THE BEST OF THE OL' COACH:

With the Baltimore Orioles playing at Great American Ballpark last weekend, we were able to have a visit with Brian Ebel, his wife Nancy, and sons Brady and Brett. As assistant trainer for the Orioles for several years now, Brian has worked closely with the players to keep them in good physical shape and to assist them with any rehab they might need.

Several years ago before Cal Ripken retired from the Orioles team, Brian worked with him on a regular basis. In fact, Brian has a baseball shirt, which Ripken autographed, displayed on the wall in his basement rec. room. Thinking of Ripken and his outstanding baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles reminded us of a column the Ol' Coach wrote about ten years ago. The date was September 28, 1995.

SPORTS TRIVIA QUESTION: Cal Ripken was moved to shortstop in the 27th game of his streak. What was his original position?

RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN: The trivia question today refers to Cal Ripken and the streak. As a youngster growing up following major league baseball every day during the summer months, I never thought that anyone would ever come close to breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak. It seemed like one of those records that would stand forever, and as you looked at the modern day baseball player, you saw so many players who did not want to play everyday; they did not want to play hurt; they did not want to play the second game of doubleheaders; they did not want to play in day games that followed night games; and so on it went. Even managers suggested to their players that they take a day off once in a while to keep them sharp, particularly if the team was in a pennant race.

But along came a throw back to the good old days, this guy who was raised in a baseball family and was taught that you came to the park every day to play and to do the best that you could. Cal Ripken didn't set out to break Gehrig's record; it was just something that happened as he pursued his chosen profession. He was a hard worker, dedicated to his team, and an individual who wanted to succeed. He wasn't a complainer; he wasn't opting for free agency; Baltimore was the only team he has ever played for in the major leagues. He was just an all around good guy, a tremendous role model for youngsters, and if someon had to break the great Lou Gehrig's record, you could not have picked a better individual.

Cal Ripken was good for baseball in a time when baseball was needing a lift. The game has suffered tremendously as a result of the recent strike, fans are fed up with the greedy ways of both players and owners and the Ripken streak breathed a breath of life into a game that was needing somthing positive.

MAKING THEIR MARK: During my lifetime I have seen several of baseball's better known records broken when I really never thought they would be. The first one I remember was back in 1961 when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to break Babe Ruth's record of 60 which he set back in 1929. A lot of home run sluggers had set their sights on Ruth's mark but none had been able to achieve it. The closest was 58, one time by Jimmy Foxx the old A's slugger and another time by Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers. Back in '61 when Maris broke the record both he and Mickey Mantle made a run at it but Mantle injured himself in the closing weeks of the season and ended up with 54 on the year. Maris hit his 61st on the last day of the season having played in 162 games whereas Ruth did it in 154 games.

I never really thought Pete Rose would break Ty Cobb's career hit record. I followed Rose all through his career and remember when he got 2,000 hits and then 3,000 hits, but I never thought he would play long enough to break the record. It was very exciting to see him return to the Reds as a player-manager and eventually get himself in position to break the record and to go on and establish a new mark of 4,256 life-time hits. Certainly a mark that should stand for a long time. It will take a Tony Gwynn type of hitter to ever better that mark and the guy will have to play a lot of games.

I can remember when Hank Aaron bettered Babe Ruth's career home run mark. I was in Cincinnati the night he tied the record at 714 and then a few days later, playing in his home park at Atlanta he bettered the mark with a shot to left center off of Al Downing of the Dodgers. Aaron went on to hit 755 homers, another mark that will probably stand for a long time.

WILL IT EVER HAPPEN: There are several records standing in baseball today that I do not think will ever be broken. I know that I should never say never but let's say it will take a heck of an effort to ever break them. The first one I will mention is the double no-hit feat by the Red's lefthander, Johnny Vander Meer. Back in 1938 this record was set and it is still standing. Think about it, a pitcher today would have to pitch three straight no-hitters to break this record. If you just pitched two you would only tie the record. This will be a tough one to break.

The second is Joe DeMaggio's 56 game hitting streak. Several runs have been made at this record, but everyone has come up short. This one is certainly achievable but it will take a good contact hitter who gets on a hot streak and has some luck to go along with it.

Another mark that I think will stand for some time is Cy Young's 511 wins as a pitcher. This mark could outlast them all. Pitchers of this era struggle to reach 300 wins. Somebody would have to pitch 25 years and average 20 wins a season to even challenge the mark. Not likely to happen.

Back in 1924 Roger Hornsby hit .424. This is another mark that is going to be hard to top. It could be done but it takes quite an effort. Ted Williams was the last to hit the 400 mark hitting .406 in 1941. No one has done it since and it is not likely to happen in the near future.

Those are just some of the tough records that are now standing that will be difficult to break. As I said at the top of the column, records are made to be broken, and you never want to rule anything out in the great game of baseball.

QUOTABLE QUOTE: I'll finish today's column with a clever quote I read in the paper just the other day. It seems that Lou Holtz, the Notre Dame football coach, will be in the press box this coming Saturday at Ohio State when his team tackles the Buckeyes as he is still recovering from a recent operation. He said that he wouldn't need directions to the press box as he had been put there back in 1968 when he was an assistant to Woody Hayes in a game in which Ohio State was playing Michigan. "I remember it like it was yesterday; we scored with a minute to go and went for two and we made it to beat Michigan 50 to 14. I asked Coach Hayes why he went for two and he said; 'Because they wouldn't let me go for three.'"

The Ohio State - Michigan game is quite a rival game and Hayes is from the old school where you give no quarter and ask for no quarter. If you ever got a chance as the Michigan coach to beat Woody, you had better do so because when he got the chance to beat you, he was going to do it.

ANSWER TO SPORTS TRIVIA QUESTION: Cal Ripken started out playing third base and was moved by then manager, Earl Weaver, to shortstop and the streak continued and is still going on today.