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Message: [QUOTE="SVCBeercats, post: 4363112, member: 7874"] From this article: "until he was far past Gehrig’s record, that one game was the only time he faced a decision whether to play." HE play the one game in question. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/05/cal-ripken-games-streak-anniversary/[/URL] They don’t get it. They never did. Even his first wife, Kelly, didn’t. In his 1,793rd straight game, in a mound brawl, [URL='https://www.mlb.com/news/brawl-nearly-ended-cal-ripken-jr-s-iron-man-streak']Ripken’s knee was hurt[/URL]. The next day, he could not bear to stand. He was so sure The Streak would end that he called his mom “to give them a heads-up.” “My parents lived 45 minutes away. In 46 minutes, they were at my house,” he said. After therapy, “Mom walked me around.” “Couldn’t you pinch-hit?” his wife asked. “I wouldn’t do that,” he told her. “I just won’t play.” “But The Streak will be broken.” “Yes,” Ripken said, a little perplexed. “I thought [The Streak was] what you wanted,” she said. “You, too?” Ripken said. Ripken told me this story at the time and thought it was the ultimate example of how hard it was to explain to anyone, even those closest to him, that “I just play.” The sport demands acceptance. The game decides The Streak. That night, Ripken made a highlight play in the hole, planted on his bad knee and gunned out the runner. “I didn’t know if the knee would hold,” he said. “It did.” Just a painful strain, no structural damage. Ripken finds it hard to explain, until he was far past Gehrig’s record, that one game was the only time he faced a decision whether to play. In a way, it seems to make him modest about his record: What did he really do? [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach