Ripken's streak remains a marvel, three decades after he broke Gehrig's record

BALTIMORE — The Orioles renowned the 30th day of remembrance of Cal Ripken's record-breaking 2,131st sequentially biz during the weekend.

If anything, that run looks even more preposterous now.

The streak began in 1982 and ended in 1998, meaning Ripken played every game for 15 straight seasons from 1983-1997. Fast forward to 2025, and only eight players in all of baseball have played in each of his team's games: Brent Rooker, Pete Alonso, Ozzie Albies, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Olson, Elly De La Cruz, Manny Machado and Rafael Devers. And the season isn't over yet.

Last season only four players appeared in all 162 games, including Alonso and Olson. The longest active streak belongs to Olson, who hasn't missed a game since 2021. He'd have to keep going until 2037 — when he'll be 43 — to catch Ripken's mark of 2,632.

Then again, Ripken didn't play all those games directly in a row. He simply played every game in a season, then had the winter off before coming back to do it all over again. While it's rare for anyone to play 162 games in a season, it does still happen.

From 1982 to 1998, a player reached 162 games in a season 66 times. That's an average of 4.4 players doing it per year, if you don't count the 1994 and 1995 seasons that were shortened because of a strike. From 2021-2024, it happened 12 times — 3.0 per season. Maybe Ripken's mark won't be duplicated, but Olson is currently at 763. Making it to 1,000 would be a reasonable goal.

When Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games in 1995, Baltimore was a talented team in the middle of a disappointing season. But beginning with the record-tying game, the Orioles finished on a 16-8 run that year and then made the postseason in 1996 and 1997.

The 2025 Orioles, having a down year of their own, can only hope for a similar rebound.

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America will begin awarding a Relief Pitcher of the Year honor in 2026. If it were happening this year, Aroldis Chapman of the Boston Red Sox would be making a strong bid.

Chapman has gone 17 straight appearances — spanning 14 2/3 innings — without allowing a hit.

When Johnny Vander Meer famously threw back-to-back no-hitters in 1938, that was part of a run of 21 2/3 innings without yielding a hit, according to play-by-play data at Baseball Reference.

When Ripken ended his streak in 1998, it was the first time since 1981 that he did not at least share the team lead in games played. Which two Orioles played 162 games in '98, while Ripken only played 161?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers came within one out of a no-hitter on Saturday night at Baltimore. He tied a career high with 10 strikeouts and allowed only one hit — a solo homer by Jackson Holliday with two outs in the ninth.

Then he exited the game, and he didn't even get a win because ...

When Holliday came to the plate, Baltimore trailed 3-0 and had a win probability of 0.5% according to Baseball Savant. After Holliday's homer, Blake Treinen relieved Yamamoto and allowed a double, a hit batter and two walks. With the score 3-2 and the bases loaded, Tanner Scott came on and gave up Emmanuel Rivera's two-run single that gave the Orioles a 4-3 victory.

This all happened the same night the Orioles honored Ripken.

Rafael Palmeiro and B.J. Surhoff.

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