Cubs manager Joe Maddon rested Kris Bryant for two days recently, and he gave Anthony Rizzo a breather Saturday in Miami before a late pinch-hitting appearance.
Both are healthy, well-conditioned athletes in their prime, but Maddon was concerned about preserving their strength for August and September, when the games presumably will mean more.
“I’d rather have fuel in the tank then and really push down toward the end,” Maddon said. “The weather starts cooling down. The pennant race itself pulls the best out of you.”
Maddon isn’t alone in that thinking. Nowadays the concept of an everyday player is as obsolete as VCRs and landlines.
The active leader in consecutive games played is Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, who was at 245 as of Monday.
Escobar was one of only 14 major-league players who had played in every one of his team’s games in 2017, and he said he relished his status as the game’s reigning “Iron Man.”
“I’m happy to be the longest streak right now in baseball,” Escobar said last month. “And I want to play as many games as I can.”
Of course, “iron” might not be the appropriate designation when comparing Escobar with baseball’s true Iron Men — the Orioles’ Cal Ripken Jr. and the Yankees’ Lou Gehrig.
Gehrig set the hallowed record of 2,130 consecutive games, ending the streak in 1939 only after the effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis had set in. The disease, which came to be known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, forced him to sit out and eventually retire.
Gehrig held the record for 56 years until Ripken ceremoniously broke it in 1995, eventually extending it to 2,632 before opting to sit out the Orioles’ final home game in 1998.
Escobar isn’t even within sniffing distance of the all-time list. Prince Fielder, who retired in August after undergoing neck surgery for the second time, is 25th with 547 consecutive games from 2010 to 2014. Alex Rodriguez, who retired after last season, is 26th at 546 games (2000-03).
Escobar, naturally, isn’t looking at catching Ripken.
“Nobody can catch 2,000 games,” he said. “Right now if you’re playing 500 (consecutive) games, that’s too much, so thinking about 2,000? That’s really too much.”
Last year only three players — Escobar, Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop and Astros outfielder George Springer — played in all 162 games. In 2015, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado was the only everyday player who actually played every day.
“In my day, an everyday player was considered an everyday player,” Ripken told the Baltimore Sun in 2015 before the 20th anniversary of his breaking Gehrig’s record. “You played every day. If you were one of those guys that was counted on to be in a lineup, the definition was 162.
“Now, I don’t know if the definition is different now, but I think when they are looking at it, an everyday player might be considered 145 or 150 (games played). There’s just a normal amount of built-in days (off) that happen. So I think the mindset is a little different.”
Escobar said he would never ask manager Ned Yost for a day off, even if he was slumping, as he was for most of the first two months.
“No matter who is pitching, no matter what is happening, if I come here to the stadium, I want to play,” he said. “I’ll take a day when the whole team is off.
“Playing every day is not easy, man. My mindset is I want to play every day, but to play every day, you have to be healthy and you have to be focused on the game. Every year I’ve been healthy, and I want to continue to play 162 games this year.”
There are so-called Iron Men in all sports, but no one is as revered for it as Ripken, perhaps because of baseball’s daily grind.
The NFL record of 352 consecutive games is held by punter Jeff Feagles, who had to kick only a few times a game, 16 times a year. Doug Jarvis holds the NHL record of 964, though Glenn Hall’s record of 502 consecutive starts in goal is perhaps more impressive. A.C. Green holds the NBA record of 1,192 games, which should remain forever considering NBA stars take days off at the drop of a hat.
Cubs Hall of Famer Billy Williams — who played in 1,117 consecutive games from Sept. 22, 1963, to Sept. 2, 1970, breaking Stan Musial’s National League record of 895 along the way — said his rationale for never begging out of the lineup was simple.
“You had eight teams in the league, and when you first come to the big leagues, you’re concerned about being Wally Pipped, so you play every day,” Williams said. “That’s something I tell my grandson: ‘Don’t be no Wally Pipp. Don’t let nobody take your job.’”
Pipp was the Yankees first baseman whom Gehrig replaced in the lineup at the start of his streak in 1925. “Wally Pipped” eventually became part of baseball lexicon, meaning “replaced for good.”
Williams, whose NL record Steve Garvey later broke, understands why so few of today’s players are interested in being in the lineup 162 games.
“With today’s travel and the excitement and the pressure, with so many things that are going on, managers give players rest now,” Williams said. “Once a manager sees someone struggle, not swinging the bat well, he takes him out of the lineup. It’s better for the player and better for the team.”
Williams felt like he could’ve continued his streak in 1970, but he told Cubs manager Leo Durocher late in the season it was finally time to take a break.
“I’d said I was going to play until they tore my uniform off,” he said. “But I just got tired. I wasn’t going to break Lou Gehrig’s record. One day I just told Leo, ‘We’re going to break this damn streak.’ “
Physical fatigue and daily wear and tear on the body have always been obstacles for baseball players to overcome, even if they avoid the disabled list. And mental fatigue has been and always will remain an issue, and managers such as Maddon often prefer players sit and “clear their heads” on occasion.
Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu, one of the 14 who has played every game in 2017, admitted earlier this month he was “grinding” at the plate. But LeMahieu insisted on staying in the lineup, even as he admitted rest isn’t such a bad thing.
“I take pride in being healthy and playing every day,” he said. “I just don’t think that (playing 162) is a big deal anymore, which is fine. People want to see production. Honestly, with 162 games, I don’t know if playing every one of them is good. Some guys need a couple days off, and they come back from that and play a lot better.
“I’m sure most guys want to be out there every day, but it’s not always the best for them in the long run. It is cool to see guys do it. I always have a lot of respect for those guys.”
What’s left unsaid is many players no longer care about playing all 162 games because they’re paid an exorbitant amount of money either way. It’s nice to have the respect of your peers for being an “everyday” player, but you don’t get a ring for it, and your chances of getting “Wally Pipped” are slim these days.
“When I came up to the big leagues, you were concerned about someone taking your damn job,” Williams said with a laugh. “You wanted to put up numbers, and remember, there weren’t all the long-term deals with all the (guaranteed) money back then.
“You were fighting for your next year’s contract every day. Now that was pressure.”
