Subscribe Now

THE RIPKEN YEARS

At one of baseball's most demanding positions, is Cal Ripken coming up short?

Season highlights: 1996; Stats line; The year in baseball...and the world

By Ken Rosenthal | Sun Columnist

September 23, 1999

Cal Ripken still thinks he can play shortstop. But others in baseball -- including Orioles general manager Pat Gillick -- aren't so sure.

Gillick wouldn't commit to Ripken as the Orioles' Opening Day shortstop in 1997, saying: "I think the season took a toll, both on his range and his throwing."

Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan criticized Ripken's throwing during the American League Championship Series on NBC.

And former Orioles pitching coach Pat Dobson said flatly that shortstop is too demanding a position for Ripken to continue playing every day.

Ripken, a 13-time All-Star, is aware of the criticism and the Orioles' desire to move him to third base permanently and acquire another shortstop.

But he doesn't buy any of it.

"It only would stand to reason that if we had a Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez in the organization who fit into your plans, that would make sense," Ripken said.

"If you don't have a shortstop and plan on doing that, maybe I'm not privy to all the information they have, but on the surface, it's hard to understand it."

Indeed, the situation could not be more delicate or awkward, which is why it needs to be handled correctly, and not the way it was last season.

Asked if he would be comfortable opening next season with Ripken at short, Gillick said: "Probably right now, that's something we'd have to take a hard look at."

Hard and fast.

If the Orioles want a new shortstop, they should ditch Manny Alexander and find a legitimate successor to Ripken before spring training.

On the flip side, if Ripken moves to third, he should understand that the idea is not to demean him as a player, but serve the best interests of the team.

The great ones never want to admit to diminished skills. But Ripken turns 37 in August. Moving to third could be a positive step that prolongs his career.

Ripken won't be another Ozzie Smith, who had no place in the starting lineup once the St. Louis Cardinals decided he no longer could play shortstop.

But the dilemma is similar, for it involves a legend who firmly believes his time has not yet passed.

"I heard and read the criticism -- I was a step slow, two steps slow. I don't believe that for one minute," Ripken said. "If that was actually true, I wouldn't have had any success.

"If you're two steps slow to your left and two steps slow to your right, what does that equate to? You're not going to make the plays."

In a sense, the criticism was nothing new -- Ripken has spent his entire career using superior positioning to defy critics who said he lacked the speed to play short.

Heck, one of his greatest accomplishments is that he has played the position so well for 15 years when many in baseball thought he was too big in the first place.

But the question no longer is not whether a 6-foot-4, 220-pound man can play short. The question is whether the aging process is finally slowing down the game's all-time Iron Man.

Ripken has led the American League in total chances by a shortstop five times, most recently in 1993. This year, he ranked fifth, and committed 14 errors, matching his combined total from the previous two, strike-shortened seasons.

"He can make all the routine plays, but I think the rigors of the season wear him down," said Dobson, the pitching coach the Orioles fired last week.

"If the ball's hit right at him, he's going to be there. But as the season went along, his range decreased. I think that's because he got tired from playing every day."

So, can Ripken still play short?

"Every day? I don't think so," Dobson said. "There's too much wear and tear. It's too demanding a position. If he took a day off here and there, he probably could play it. But he can't do it every day anymore."

Gillick was more diplomatic.

"I thought he played at times quite well," the Orioles GM said. "I thought that, at the end of the season, the number of games wore him down."

If that's the case, then the solution is simple -- end Ripken's streak of 2,316 consecutive games, and rest him one or two days a week.

"That would be the simple solution, but I don't know if that is a solution," Gillick said.

Ripken, for one, doesn't believe fatigue was a problem.

"I don't know how someone can say at times I looked tired and that might have affected your range," Ripken said.

"I think back to the Cleveland series. I couldn't have played any better. I got to balls in the middle, in the hole, made all the plays I was expected and asked to, even more.

"The last month of the season, I felt rejuvenated. Most of the time when someone says you're tired, it refers to a slump. In the early part of September, I was trying to drive in runs, get the 100-RBI thing, and I was slumping. But then I rebounded in the last two weeks of the season.

"Where would the fatigue be then? Where did I get the extra energy? I discount any theories about fatigue affecting performance."

It certainly didn't affect his offense -- Ripken batted .278 with 26 home runs and 102 RBIs, his best power numbers since his MVP season in 1991. He then batted .342 in the postseason, with two RBIs in 38 at-bats.

His defense?

"I've been pitching in front of him for six years," Mike Mussina said. "I have no problem with him playing shortstop as long he wants to play shortstop, as long as he feel he's capable of doing the job."

Ripken conceded, "there are some physical skills you can't maintain your whole career," but said any perceived decline in his play was the result of circumstances, not an overall trend.

He said his problems began when he opened the season with "a bum shoulder" after repeating the accelerated program he used to get his arm in shape during the shortened spring training in 1995.

"My own evaluation is, early on, I was limited and handicapped. I didn't possess the same arm I had before," Ripken said. "It was hard to figure out a way to be successful positioning myself.

"It was complicated early on by our pitching -- we weren't pitching well. Balls were getting hit all over the place. The pitchers weren't hitting spots. A lot of things were going haywire. It impacts your ability to play defense."

Ripken, more than most shortstops, relies on pitchers to hit locations. If a pitch to a right-handed hitter is supposed to be inside and it's thrown outside, Ripken could look bad playing to pull if the ball is hit up the middle.

