Dale James - Just Show Up: And Other Enduring Values from Baseballs Iron Man

To my beautiful wife, Laura, who is always there for me and has made me incredibly happy.

To my children, Rachel and Ryan, who have made me proud and brought me joy since the day they were born.

To my Bonus Kids, Madison and Trey: thank you for letting me into your life.

You all always Show Up for methank you.

Im a ballplayer, from a baseball family. My father played, too; then he was a manager in the minor leagues, then in the majors. I was with one teamthe Baltimore Oriolesfor my entire career. I eventually broke Lou Gehrigs record for most consecutive games with my 2,131-game streak. I retired in 2001 and started Ripken Baseball, and we now have youth baseball facilities in Aberdeen, Maryland; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; several others are in development. Ive been a baseball broadcaster for the playoffs on TBS, and Ive had the privilege of speaking to prominent organizations of Hollywood producers, Wall Street executives, union workers, and many others. Im in the Hall of Famea great honor.

The Orioles, 2,131 games, youth baseball, and the Hall of Fame: thats what most people know about me. So why write a book about enduring values? On the field and off, Ive learned some basic principles of life, and today, theyre still relevant, maybe more relevant than ever.

We live in challenging times. Bullying, name-calling, cutting corners, and sometimes just disregarding the truth have become accepted parts of all our lives. (I can almost hear my father, Cal Sr., saying, You just dont do that.) The values and principles I grew up with arent respected the way they used to be. I work with top leaders and spend days with kids at our youth baseball facilities, so I think I understand as well as anyone that there are some things that always make sense, some things that should last. It seems we could use some enduring values right now. I dont mean to tell other people how to live, but I do want to share what Ive learned in case its helpful.

I learned by listening to the wisdom of my father, but sometimes by ignoring his wisdom and having to learn the hard way. I learned from my mother, who was the ideal partner and the loving counterpoint to my father. I learned from winning the World Series, but I learned as much, if not more, from a long, painful losing season. I learned when to get mad at umpires and when not to. I learned from teammates and opponents who were role models and sometimes from guys who taught me what not to do. I learned from some good business decisions, some not so good ones, and a few lucky ones. I learned a lot from raising kids, from telling kids how life works, and then from listening to kids to really learn how life works. I learned from success and from failure. Im still learning.

I believe in certain values and principles. And I try to live by them. Values matter, and Im happy to share whats worked for me and what hasnt. Thats what this book is aboutnot just baseball, but also life. It turns out theyre a lot alike.

I played in 2,131 consecutive baseball games. That number broke Lou Gehrigs record, and eventually I went on to play in 2,632 straight games.

Everyone has a 2,131 of their ownjust showing up. We each have personal streaks as a parent, as a friend, in business. Our job is to be there. The more reliable, consistent, and dependable you are, the better youre doing. Every day, every week, every year, someone is counting on you. You raise children, you build a business, or youre there for your friends: if you just keep showing up, whether you set a record or not, you stand outbecause people can count on you.

Just show up.

Streaks show that being there for your team, for other peopletrying to win as a teamis more important than what might be good for you individually. If I could play and help my team, it would be selfish to take a day off. Its that simple. My streak was mostly considered a positive achievement. Occasionally it was criticized as a personal goal, but the people who criticized it missed the point. To me, showing up every day is a matter of principle. Thats why Im a fan of other peoples streaks, in sports and in life.

Joe DiMaggio went on a fifty-six-game hitting streak in 1941. He got at least one hit in every game he played in from May 15 to July 16 of that season. If he hadnt been in the lineup for each one of those gamesto have a chance to get a hit in eachthere wouldnt have been a streak. More important, there wouldnt have been all those hits for his team. Joe showed up and did his job.

The University of Connecticut womens teams have had some of the greatest streaks in college basketball. They had a 111-game run heading into the 2017 NCAA Playoffs, aiming for a fifth consecutive national title. Even more amazing, when head coach Geno Auriemma took over in 1985, the team had had only onewinningseason in its entire history.

In 2017, UConn was upset in the Final Four by Mississippi State. All streaks end. But their meaning doesnt. The value of the achievement lasts. Then the chance to beat the old record is a challenge. Thats something else I believe: whether in sports or business or life itself, tomorrow can be the start of another streak.

There are many other examples.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, hasnt missed a single vote in Congress since she was first elected in 1996. She says she was elected to do her job, and to her that means doing it every day, every vote. 60 Minutes has been running consecutively since 1968from six weeks before Richard Nixon won the presidential election to today. Saturday Night Live has made people laugh since 1975. Bob Dylan has been on a tour nicknamed the Never Ending Tour since 1988; he averages about ninety concerts a year, and hes now in his late seventies. When asked why he played so many shows every year, he said, These days, people are lucky to have a job. Any job. So critics might be uncomfortable with my working so much. Anybody with a trade can work as long as they want. A carpenter, an electrician. They dont necessarily need to retire.

One my other favorite streaks is the one belonging to Billy Joel. In January 2014, he signed on to play Madison Square Garden once a month for as long as his shows sold out. As of January 2019, hes played to almost sixty consecutive full houses at the Garden. When he was asked why he does it, Joel said, Im not doing it to break records.... Im doing it because thats what I do. Because thats what I do.

That says it all. If you do your job, if you show up, you stand out. You might set records. Streaks can even keep you young. Nolan Ryan pitched for twenty-seven seasons, more than any other major-league player, and he struck out 5,714 batters, more than any other pitcher. Hes also the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than his nearest competitor. Ryan could have stopped a season or two earlier and still held those records, but he didnt. Reggie Jacksona great player in his own rightsaid, I saw Nolan Ryan throw 211 pitches in twelve innings one day. It messed him up so bad, he had to retire sixteen years later, when he was forty-six. Ryan said, My job is to give my team a chance to win. And that was what he did.

There are those who might say that when youre trying to set a record, whether its on a baseball field or in Congress or at a concert hall, youre doing it to make yourself look good, not for the good of the team or your colleagues or your profession. Some pretty respected people have felt that wayJoe Morgan, the great Cincinnati Reds second baseman, for example. There were times when Joe was critical of my streak. I never really knew why. Then, at an event called the Great Eight at the Yogi Berra Museum (for ballplayers who wore number 8, like Yogi, Joe, Willie Stargell, Carl Yastrzemski, and me), Joe came up to me and said, I owe you an apology. He told me that when I was in the midst of the streak, he was mad at me, kind of disappointed. It was because when I first came up in the majors, Frank Robinson had said to Joe, Look at Ripkenhes going to be the best thats ever played. Joe thought that meant that Id hit a lot of home runs and make flashy plays, not that Id play consistently, day after day. So Joe saw the streak as something that took away from my chance to do the big stuff. But now, Joe was admitting hed been wrong. I said, Joe, I played the game because each day theres a challenge to try to win the game. I looked at it the way my dad looked at it, and thats my job today. My dad said, You cant play tomorrows game till it gets here. You cant replay yesterdays game. But this is todays challenge, and you should meet the challenge of today as best you can. To me, it was an honor to be able to do that and be counted on to do that, whatever happened, whatever my personal stats were, and wherever we finished.