This day in sports history: April 14, 1990

On this day in sports in 1990, the Baltimore Orioles played their fourth game of the season, and picked up a 7-4 win over the Tigers in Detroit.

Cal Ripken Jr. did not commit an error in that game, which would be the start of a 95 game streak of errorless baseball.

Ripken’s streak almost came to end at 67 games on June 26 against the Cleveland Indians. According to a Washington Post article from 1990, the Orioles shortstop had originally been charged with an error after missing a throw from center fielder Mike Devereaux. Ripken and manager Frank Robinson were not happy with the call, which was changed the next day after the official scorer, Bill Stetka, said that Devereaux was actually the one responsible for the error, keeping Ripken’s errorless game streak alive.

The streak eventually came to an end on July 28, 1990 in Kansas City against the Royals after Ripken had dropped a grounder by Royals outfielder Jeff Schulz in the fifth inning.

Ripken’s 95 game streak without a single miscue, set a new MLB record for shortstops, shattering the previous record of 72 games set by Eddie Brinkman in 1972.

Prior to the start of the streak, Ripken had committed an error in Detroit on April 13th, 1990. That, along with the miscue that ended the streak in Kansas City, Rikpen only made one more error the rest of the 1990 season, which was also a new MLB single-season record for least amount of errors committed by a short stop (3). The previous record was held by Philadelphia Phillies short stop, Larry Bowa (6), set in 1979 and then tied in 1989 by Toronto Blue Jays short stop, Tony Fernandez (6).

As far as Ripken’s record of 95 consecutive games without an error, that feat now belongs to the guy that replaced him at the position, Mike Bordick, who in 2002 played in 110 consecutive games with out a single error.

References: Baseball Almanac, Washington Post, Baseball Reference, United Press International