Cal Ripken Jr. kept us all in suspense for the 13 years leading up to the night he snapped Lou Gehrig's supposedly unbreakable consecutive-games record, so why should Tuesday night have been any different?
Ripken admitted a few minutes before the 20th anniversary celebration of that moment that he injured his shoulder in a bicycle accident earlier in the day, casting the quality of his ceremonial first pitch in doubt.
"But I'd like to think that [head athletic trainer] Richie Bancells could fix me," he said, "and I would have played no matter what."
Of course, Ripken answered the bell when the moment arrived, just as he did for his 2,131st straight game on Sept.