Baltimore fan nears completion of Cal Ripken Jr. ticket collection

Rick Taylor, a lifelong Baltimore Orioles fan living near Baltimore, has spent 28 years collecting tickets from each game of Cal Ripken Jr.'s famous 'Iron Man' streak, which lasted from 1982 to 1998, The Baltimore Banner reported.

Taylor's collection, now filling 16 boxes in his basement, includes tickets individually protected and labeled with their corresponding game numbers. He is just eight tickets short of completing the set, with the missing tickets from road games in the 1980s against the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, and Kansas City Royals, according to The Baltimore Banner and pressdemocrat.com.

Experts consider Taylor's collection one of the most impressive baseball ticket collections ever assembled. Mike Provenzale of Heritage Auctions noted the effort required to compile such a collection is almost as remarkable as Ripken's record itself, pressdemocrat.com reported.

Taylor expressed concern that the shift to digital ticketing makes it unlikely younger collectors will be able to assemble similar collections spanning entire careers of modern players, a sentiment echoed by Matt Fuller of PSA, who said it would be impossible to replicate such a run today, according to The Baltimore Banner.

Initially, Taylor aimed to collect tickets from games in which Ripken hit home runs but expanded his goal to cover the entire streak after encouragement from fellow collectors, pressdemocrat.com noted.