The mid-nineties were a bleak time in baseball history. Not only was it the heart of what has become known as "the steroid era," but it also featured an ugly players' union strike that cut short the '94 season. Moderate fans walked away from the sport. True fans watched disgusted and reminisced on better times when better men played the game they loved. We watched, crushed, as some of the game's most hallowed records, held by some it's most storied characters, fell to men we all knew to be cheating. But for more than a decade another story had been in the works whose brilliance would only be enhanced by the contrasting darkness.
On September 6, 1995 the California Angels at Baltimore Orioles game came to a stop for 22 minutes after the completion of the fifth inning. In fact, in ballparks across the nation games came to a stop and all eyes, on and off the field, watched as their jumbo-trons showed the scene in Baltimore. One man was announced and walked out of the dugout and removed the cap from his graying head. Cal Ripken Jr. had played shortstop in 2,131 consecutive games, all for the only team that he would ever play for, surpassing the great Lou Gehrig's mark that most justifiably thought would never fall.
In times when a good man is hard to find, times like these, heroes are made. History would probably not remember the names of courageous men like Winston Churchill had evil not moved to conquer the world and had every other member of Parliament not been hesitant to confront it. These are the times that have been allotted to us. Real men are needed now more than ever.