2,632. It is a number that will go down in the annals of baseball as recognizably as 56 and 755.

Cal Ripken, Jr., arguably the best shortstop of the last two decades, decided on Sunday to end his major league record of consecutive games played by pulling himself from the Baltimore Orioles' lineup shortly before the team's final home game of the season versus the New York Yankees.

Ripken's decision brings to an end the most impressive mark of durability in the history of professional sports. For 17 years, Ripken defined commitment and perseverance by choosing to play in every game regardless of pain, soreness or fatigue. And he didn't just play, he excelled.

Ripken was the 1982 American League Rookie of the Year, a two-time Most Valuable Player, a 16-time All-Star and a member of Baltimore's 1983 World Series championship team. Even in 1998, after a generation of never taking a day off, Ripken has continued to put up the solid numbers that have defined his career.

Why, then, did Cal Ripken end The Streak now?

The way Ripken chose to bring The Streak to a close does not sit well with me. It doesn't gel with who Cal Ripken has been for the last 17 years.

Let me make one thing clear. I have always been, continue to be and will always be an adoring fan of Cal Ripken, Jr. In my mind he is the epitome of what a professional athlete should be--a dedicated player who has devoted himself to his profession because he loves and respects it, and not merely because it provides him with a lucrative paycheck.

But I see a potential problem with the manner in which he chose to end The Streak. I am afraid that it was the record, and not the natural course of the game, that most influenced Ripken's decision.

Baseball players take days off for certain reasons. Injury is the most obvious. Sometimes a player is simply tired during the grind of a 162-game regular season and needs a rest.

Other times a player will pull himself because he feels he is not helping his team appropriately. And still other players are benched by their managers for poor performance or as a disciplinary measure. Ripken cited none of these reasons for his absence from Sunday's game.

Instead, Ripken said in the post-game press conference that he just felt the time was right for The Streak to end. He said he had thought of taking the last day of the season off in Boston, but he ultimately felt that The Streak should end where it began and where Ripken has spent his entire career.

Ripken also said that he chose to bench himself now, specifically, because the Orioles no longer had a chance to make the playoffs. That statement implies that Ripken feels his team is worse when he is not in the lineup, so he definitely did not sit out for the good of the team. Ripken basically said that he decided not to play because it was the right time to bring The Streak to a close.

It appears that Ripken, the man who has always said that The Streak did not influence his decision to play every day, based his decision not to play on the very existence of The Streak.

This reality raises a troubling question: how many times during the last 2,632 games did Ripken keep himself in the lineup only because The Streak existed? I don't know. Does it matter? I think so.

Part of the reason that professional sports records are so coveted is because they occur in the natural course of a game or a season or a career. The Streak should not have dictated Ripken's decision to play or not to play. Motivation should be as important as the action it produces.