MLB History in Seven Degrees of Separation
Degree 2: Aug. 28, 1981
Cal Ripken may have been on his way to a Hall of Fame career, but on Aug. 29, 1981 he was just a 20-year-old rookie two weeks out of the minors who got a big-league call when the mid-season strike ended.
By Baltimore’s Aug. 27 game with the California Angels, he remained a part-time infielder making occasional starts and trying to convince Orioles manager Earl Weaver that he belonged.
Weaver started Ripken at shortstop that night in Baltimore, batting him ninth. He hit that low for a reason: Ripken to that point was off to a .103 start, having gone hitless the previous night in five at-bats against Seattle’s Glenn Abbott.
The Orioles were in the midst of a historically frustrating season. In the strike-occasioned split-season format that governed during 1981, they had finished second in their division behind the Yankees during the first half, and they would come home fourth, although at 28-23, during the second half. That meant that despite having the division’s second-best record, they would be shut out of the expanded post-season schedule.
The visiting Angels were going nowhere. Their lineup that night featured a veteran cast that had largely under-performed, and which would finish the season at 51-59, well out of contention. Baltimore won the game in question 6-2 behind Scott McGregor, who pitched a complete-game six-hitter.
Ripken found no quick answers to his hitting woes, striking out against Ken Forsch in the second, and grounding out to third base in the fifth. He was removed in favor of pinch hitter Terry Crowley in the seventh inning of a 1-1 tie; Baltimore scored four times in the eighth to win.
Among the under-performing notables in the Angel s lineup was Ripken’s opposite number at shortstop, 39-year-old Bert Campaneris. He was concluding a 19-season career that included roles with the World Series-winning Oakland Athletics of 1972-74.
Signed as a free agent by Texas in 1976, he spent three seasons there before being traded to the Angels midway through the 1979 season.
Campy managed one of his team’s five hits against McGregor, a first-inning bunt single with Rod Carew at first that the Angels failed to take advantage of.
McGregor retired Campaneris on a fly ball in the third inning and fanned him in the sixth. In the seventh inning, Angels manager Gene Mauch pinch-hit Juan Beniquez for Campaneris and he grounded out.