"Baseball history is normally unexpected - you don't know when it's going to be made, how it's going to be made - and when it happens, that's where the goose bumps come in,"
"But in this game, everybody walked through the gates knowing exactly what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. The game was going to be halfway over, Ripken was going to have this record, and what more was there going to be? And boy, was I wrong. I've never been more wrong about any night I've spent at the ballpark."
Cal Ripken Jr. ended Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games record by playing his 2,131st straight game on Sept. 6, 1995, at Camden Yards. The milestone came after Orioles second baseman Manny Alexander caught Damion Easley's popup to end the top of the fifth inning. Many fans entered the ballpark expecting a predictable, anticlimactic milestone because the timing was known in advance. The crowd response became unexpectedly powerful and emotional, turning a routine moment into a resonant, blue-collar celebration and a symbolic passing of the Iron Man title.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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