Iron Man

by Harvey Rosenfeld

Since May 30, 1982, Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles hasn't missed a game - a marathon performance during which he has won the 1982 Rookie of the Year Award, two American League MVP awards, an All-Star Game MVP award, two Gold Gloves, and a World Series title. Now Cal is about to topple baseball's most unbreakable record - Lou Gehrig's incredible streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. Iron Man chronicles Junior's ascent to superstardom. What was it like playing baseball with a father as manager and a brother as a double-play combination? How did his father's firing and his brother's trade affect him? What made him choose the strike over the Streak?