Cal Ripken, Jr., 1996 Topps #96

Okay, since you patiently endured yesterday's bait-and-switch, here's a fitting card to commemorate my 2,131st blog entry. I would do a victory lap, but it's late and I had a big dinner. Instead, here's a list of the the players who started the most games at shortstop for the other 27 teams in MLB during the first 2,105 consecutive games that Cal Ripken, Jr. played at shortstop (that discounts the first month of Cal's streak, during which he started at third base):

Atlanta Braves - Jeff Blauser, 645 games
Boston Red Sox - Luis Rivera, 425
California Angels - Dick Schofield, 1,015
Chicago Cubs - Shawon Dunston, 1,079
Chicago White Sox - Ozzie Guillen, 1,358
Cincinnati Reds - Barry Larkin, 1,111
Cleveland Indians - Julio Franco, 698
Colorado Rockies - Walt Weiss, 212
Detroit Tigers - Alan Trammell, 1,442
Florida Marlins - Kurt Abbott, 183
Houston Astros - Rafael Ramirez, 470
Kansas City Royals - Kurt Stillwell, 473
Los Angeles Dodgers - Jose Offerman, 531
Milwaukee Brewers - Robin Yount, 347
Minnesota Twins - Greg Gagne, 1,021
Montreal Expos - Spike Owen, 507
New York Mets - Kevin Elster, 462
New York Yankees - Alvaro Espinoza, 421
Oakland Athletics - Mike Bordick, 517
Philadelphia Phillies - Steve Jeltz, 497
Pittsburgh Pirates - Jay Bell, 904
St. Louis Cardinals - Ozzie Smith, 1,771
San Diego Padres - Garry Templeton, 1,119
San Francisco Giants - Jose Uribe, 909
Seattle Mariners - Omar Vizquel, 610
Texas Rangers - Scott Fletcher, 491
Toronto Blue Jays - Tony Fernandez, 1,066

According to Sports Illustrated, these 27 teams combined to start 524 players at shortstop from July 1, 1982 through September 6, 1995. The O's, of course, started just one player at that position. That'll do nicely.