Such variables come into play when assessing any shortstop's defense. On the other hand, Ripken has played behind inconsistent pitching staffs before, and it wasn't an issue.

In 1990, he set a major-league record by making only three errors at shortstop. The Orioles ranked ninth in the American League in ERA that season -- same as this year.

So, when is an explanation an excuse, and an excuse an explanation?

Consider the play that drew Morgan's attention in Game 5 of the ALCS, when Ripken barely threw out Derek Jeter on a two-hopper up the middle off Scott Erickson.

"We've seen several times in this series where routine ground balls became very close plays at first base because Ripken does not get rid of the ball quickly enough and doesn't have a strong arm anymore," Morgan said.

Viewing the replay, Bob Uecker added, "Ripken looks like he took a stutter step before he finally grabbed the ball, then made the spin and throw. As Joe said, he really doesn't have enough velocity anymore."

Ripken's response?

"He Morgan thinks that's part of his job. Some of the comments he makes generally speaking are off-line to me as a baseball person.

"This was just one of those things. He categorized the play as a routine ball, a number of balls in the series as routine balls, without knowing the facts."

The facts, as Ripken saw them, were these:

His shoulder problems limited his throwing only on plays deep in the hole, not plays to his left.

Jeter had hit two infield singles off Erickson into the shortstop hole earlier in the series.

The play was not routine, because Jeter might be the fastest runner in the league home-to-first from the right side.

Ripken recalled several "defining moments" late in the season that indicated to him that he was throwing well again.

"Toward the end of the year, I started getting my arm. The last month of the season, it wasn't there all the time, but I started to get it," he said.

Besides, Ripken said, if he no longer can make the throw from the shortstop hole, "then it's definitely going to be a problem from third base."

In any case, how is it possible that he played so well against Cleveland, then became the target of criticism against New York?

For one thing, Ripken said that footing was difficult in Yankee Stadium.

"That was a tough track for me -- I'll admit it openly," Ripken said. "I rely on traction because I'm big. I rely on traction for first-step quickness and to plant. If I don't have those two things, it's difficult for me to make a break, difficult to stop."

Dobson offered another view.

"In the Cleveland series, his range wasn't extended, except for maybe one play here and there. In the Yankees series, they had some guys who could run, and they hit balls where his range was extended.

"A lot of times it wasn't because he couldn't get to the ball -- it was because his arm was bothering him. He couldn't get enough on the throw to get the runner."

Everyone has an opinion in baseball, and Dobson is not alone in his -- scouts from both leagues and several Orioles officials clearly agree with him.

On the other hand, several of Ripken's teammates -- Mussina, Brady Anderson and others -- think he can still play the position.

The Orioles need to make a decision.

Manager Davey Johnson talked about moving Ripken to third last season, then called it off, then tried him at third for six games, then called it off again.

"I'm not sure I understood either time," Ripken said. "Was it an evaluation of Manny? Or was it an opportunity to move me off short? Was it me? I don't know. It's not clear.

"You would think if there was a directional change, I would be informed. I'm not saying it needs my approval. Obviously, they don't. But I would think I would be informed. It was hard to take all the comments and piece them together and figure out what was going on."

It shouldn't be such a mystery. The Orioles seem intent on moving Ripken, and Ripken made a point of repeating, "I've never been opposed to any kind of move."

He's entitled to answers, but that doesn't mean he'd like them.

If he did, he wouldn't be Cal Ripken.

Pub Date: 10/24/96

Season Highlights

Hit three home runs in one game (May 28, 1996).
Led A.L. in grounding into double plays with 28 in 1996.
Extended his major league record for most consecutive games played to 2,316
Team announces Ripken's move to third base

Stats Line

	Avg.	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	E
1996	.278	163	640	94	178	40	2	26	102	59	78	1	14
Career	.277	2381	9217	1366	2549	487	44	353	1369	960	1033	35	232

The year in baseball . . .

It was a memorable year for the Orioles. Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray were reunited, Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs, Roberto Alomar caused a national controversy by spitting in an umpire's face, and the team made it into post-season play for the first time since 1983. The O's won a wild card berth to face the Cleveland Indians in the playoffs and surprised the favored Tribe three games to one. With nine players in the lineup who hit more than 20 home runs, the O's powerful offense proved too much for the Indians. But the team's luck wasn't to last. While the O's beat up on Cleveland, the New York Yankees were doing the same to Texas, eliminating the Rangers three games to one. And so the Metroliner rivalry was on, as the Yankees and Orioles opened their American League Championship Series in New York. That game proved one of the most controversial and memorable of the season. As O's outfielder Tony Tarasco waited to catch Derek Jeter's long fly ball, a young Yankees fan reached from the stands and made the grab-robbing Tarasco of his catch and arguably costing the Orioles the game. New York went on to win the series four games to one and ultimately went the distance, beating the Atlanta Braves in the World Series, four games to two.

. . . and the world

President Clinton defeated Bob Dole to win re-election, a blizzard dumped two feet of snow on much of the northeast, and Susan Sarandon finally won an Oscar. In arts and entertainment, 1996 was marked by many a going (Horn & Horn lunchroom, Shakespeare on Wheels, the announcement of David Zinman's departure) and an important staying (the Lucas Collection). Bad guys (Jack Valenti with his Hollywood-friendly TV ratings system) were as likely to make news as angels (John Travolta in "Michael"), and personalities (the Michael Jackson marriage saga) got more attention than performances (Alanis Morissette's best-selling album).