Cal Ripken Jr.

Ever since he was born his dad has been involved in professional baseball. So, whenever Cal Ripken Jr. says he has been around baseball for his whole life, he is not kidding.

Cal Jr. [I'm going to refer to him as Jr. from now on] has a simple philosophy that he follows in playing baseball, and that's to play hard and well so there is no reason for the club to doubt him and his abilities. This title also led to the name of his autobiography, The Only Way I Know, since that's the only way that he knows how to play baseball.

Growing up the son of a man on the Orioles coaching staff wasn't always easy. Being on the road so much did not allow any of the Ripken kids, Cal Jr., Fred, Billy, and Elly, the chance to stop and make friends. During spring training the kids teacher's would prepare lessons so they could go to Florida with their dad and not miss any assignments.

One day when Cal Sr. came home after a day at the ballpark he brought home an old pitching machine for the kids that the Orioles no longer needed. This let the Ripken kids hit as much, and as long, as they wanted with out anyone's arm becoming sore or tired. This is significant because it allowed Jr. to see so many more fastballs than any of his peers, and he trained his eye on what a fastball looked like.

Starting with the 1969 season in Rochester, Sr. began taking Jr. to his weekly baseball clinics, which he found boring but it gave him a few hours to spend with his dad alone. Once back in Baltimore his dad began taking him to the stadium a few hours early to take batting and fielding practice. But the fielding practice had to be done in the outfield so that the infield dirt would not be messed up. When he got to be a little older, about 16 or so, he was allowed to shag fly balls during practice, and occasionally catch infield throws when needed. Once and a while he would suit up as a catcher and catch batting practice, which was thrown by his dad. All of this time spent at the stadium allowed Orioles officials to see his talent.

A lot of lucky breaks came his way in the minors, but the luckiest of all came early on in his career in the majors. This happened when full time third baseman Doug DeCines was traded away, allowing Jr to now have full playing time. But his third base career was rather short because on July 1, 1982 he was moved to shortstop and only recently (since the book was written) has he moved back to third. About a month prior to this move was when his now legendary streak began, on May 30, 1982. He also had a consecutive innings streak, but that was ended in 1987. Jr. was so traumatized that he took notes that evening on what it felt like to be pulled from a game for the first time in about five years. In 1989 Jr. assumed the role of the big guy and leader on the team after the departure of long time Oriole Eddie Murray. Jr. modeled how he acted with the press after Murray, as well as how to be the mentor on the team.

Although he had two bad seasons, and was involved in a brawl and hurt his knee in June of 93, he was still given standing ovations at the all star game in Baltimore that summer. In the final year leading up to when the streak was to be broken Jr. hired a staff to help him out with the media. His favorite part of the game is the signing with the fans, which will often keep him late into the night at the ball park as he attempts to get everyone that he can. But he knows that it's impossible to reach everyone and he's sorry about that. The next big milestone came on June 14, 1996 when he broke Sachio Kinugasa's all time consecutive games record of 2215.

Ripken's miraculous streak came to a voluntary end at 2,632 on the last Orioles home game of the 1998 season.

The 1999 season brought Jr. closer to yet another milestone - 3,000 hits. He finished the season nine hits shy of the mark, after spending parts of the season on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

On April 15, 2000, Jr. reached number 3,000 in an away game against the Twins. He recieved a standing ovation from the crowd of 18,745.

After spending the last two decades with the Baltimore Orioles, Jr. announced on June 19th, 2001, that he would retire at the end of that season, ending one of the most impressive baseball careers there ever was.  There would only be one more stop for Jr. for his career.

On January 9, 2007 The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, announced that Cal Ripken Jr. would be inducted with 98.53% of the vote in his first year of eligibility.   Jr received the third highest percentage of votes, only behind Tom Seaver (98.84%) and Nolan Ryan (98.79%).

Joining Jr. as a new member of the baseball hall of fame is fellow first year candidate Tony Gwynn.  Gwynn received 97.6% of the vote.

Their induction ceremony will take place July 29, 2007 at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Congratulations Cal!
You deserve this!

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