A New Iron Man of Baseball.

[metirish]

] Kanemoto ties Ripken with 903rd full game The Yomiuri Shimbun Tomoaki Kanemoto entered the record books on Saturday, matching Cal Ripken's streak of playing every inning in 903 straight games as he helped the Hanshin Tigers to their second straight 5-2 victory over the Yokohama BayStars at Osaka Dome. Kanemoto, who turned 38 on April 4, will surpass Ripken's mark this afternoon if he plays every inning of the Tiger's series finale with the BayStars. Trailing 1-0 in the second, Kanemoto led off the bottom of the inning with the Tigers' first hit and scored on Makoto Imaoka's second home run of the season. Osamu Hamanaka followed with his third homer. Tigers right-hander Yuya Ando (1-0) allowed two runs in 8-1/3 innings for the win. Kanemoto joined the Tigers in 2003 as a free agent from the Hiroshima Carp. Ironically, Kanemoto began his streak against the Tigers on July 21, 1999. He started the day before in left field against Hanshin, but Kojiro Machida was sent in to pinch-hit for him. Machida, too, has since moved to Hanshin. Since then, Kanemoto has played 8,295 consecutive innings--easily surpassing the 8,234 notched by Ripken in his streak with the Baltimore Orioles from June 5, 1982 until Sept. 14, 1987.

Sunday he played in game 904.Ripken sent him a bat that was presented by the Hashin team that said "Congratulations, keep playing".

[Centerfield]

In fourth grade I got an award for perfect attendance.

Cal Ripken didn't send me shit.

[Guest cooby]

Nice gesture

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Centerfield wrote: In fourth grade I got an award for perfect attendance. Cal Ripken didn't send me shit.

Yuck! Did you want him to?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ripken's streak ended simply that time --- just sitting out the ninth inning of a blowout.

[Zvon]

......thats all well and good but that aint da major leagues Tomoaki's playing in there.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Zvon wrote: ......thats all well and good but that aint da major leagues Tomoaki's playing in there.

That's true--it's BETTER than the major leagues. At least for the next four years.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

By the way, where is Hideki's streak? Seems like thats the only reason why Torre plays him every day with no rest

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

Oh never mind, I thought it was a consecutive games played streak