Remembering Cal Ripken Jr.’s Final All-Star Game

PressBox looks back at Cal RIpken Jr.’s final All-Star Game.

The year was 2001, and all eyes were on Cal Ripken Jr.

A Secret In Seattle

By John Delcos

We knew early on Cal Ripken Jr. would be a special player. What we didn’t know was how much he would have a flair for the dramatic.

Not flashy or a showman, this workmanlike Hall of Famer had a sense of theater that flourished under the glare of history’s spotlight.

There were the home runs, of course, on those two incredible nights at Camden Yards when he tied and broke Lou Gehrig’s record, the second of which was punctuated by a 22-minute lap around the field.

I covered Ripken for more than eight years and will never forget those nights, but the needle of my No. 8 memory meter also jumps when I think of his final All-Star Game, a magical night of drama in Seattle.

Ripken was playing third base then, and moments before the first pitch American League shortstop Alex Rodriguez motioned to him to switch positions, thereby giving him one last start at shortstop.

Of course, Ripken later hit a home run.

Derek Jeter later remarked that Ripken always seemed to hit a home run in the games in which he was spotlighted, and it was true.

The position switch caught everybody, even Ripken, by surprise.

Ripken, of course, received a huge ovation in the pregame introductions, and moments later the American League took the field. Ripken played 12 All-Star Games at shortstop, and wouldn’t it be nice for him to play there in his final one?

Ripken spoke of it the day before and numerous journalists in the press box were chatting up the idea.

“Oh my god, he’s going to short,” I said to somebody sitting next to me.

Just before the first pitch, Rodriguez, one of the then-Three Amigos as Ripken’s heir apparent to the position – Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra were the others – motioned Ripken to switch places.

Ripken didn’t know what to do, but AL manager Joe Torre stood up on the top step of the dugout and motioned him to do it.

A roar from the crowd grew when it realized it was witnessing one of those spontaneous moments that make sports so great.

Only it wasn’t spontaneous.

On the Thursday prior to the game, Rodriguez, then with the Seattle Mariners, phoned Torre and bounced the idea.

“I thought it was a dynamite idea,” said Torre, who let most of the team in on what would happen.

“The only one we tried to keep out of it was Cal,” Torre said.

Ripken was touched.

“It was really a neat tribute,” Ripken said that night. “I spent most of my career out at shortstop. It was great being at shortstop again. I appreciated it.”

Ripken received another standing ovation in the third inning when he stepped up to the plate against Chan Ho Park.

As Ripken stepped out of the batter’s box, it was obvious what people were thinking.

“The ovation, with people standing up, I came out and tried to acknowledge them very quickly because I don’t want the game to be delayed for that,” Ripken said. “I got back in and just saw the first pitch, swung at it and put a nice swing on it.”

There are few sounds in sports so distinguishable as bat meeting ball squarely.

Torre was thinking about what lineup changes to make when the crack returned him to the field.

“It was really magical,” Torre said, “And Cal is such a class individual. His legacy in baseball is not going to be how he played, but the way he played, the way he carried himself and it was wonderful.”

Originally published in “Ripken: From Aberdeen To Cooperstown, A Celebration Of A Hometown Hero” (PressBox, 2007). John Delcos covered Cal Ripken and the Orioles from 1990-98 with The York Daily Record.

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