You are Cal Ripken, Jr., known throughout baseball as “The Iron Man.”

Ripken played Major League Baseball for 21 years, which is . . . really hard to do. It’s tough to stay on the top of the game for even ten years. He played all twenty-one seasons for the same team — the Baltimore Oriels — which isn’t (or more accurately, wasn’t) exactly unheard of, but in a sport where players and owners have agendas that rarely line up over the long haul, it’s rare, and in a player of Ripken’s quality, it demonstrates a high and frequently tested degree of loyalty. He played a very challenging position — shortstop— for most of his career, earning two golden glove awards. He was selected for the American League’s All Star Team 19 times and held records for hits, runs batted in and home runs for shortstops. He won eight silver slugger awards for his batting, was rookie of the year his first season, and won the prestigious Roberto Clemente award for his charitable work. He is most remembered, though, as the player who broke “the record that could not be broken” — the record for most consecutive games played — a record previously held by the legendary Lou Gehrig.

Year in, year out, through injuries, illnesses, batting slumps, and his share of personal tragedies, Ripken told his manager that he was available, suited up, and played the game. Unlike American Football (“Gridiron” to you and your non-American fans), baseball’s regular season lasts half a year and consists of 162 games. Before he finally took himself off the roster for a game, he played 2,632 consecutive games. On the day he broke Gehrig’s record (2130), the President and Vice President of the United States were in attendance along with Gehrig’s teammate, Joe DiMaggio (as far as I know, no relation of our own amazing Andrea Lena). The crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted twenty-two minutes.

In any given year, when the stats were reviewed (baseball fans are pure geeks about statistics), there were always players who had better moments. More home runs, or hits. More stolen bases, for sure. Plenty of players were more “flash,” as my Australian friends would say. If you tried to compile a “Rushmore” of baseball in 1990, or 1995, or possibly even today, he might not be on it — everyone values different metrics differently, after all. But to anyone who truly understands baseball, who understands why it is different than virtually any other sport, and who values the habits of mind, body and spirit it inculcates at its very best, Cal Ripken is Rushmore.

And so, my dear, are you.

Ripken was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame as soon after his retirement as he was eligible, in a nearly unanimous vote. If we had such a thing you wouldn’t be in it, because you haven’t retired and I hope, selfishly, that I don’t see that day. But I’m giving you a standing ovation anyway.