ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE ORIOLES' STAR TIES Sachio Kinugasa's record of 2,215 straight games.
Cal Ripken and Sachio Kinugasa, who gained fame in different countries and in different leagues, now share a record that can be appreciated by baseball fans of any culture.
Ripken tied Kinugasa's record of playing in 2,215 consecutive games Thursday night in the Baltimore Orioles' game against the Kansas City Royals. With Kinugasa watching from the stands at Kaufmann Stadium, Ripken equaled the mark set by the Japanese third baseman from 1970 to 1987.
Ripken, who broke Lou Gehrig's major-league record of 2,130 successive games last September, can surpass Kinugasa today.
Kinugasa and Ripken shook hands long before Thursday night's game in the Baltimore clubhouse. Minutes later, in an informal news conference, Kinugasa praised the man who will probably eclipse his world record.
``I'm tremendously impressed with his philosophy and approach to baseball,'' Kinugasa said. ``It's nice that a person like Cal is creating a new record.''
The celebration marking the event was decidedly less fanatical than last year, when President Clinton joined a sellout crowd at Camden Yards to watch Ripken top Gehrig's hallowed record. During the record-breaking game, Baltimore's Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla pushed Ripken out onto the field and goaded him into taking a victory lap.
Kauffman Stadium was less than half filled Thursday, and Palmeiro was hardly overcome by emotion at the thought of seeing Ripken shatter the Japanese mark.
``Last year, the whole country was rooting for him. It was kind of like a New Year's countdown, with the whole nation watching,'' Palmeiro said. ``The media hasn't built this one up nearly as much. To be honest, I didn't know if it was today, tomorrow or the next day.''
With Ripken, virtually every day is the same during baseball season. The shortstop walks on the field every night planning to play nine innings and believing his presence in the lineup will help the Orioles win.
Ripken has never entered a game with the sole intention of keeping his phenomenal consecutive games streak alive, and probably never will.
Injuries, including broken ribs, a broken left wrist and a fractured shoulder blade, sometimes forced Kinugasa to keep his streak alive with one obligatory trip to the plate. In nearly 100 games, his playing time consisted of one pinch-hitting appearance.
One such occasion occurred in 1979, after a wild pitch from Takashi Nishimoto of the Yomiuri Giants fractured Kinugasa's shoulder blade. He was taken to a hospital and ordered by doctors not to play.
But the next day Kinugasa taped his shoulder and pinch hit to extend his streak.
``If I had to play the same day [of the injury], I couldn't. But the next day, I was able to swing the bat,'' Kinugasa said. ``It would have been even more painful not to play.''
The remarkably injury-free Ripken may one day be caught in a similar situation, but he says he won't take an at-bat merely to keep his run of consecutive games intact.
``That would be a real contradiction because that's not what the game is all about. That's not what I've been all about,'' Ripken said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Baltimore's Cal Ripken signs autographs before theby CNBstart of the Orioles' game against the Royals in Kansas City, Mo.,
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