Despite playing a record 2,632 consecutive games and being baseball's all-time Iron Man, Cal Ripken Jr. assured the audience in Eisenhower Auditorium last night that he is no Superman.

But after Ripken walked onto the stage and all of the 1,663 people in the audience raised to their feet in applause, it was obvious that some still thought he was.

"Because I played 2,632 games in a row, people think I had some sort of secret," he said. "I'd sit and say, 'I just love to play.' That answer never seemed to go over well."

Ripken said that after years of being asked by reporters and even famous baseball players like Derek Jeter what his secret was, he decided to sit down and define it.

He came up with eight traits people should have if they plan to excel in their fields. One of these traits -- to have a sense of conviction -- comes from a story about his father, Cal Ripken Sr.

Ripken said that whenever it snowed, his father would take his two sons out on their tractor to plow the neighborhood.

One morning, the tractor wouldn't start, and in the midst of trying to fix it, the crank fired and hit his father across the head. Although he had a gash that clearly needed stitches, Ripken said his father patched it up himself and went back to the barn to try to start it again.

They plowed the neighborhood that day, despite what seemed to be two major setbacks. Ripken used the story to explain the reason he never appeared on the injured list during his streak.

"People think I was never injured; I was injured," Ripken said. "[But] the expectations were too high. I couldn't imagine going to my dad saying I couldn't play because I had turf toe."

Another important trait Ripken mentioned was life management -- or taking control of outside forces that first may appear out of a person's control.

Ripken said he was faced with this situation in 1993 when his wife was pregnant with their second child. There was concern over whether he would be around for his son's birth.

With his number of consecutive games approaching Lou Gehrig's, it was either break The Streak or miss one of the most important moments of his life, he said.

After promising his wife he would be there and then walking around the house thinking, "What am I gonna do?" he decided to take control of the situation.

"I said, 'Kelly, if I miss a game because of the birth of our son, that date will forever be the day The Streak has ended, and that will be on our son's birthday. Now, is that fair to him?' " Ripken said. "And she bought it!"

Ripken also emphasized the importance of being consistent.

"You can't always get the game-winning hit or the game-saving catch," he said. "It's what you do in between those two. You need to find ways to make contributions no matter how small."

Most importantly, Ripken said, you have to put yourself out there in order for anything good to happen.

"You can't accomplish anything on the sidelines; you need to get in the game," he said. "You need to persevere through the trying times, and you can find out what you are really made of."

Paul Hawkins (sophomore-crime, law and justice), a member of Penn State's baseball team, said it was useful to hear advice from someone who lived it.

"It was great to hear from someone who's been there," Hawkins said. "If you just stick with it and keep working hard, like he said, good things will happen."