plowing a field at the family's farm, he suffered a deep gash on his forehead and was bleeding badly. But he simply tied a bandana around his head and finished his work. Now that was true grit, more so than any consecutive-games streak.

The younger Ripken doesn't read the things about Gehrig that people send him. All of that is stored in a box in his house. He's never seen the movie "The Pride of the Yankees" all the way through, he says.

Ripken had a close-call ankle injury in 1985, and nearly didn't play the game after the Orioles-Mariners brawl in Baltimore last year because he twisted his right knee in the melee. Manager Johnny Oates says the decision to play Ripken that day wasn't made until an hour or so before game time. But otherwise, Oates says, he never has considered sitting Ripken down. And he insists he wouldn't give Ripken a courtesy appearance to continue The Streak.

"I would not embarrass him with that," Oates said. "I would not even think of diminishing what he's done. That's not him. He wouldn't want it that way."

Said Ripken's friend, Twins outfielder Kirby Puckett: "I hope he breaks the record. It's one of the greatest accomplishments ever in baseball. People don't realize how amazing it is. I think it's tough to play 10 in a row at our age."

As for the game, Harold Baines provided a leadoff single against Mahomes (8-5) in the second. Leo Gomez hit a would-be double-play ground ball, but Twins first baseman Jeff Reboulet dropped the relay throw for an error. One out later, Chris Hoiles drew a walk, and McLemore singled through the middle. Hoiles was thrown out at third base when the throw from center field was cut off, but Gomez had scored first.

Rhodes (2-5) took it from there. He was recalled from Class AAA Rochester Sunday, and he began today with an 8.83 earned run average in his eight starts for the Orioles this year. But he certainly looked like a polished pitcher tonight, throwing breaking pitches as well as his fastball for strikes and working out of trouble calmly.

The Twins (47-57) wasted Puckett's two-out double in the first. Puckett grounded out with two outs and two runners aboard in the third, and second baseman McLemore made a diving play on Matt Walbeck's grounder following two-out singles by Scott Leius and Reboulet in the fourth. Chuck Knoblauch didn't advance past second base after his one-out double in the fifth.