Cal Ripken Jr. elected IT IS HIGH All-Time Yankee Opponent at SS

Before we start beefing about whether Robin Yount or A-Rod have gotten screwed for the all-time IT IS HIGH opponent team, consider this:

Cal Ripken Jr. was a 19-year all-star, an eight-time Silver Slugger, a two-time MVP, a two-time Gold Glover and a first-time member to Cooperstown with 98.5 percent of the vote. (Who spurned him? Probably the same asshole who dissed Jeter. Somewhere among the Gammonites, there is a writer - or two - who got their rocks off by leaving Ripken and Jeter off their ballots.) 

Oh, there's also the thing about consecutive games. I know, he beat Lou Gehrig, and we must always instinctively hate him, but hell, Ripken was pretty good. 

Here are the totals of 241 votes cast:

Cal Ripken (69 votes): 29%
Robin Yount (48): 20
Alex Rodriguez (40): 17%
Alan Trammell (31): 13%
Nomar Garciaparra (24): 10%
Dick Groat (14): 17%
Rick Burleson (12): 5%
Luis Aparicio (3): 1%

He shoulda been a Yankee, by the way. Baltimore selected him in the second round of the 1978 draft - a year when the Yankees had three first-round picks: Rex Hudler, Matt Winters and Bryan Ryder. 

I just re-read the above paragraph and puked. (Note: In the second round, they drafted four clicks after Baltimore and selected - drum roll - Steve Balboni.) 

Okay, enough self-torture. But if the Yankees had drafted Ripken, imagine the difference in the eighties and nineties. Ripken would have played SS up until the arrival of Jeter, making that position the modern face of the franchise. 

Rex Hudler, Matt Winters and Bryan Ryder... 

That leaves our all-time opponent team as

1B Eddie Murray
2B Rod Carew
SS Cal Ripken

Not bad. Congratulations, Iron Man.