For two decades, Cal Ripken, Jr. was a household name in baseball.  Playing his entire career for the Baltimore Orioles, Ripken recorded an impressive 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, 1,695 runs batted in and a .276 batting average.

On this day, September 6th, in 1995, Cal Ripken Jr broke the MLB record for consecutive games played with his 2,131st game. Ripken’s consecutive game streak would not stop there, as his total consecutive game streak grew to 2,632 by the end of his career. His consecutive game record was met with 8,243 consecutive innings played, which was a world record until 2005.

Cal Ripken, Jr. is considered to be one of the best shortstops of all-time and was voted to start in the All Star game in 17 consecutive seasons.  Ripken was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007 with nearly 99% first ballot votes.