Baseball · 1995 · Baltimore, USA
2,131
A Baltimore Orioles shortstop breaks a 56-year-old consecutive-games record long considered permanently unbreakable, in a season widely credited with restoring fan trust after a bitter players' strike.
2,131
Consecutive games
2,130 (Lou Gehrig, 1939)
Previous record
2,632 games
Streak's eventual length
Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, built across 14 seasons and ended only by the illness that eventually killed him, had stood since 1939 as one of baseball's most untouchable records. Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles had been quietly closing in on it for years, playing through minor injuries that would have sidelined most players, without ever publicly chasing the number.
On 6 September 1995 at Camden Yards, Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game, officially breaking the record once the game became official in the middle of the fifth inning. The Camden Yards crowd interrupted play with a standing ovation lasting more than twenty minutes, during which Ripken took a reluctant victory lap around the ballpark's edge, shaking hands with fans.
The moment arrived barely a year after a players' strike had cancelled the 1994 World Series and badly damaged the sport's standing with fans, and Ripken's streak, built on a old-fashioned ethic of simply showing up, was widely credited with helping restore public goodwill toward baseball. He extended the streak to 2,632 games before voluntarily ending it in 1998.
Watch the Moment
