Is It Time To Sit Down?

A certain veteran infielder is less than one month shy of his 37th birthday. His back is ailing. He is mired in an 11-for-64 hitting slump. His team is in the midst of playing 44 games in 48 days outside its division before embarking on the homestretch of a tight pennant race. Should that infielder take a day off? Of course. But what if he hasn't sat out a game since May 29, 1982? Who's going to tell the Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. to rest?

"If Mr. Ripken wants to play, then Mr. Ripken will play," Brewers manager Phil Garner says. "But having been a player, I believe you're better off if you take a day off here and there. At some point the streak has to stop."

When asked whether it's time for Ripken to take a break, many people in baseball expressed the opinion that after more than 2,400 straight games, baseball's Iron Man should take maybe two or three days off for his own good and for the long-term benefit of the Orioles. A few years ago it would have been heresy to suggest this. Today it is common sense. The consecutive-games record is long in the books, and it's time for Ripken to consider that sitting down occasionally might be the best way for him to reach his second World Series, his first since '83. "Cal and I sat down one-on-one many times," says former Orioles manager Johnny Oates, now the Texas skipper, "and our understanding was that if I ever felt he was hurting the club, it was my job to start someone else. He did not want to be on the field if he was not the best player at his position."

Through Sunday, Ripken had batted just .172 in his last 16 games and had hit only one home run in his last 48 games, including none in July. He has admitted that back spasms have hampered him. In the meantime the Orioles have been struggling, at one point in the last five weeks losing more than half of a nine-game lead over the Yankees before moving back to a 5½-game lead at week's end. "I'd talk to him first about taking a day or two off," Indians manager Mike Hargrove says. "If it's best for the team, I don't think Cal could disagree with it. But I'm glad I don't have to answer that question for real."

The subject is taboo in Baltimore, where the Streak long ago took on a life of its own. Baltimore manager Davey Johnson is loath to broach the subject because he is still licking his wounds from last season, when he briefly moved Ripken from shortstop to third base, causing a controversy that divided the Orioles' clubhouse. That leaves only Ripken himself, who seems powerless to halt the streak. He refuses even to address the possibility of sitting down, having always maintained that he wants to play every day only because he feels that he can help the team win.

Ripken is keenly aware that sitting out might be even harder mentally on him than playing, because it would cause a media frenzy that could last several days. Also, Ripken correctly points out that, because he hasn't had a day off in 15 years, he doesn't know how much good one would do him. But considering his stubborn nature, he isn't any more likely to voluntarily end the streak than he was to voluntarily leave shortstop. He'll need to be pushed, and there isn't anybody willing to push him.

Meanwhile, Ripken is finding brief moments of respite. On July 15, Johnson removed him after seven innings of a blowout win over the Blue Jays and later explained that Ripken looked as if he was hurting so much that he needed back surgery. Five days later, Ripken was ejected for arguing over a called third strike in the second inning of a game in which the Orioles trailed 6-0. Says White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen, "I talked to Cal about the streak when the Orioles were in Chicago, and I said, 'I don't know how you do it.' He said, 'Do you think I want to?' I think he would help the team and himself if he took a rest. I think he likes to please the fans a lot, but I think he should take a day off."

A Vote for Don Sutton

When former Braves pitcher Phil Niekro is inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, he will be the only former major league player voted into Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) in the last two years. Next year, former Expos and Mets catcher Gary Carter will be the only significant new nominee, and he is not likely to be elected by a constituency that refused to admit Joe DiMaggio on the first ballot. This drought of new busts at Cooperstown could represent the first time since 1965 that only one player has been voted in by the writers over a three-year period. Are they raising their standards?

"I think we're just trying to maintain the same high standards we've had for years, because the Hall of Fame is not for very good players, only for great players," says Jack Lang, a BBWAA member for 52 years. All eligible writers may vote for as many as 10 nominees every year, but a player must be named on 75% of the ballots to be enshrined. "We try to elect people," says Lang, "but it's tough to get 75 percent to support anybody. Heck, if it took 75 percent to elect the President of the United States, we'd never have one."