Finally, September 5 came, and losing just didn't fit in with what fate had in store for Cal Ripken and Camden Yards. His Baltimore teammates seemed determined not to let this historic game -- Ripken's 2,130th, tying Gehrig -- be a losing effort. They put on a remarkable display in the second inning, with four solo home runs. Chris Hoiles led off with a homer to left. After Harold Baines flied to right, Jeff Manto followed with a shot that cleared the center-field wall. Mark Smith then hit one to left, and Brady Anderson followed with another shot to center, sending the Orioles on their way to an 8-0 win over the California Angels. Scott Erickson did his part by shutting down the Angels, who were free-falling out of first place in the American League West.

"Emotions were running so high, it meant a lot to all of us on the team to come away with a win," said Hoiles. "First of all, the way things have been going for us, we were desperate for a win. To have a game like that on Cal's day makes it so much more special."

The sellout crowd -- tickets were being scalped for this game and the following one for as much as $1,000 -- went hysterical when another Oriole blasted a home run. Like something from a Hollywood movie, Ripken blasted a sixth-inning drive over the left-field wall. In fact, after the game, Ripken himself said it was worthy of the Silver Screen. "I'm not in the business of screenwriting, but if I were, this would have been a pretty good one," he said.

The only damper on the home-run story is that Ripken would not get the baseball. A 32-year-old carpenter from Sykesville caught the ball and wound up selling it for $41,000. "It would have been nice to have the ball," Ripken said. "It's one ball that when you look at it, it means something. But I have the memory of rounding the bases after hitting the home run, and I don't need a ball to remind me of that." Little did Ripken know that he would get a chance at another ball, perhaps even bigger in stature and significance, the next night.

The big moment, though -- the historic one, the one everyone paid to see, the one that made this night like something out of a movie -- came after the top of the fifth inning. As Ripken returned to the dugout after Greg Myers flied out to center fielder Brady Anderson, the fans were already standing and roaring. His teammates were standing on the steps of the dugout, waiting to greet him. The "Day One" music began to play. The rule describing an official game was put up on the JumboTron. And at 9:19 p.m., the numbers 2,130 descended on the B&O Warehouse. Cal Ripken had achieved what had seemed impossible for decades in baseball. He had tied Lou Gehrig's consecutive-game record.

The noise rolled through Camden Yards like a tidal wave of sound as everyone -- all 46,804 people fortunate enough to be there that night, along with the California Angels -- stood and cheered, going on for nearly ten minutes. The scoreboard flashed images of both Ripken and Gehrig. Ripken's Baltimore teammates shook hands with him, and some hugged him. He came out of the dugout for what would be the first of three curtain calls. It looked as if Camden Yards was exploding, with thousands of flashes from cameras going off -- a glittering scene. What still cameras might have missed, video cameras captured, including those by the Baltimore players themselves. Rookie Curtis Goodwin, who was holding his minicam, recorded a moment he will pass on someday to his children and grandchildren.

With each curtain call, Ripken mouthed the words "Thank you" to the crowd over and over, tapping his chest to show that he was touched by the outpouring of emotion. He looked to his wife, Kelly, who was sitting in the front row near the dugout along with his brother, Fred, sister, Ellen, and mother, Vi, who had played catch with Ripken when he was a young boy and Cal, Sr., was on the road. Then Ripken looked up to a private box to acknowledge the man who instilled in him the desire and drive to reach this point, his father. It was the first time Cal, Sr., had been at an Orioles home game since the team fired him as the third-base coach after the 1992 season.

After each curtain call, Ripken went back to the dugout, expecting it to end and play to resume. After the second curtain call, home-plate umpire Al Clark told Manto to get back into the batter's box. But the crowd was having none of that, with the noise still at a level that forced the celebration to continue. "No way was I going to start hitting then," Manto said. Clark saw it was futile, and waved his arms as the crowd chanted Ripken's name over and over again. "There was no way that an umpire is going to steal from a positive moment for the game like that," Clark said later. "That was not just for Cal Ripken, but for all of baseball."

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