Replies

Cal Ripken indirectly was responsible for the Orioles being bridesmaids and not champions.

The Streak became bigger than him.

He should have been moved to 3rd base long before Mike Bordick arrived. His range was diminished and his bat speed hardly provided warning track power for too many years.

12 posted on 02/15/2005 4:10:25 PM PST by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon)

He should have been moved to 3rd base long before Mike Bordick arrived. His range was diminished and his bat speed hardly provided warning track power for too many years.

I just wish the Orioles never let Eddie Murray go...
or Earl Weaver...
or..
aw, shucks, I'll just say it:

Long live the '69 - '71 Orioles!

Full Disclosure: Aww, Brooks woulda' got that one!

18 posted on 02/15/2005 4:14:00 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)

Cal Ripken indirectly was responsible for the Orioles being bridesmaids and not champions.

The Streak became bigger than him.

Cal Ripken almost single-handedly saved major league baseball.

Remember the strike? Remember how people were turned off on MLB? What brought the fans back?

And, besides that, Cal Ripken is a great human being. Some people just hate that.

And he looked great sitting at court-side the other night when the Terps kicked the crap out of the Dukies.

"Cal Ripken indirectly was responsible for the Orioles being bridesmaids and not champions. The Streak became bigger than him."

The last 3 1/2 years leading up to Ripken breaking Gehrig's consecutive games streak, these were his numbers:

1996 - .278, 40 doubles, 26 homeruns, 102 RBI's
1997 - .270, 30 doubles, 17 homeruns, 84 RBI's
1998 - .271, 27 doubles, 14 homeruns, 61 RBI's
1999 - .340, 27 doubles, 18 homeruns in just 86 games that year.

I can't really see how this guy was a liability to his club with numbers like these. Hell, Toronto paid 3B Corey Koskie $17 million this past off-season for comparable numbers over the past several years.

Are you suggesting that there may have been games during the streak in which the Orioles would have been better served by Mr. Ripkin sitting out?

I agree with you 100%, and I've said for years that he would have been a much better player if he had simply taken some time off every now and then. The real clue to this is that his best season was only about 4-5 years into something like a 20-year career, and he was pretty much in a long, slow decline from that point forward.

As a former Oriole fan I heard that a lot the last few years Cal played. My response was always "Who was going to take his place? Manny Alexander?" The Oriole farm system was and still is a train wreck. With no one to promote to short and the free agent money going to great choices like Bonilla and Albert Belle, I don't know that there was any option other than Cal at short. Cal was one of the few reasons to pay to see a once great franchise and now that he is gone, I know that's why I'm one of those empty seats at Camden Yards.

But enough of that...LETS GO NATS!

"Cal Ripken indirectly was responsible for the Orioles being bridesmaids and not champions."

"He should have been moved to 3rd base long before Mike Bordick arrived. His range was diminished and his bat speed hardly provided warning track power for too many years."

You may be a Patriot but you know nothing of baseball history, the Orioles, or Cal Ripken Jr.

The Orioles teams sucked in his later years.
Ripken had very good range, better than all but the elite defense only types.
Ripken hit more HRs from SS position than anybody in the game including Ernie Banks.
There was nobody in the farm system or the bench that was better than Ripken at SS...Manny Alexander sucked ass.