To understand Cal Ripkin Jr. you need to know the story his dad told him early in his career, the story of Wally Pipp.

Wally Pipp was a power-hitting first baseman

that supposedly took a day off and supposedly

had a headache or something, took a day off,

and then gave an opportunity to a guy named Lou Gehrig and

Lou Gehrig came in and never came out so essentially Wally Pitt lost his job

because he took a day off and my dad through the minor legs would say okay look if you want to take a day off and

you think you're tired and you sit down and the guy that replaces you gets three hits in

the game that night what do you think the manager is going to do tomorrow?

He's going to want to play the guy that got three hits.

Don't let that guy get three hits. Here's another story for you. It's called 2,131. That's the number of Major League Baseball games in a row that Cal Ripkin Jr played before he beat

Lou Gehrig's long standing record.

And after Ripkin reached 2,131, he went right on playing another straight 502 games for a total of 2,632 consecutive games, all for the Baltimore Orioles. And Ripkin didn't just show up and play, of course. He killed it. A two-time MVP for the American League.

But the streak, as it's known, is what Cal Ripkin Jr. is best known for.

And there's not much chance that his record will ever be broken.

I know people say things like that only to be proven wrong,

but here's why, just to give you a little context.

The guy who holds the third place record after Cal Ripkin and Lou Gehrig, a shortstop

named Everett Scott who played 1,307 consecutive games in 1916.

This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and can you say perseverance from the Academy of Achievement?

I'm Alice Winkler.

Hadame, this child is gifted.

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