IRON BIRD

THE STREAK IS SUCH AN INADEQUATE DESCRIPTION FOR something that began 2,127 games, 29 different double-play partners and 13 1/4 years ago. If you pitch 59 consecutive shutout innings or hit in 56 straight games, you are on a streak. But if you play so long that 3,695 other major leaguers have gone on the disabled list since the last time you spent an entire game on the bench, so continuously that more than 50 million fans have seen nobody but you start the game at your position, you are not on a streak. You are on a river, a long,...