That night, Cal Ripken set a new standard for guts and reached a new level of glory. He took the field for his pre-game warm-ups with his teammates shortly after 5 p.m. He took batting practice and then signed some autographs by the Orioles dugout. After the lineups were announced, Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis presented a brilliant, soft-jazz version of the National Anthem -- a version befitting the evening and the ballpark. Then Ripken went to the mound to join his two children, Rachel and Ryan, who were throwing out the first ceremonial pitch.

Ripken took his place at shortstop shortly after, to a standing ovation. At 7:44 p.m. on September 6, 1995, Mussina threw the first pitch of the night. Like Erickson the night before, Mussina was determined not to lose such an important game, not to let anything take away from the good feelings that filled up Camden Yards and all of baseball.

But it didn't appear at first that the script would go according to plan. After Tony Phillips led off with a pop fly to Jeff Huson in foul territory near third base, Jim Edmonds hit a fly ball to Bobby Bonilla in right field for the second out. But then Tim Salmon blasted an 0-2 pitch from Mussina over the center-field wall to give the Angels a 1-0 lead. Chili Davis struck out looking for the final out.

But the Orioles would bounce back in the bottom of the first. After Brady Anderson hit a foul pop to Salmon near the seats in right field and Manny Alexander struck out, Rafael Palmeiro sent a 3-1 Shawn Boskie pitch over the right-center-field wall for a solo homer, tying the game at 1-1. Bonilla ended the inning by striking out.

Mussina breezed through the second inning, getting J. T. Snow and Garret Anderson on fly balls and striking out Rex Hudler. Fans rose from their seats in the bottom of the second and cheered long and hard as Ripken came out of the dugout to lead off the inning. He acknowledged the reaction and stepped in against Boskie. He popped out to the catcher, but two innings later Ripken rocked the ballpark with dramatic flair for the second straight night, with all of America watching.

The score remained tied until the bottom of the fourth, when Bonilla led off the inning with a home run over the center-field wall. Ripken came up to hit, receiving another standing ovation, and this time the fans stayed on their feet. As if his heroics in game 2,130 were not big enough, Ripken would top that in game 2,131. With the count 3-0, Boskie hung a ball out over the plate that Ripken drove into the left-field seats for a home run. This sent 46,272 fans into a frenzy and turned Camden Yards into the best theater in sports. But the game would only get better.

Unlike the night before, when the fan who caught the ball refused to return it to Ripken, opting instead to sell it later, this time the ball was caught by an Orioles fan who would later give it back to Ripken. Bryan Johnson of Pasadena, Maryland, managed to catch the ball after it bounced in the stands, even though his right hand was in a cast. As he was led from the stands by security, Johnson received an offer on the spot for $5,000, but turned it down. "This is Cal's moment," said Johnson, who met Ripken after the game and received some autographed items in return for the ball.

Mussina did his best to get to the moment at hand as quickly as possible by getting Hudler to hit a fly ball to Mark Smith in left field, Jorge Fabregas to hit a ground ball to second, and Damion Easley to pop out to second for the third out of the top of the fifth. As Ripken and his teammates ran off the field and into the dugout, fans stood and cheered, looking toward the B&O Warehouse for the ceremony that had touched so many people on this home stand.

The music began playing. The official game rule was posted on the center-field scoreboard. Then the numbers on the warehouse dropped -- 2,131.

This was the moment when Camden Yards truly became the "Home of the Game." With fireworks exploding and the crowd standing and roaring, the game of baseball-lost in the bitterness of the strike that had turned the game inside out-was coming back to the field. This was a celebration of baseball, in all its glory and tradition.

Ripken came out of the dugout, sending the crowd into an even greater fever pitch of applause and emotion. He waved, then looked up to the private box where his parents, Cal, Sr., and Vi, were, and waved his arms towards them. He walked over to the seats near the field where his wife, Kelly, and children were. He took off his game jersey and gave it to Kelly, Rachel, and Ryan. "I wanted to give it to someone who would get something out of it, and I couldn't think of anyone better than my kids," he said. Under his jersey, Ripken had been wearing a black T-shirt with the following: 2,130+Hugs and Kisses for Daddy.

Ripken picked up Ryan and kissed Rachel. Then he reached over and shook his brother Billy's hand. Billy Ripken had played with Cal from 1987 through 1992 for the Orioles; he was let go when their father was fired. Billy spent the next two seasons with Texas, but wound up playing the 1995 season with the Cleveland Indians Class AAA team in Buffalo. There was some question about whether or not Billy could make the game in Baltimore, but there he was, to share this historic moment with his brother.

Ripken waved to the crowd and kept tapping his chest to let the fans know that he was touched by their reaction. Boskie started to warm up to try to get the game going, but the fans would have none of it. They were simply too loud and too distracting for any baseball to be played. They had to dispose of a lot of baggage that baseball had saddled them with, and they didn't want this moment to end so quickly.

Ripken went into the dugout. Then he had to come out. He went in again, and then came out for curtain call after curtain call. This was not like anything ever seen in baseball. Ripken couldn't believe it, shaking his head, smiling, not really sure what to do next.

Bobby Bonilla and Rafael Palmeiro decided it for Ripken. They pushed him out of the dugout and told him that the cheering wouldn't stop until he literally ran around the ballpark. And so he did, giving the night the memorable touch that may never be equaled again. Ripken ran by the stands toward right field, slapping and shaking hands of fans as he went by. He ran around the warning track in right field, waving to fans and then, when he got to the Orioles bullpen, he stopped and shook the hand of Elrod Hendricks, the longtime Orioles coach who used to watch Ripken run around Memorial Stadium when he was a little boy. He continued around the field and then stopped at the Angels dugout, where all the players had been lined up at the top of the steps, standing and clapping. He shook hands with them and got a hug from coach Rod Carew and former teammate Rene Gonzales. Ripken stopped again at the seats where his family was sitting, and eventually-twenty-two minutes and fifteen seconds after play had stopped-the game began again.

"It still has a dream-like feel for me," Ripken said recently, reflecting on that night. "There were some great moments in that mid-game celebration. There was a lot of great interaction between my Dad and myself in a quiet way, with him in the skybox and me in the middle of the field. Having my wife and two kids right there, too, and Billy, that made it special. But the lap was like a series of one-on-one celebrations, and that was cool. And the ways the California Angels responded was great. Shaking each of their hands, that was a very powerful moment within the celebration for me."

Everyone had their own way of celebrating it. General manager Roland Hemond added his own personal touch. "My office window was located between the 3 and the 1, and my wife put a picture of our grandson and granddaughter up there in the window," he said. "So whenever it is shown, we can see the pictures of our grandchildren. No one else can, but we can."

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