Word: lineup
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Ripken, Jr., arguably the best shortstop of the last two decades, decided on Sunday to end his major league record of consecutive games played by pulling himself from the Baltimore Orioles' lineup shortly before the team's final home game of the season versus the New York Yankees...
Ripken also said that he chose to bench himself now, specifically, because the Orioles no longer had a chance to make the playoffs. That statement implies that Ripken feels his team is worse when he is not in the lineup, so he definitely did not sit out for the good of the team. Ripken basically said that he decided not to play because it was the right time to bring The Streak to a close...
This reality raises a troubling question: how many times during the last 2,632 games did Ripken keep himself in the lineup only because The Streak existed? I don't know. Does it matter? I think...
Ironically, however, Lou Gehrig--the man who held the record for most consecutive games played until Ripken broke it in 1995--also ended his streak by pulling himself out of the starting lineup on May 2, 1939. But Gehrig, a career .340 hitter, was batting .143 in 1939 and suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the illness that would eventually take his life and bear his name. Gehrig took the day off because he wanted to help his team...
...With just two weeks remaining until the first meeting on October 3 in Boston - the only debate to follow the conventional structure - Bush may be feeling a bit of trepidation. This is not his preferred format; the governor's campaign staff pushed hard for a lineup restricted to more "free-flowing" exchanges. Instead, Bush will have to get through one tough evening before relief hits. Gore is widely considered the favorite in the first debate; the vice president's formal manner and encyclopedic grasp of complicated issues are well suited to the ultra-structured format. He'll also...