Monster Card Monday: 1991 Cal Ripken

Courtesy of Howie Mooney, this may be Cal Ripken’s first Monster Monday selection. It’s 1991 Ripken card which was

Iron Man Cal Ripken of course was of course most well known for his consecutive games played streak of 2.632 games.  Ripken streak finally ended in September of 1998 over 500 games over Lou Gehrig’s “unbreakable” streak.

But Cal had some pretty solid offensive years, too.  One of the best was in 1991.  He hit .323 for the Orioles while driving in 114 runs on 34 homers.  On top of that, he gapped 46 doubles.

Overall, he collected 210 hits and 368 total bases.  One of the more overlooked stats… he struck out 46 times in 717 plate appearances/   And yes, he played every game.

For his trouble, he was awarded AL MVP, a Golden Glove award and a Silver Slugger award.

First, let’s gaze upon SS-10.  We didn’t see that on players not named Ozzie too often.

Young ‘uns today will wonder what the big deal is about this Ripken player and his power.  The thing is, Rip ushered in an era of shortstops which could be used more for defense, running and bunting the runner along. Bolstered by his second base counter part Ryne Sandberg, middle infielders such as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Miguel Tejada (who actually has the fifth all-time longest streak) developed in the MLB. These shortstops all did their business with the bat as well as with the glove (and sometimes, that was debatable).

Ripken’s power numbers 1-5-5-6 are complimented by nifty hit numbers 55-7 and a 15-10.  He only received two 14s but on the same token, he only got two 13s.

While Ripken has a 23-12 on this card, I am pretty sure it is because the original set placed the 12 at 23 (someone correct me if you think this card is newer).

And of course, the best part of this card is that you can play it every day!

thanks, Howie!