The Streak

April 10, 2017
Eisenberg (The First Season) adeptly profiles the two Baseball Hall of Fame players whose consistency became the stuff of legend: Lou Gehrig, who played 2130 consecutive games, and Cal Ripken Jr., who broke Gehrig’s record and eventually played 2632 games. He also excels in exploring others who approached their level. A stopped train didn’t deter Everett Scott (who held the consecutive game record until Gehrig broke it), who ran to a house, hired a car, took a trolley, and hailed a cab to join the Yankees mid-game. The efforts of George Pinkney (of the Cleveland Blues in 1884), who played third base without a glove, resonated with Brooklyn’s working class. Gehrig, for his part, relished the attention to his record, even correcting journalists who lost track. Ripken simply went about his business, though he eventually stayed in a separate hotel from his teammates and took a limousine to home games. The streak became more of an attraction with the rise in popularity of statistics, highlighted by the 1913 establishment of the Elias Statistical Bureau. Massive guaranteed contracts, and the prudence of taking breaks rather than playing every day, have made Ripken’s record even more inaccessible. Eisenberg’s impressively researched effort is a terrific tribute. Eight-page b&w insert.

June 1, 2017
The story of baseball's greatest iron men.On Sept. 6, 1995, Cal Ripken broke Major League Baseball's consecutive-game record, which had been held by the legendary New York Yankee Lou Gehrig. Once the game was official, the Baltimore Orioles unfurled a banner that read "2,131," the number of games he had played without fail. As the roaring crowd (which included President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore) and a national audience watched, teammates pushed Ripken from the dugout onto the field, where the future Hall of Famer took an impromptu lap, slapping hands with fans around the perimeter of Camden Yards. It was an inspiring moment that many believed helped to save baseball after a labor stoppage had cancelled the end of the 1994 season, including the playoffs and World Series, and truncated the 1995 season. Ripken had broken a record once seen as untouchable, a record made all the more resonant because of Gehrig's tragic death soon after due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosus, a disease that would come to carry his name. Former Baltimore Sun sports columnist Eisenberg (Ten-Gallon War: The NFL's Cowboys, the AFL's Texans, and the Feud for Dallas's Pro Football Future, 2012, etc.) intertwines the stories of Gehrig and Ripken with chapters about baseball's other iron men and the nature of consecutive-game streaks more generally. It would have been easy for the author to simply celebrate Ripken's and Gehrig's records and to couch them in terms of commitment, work ethic, and age-old virtues. But while he does not deny these positive attributes, he also thoughtfully explores why these records resonate, whether they really matter, and if, in some cases, they may be a bit selfish. After all, sometimes a player might serve his team best by taking the occasional day off. It is this aspect of the story that makes the book most valuable. Eisenberg examines one of baseball's most venerated records while exploring what it all means, providing a compelling, thought-provoking history for fans of America's grand game.

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April 1, 2017

On May 2, 1939, Yankees manager Joe McCarthy agreed to leave a slumping and (though it wasn't known at the time, mortally ill) Lou Gehrig on the bench for a day. This ended his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played and was thought to be a record for the ages. Until it wasn't, as over a half century later Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles put the Iron Horse in his rearview mirror and didn't stop until he had appeared in 2,632 straight games. Here, veteran sportswriter Eisenberg depicts both men's streaks as well as lesser ones, and in the process addresses several questions: How and why does a player accomplish such a feat? Can a player actually hurt his team by never taking a rest? Is Ripken's record truly one for the ages? The answer to the latter is "likely," as Ripken's record doubles that of the third longest (and the longest of our era): Miguel Tejada's 1,152, ending in 2007, followed by Prince Fielder's 547, ending in 2014. VERDICT A readable and comprehensive look at one of baseball's most arcane but incredible accomplishments.--Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2017
When Yankee shortstop Everett Scott left baseball in 1926 after playing in a record 1,138 consecutive games, the New York Times judged his record as a miracle that could only be broken by another miracle. Eisenberg here recounts the improbable story of the two miracle workersLou Gehrig and Cal Ripkenwho shattered Scott's mark. Though it includes high-octane feats of batting and fielding, this two-stranded narrative is sustained by sheer endurance and indomitable will. Through bruises, sprains, muscle pulls, and slumps, Gehrig and Ripken both doggedly soldier on. Though they hear from detractors who think they should spend some time on the bench, their managers gladly keep their grit, skill, and team leadership on the fieldeven on their bad days. Finally, though, as sports icons who transcend the cultural troubles of their respective eras, Gehrig and Ripken give their fans far more than they give their managersGehrig's gift acknowledged by the 61,000 fans who gathered at Yankee Stadium in 1939 to hear the terminally ill player voice humble gratitude, Ripken's gift applauded by the tens of thousands who crowded Camden Yards in 1995 to watch the shortstop circle the field in a joyous victory lap. A celebratory chronicle of two of baseball's finest!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)