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Posted By	Discussion Topic: Cal Ripken retiring at end of season
TeenWeek what's a status?	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 7:44 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00	BALTIMORE -- Cal Ripken Jr., who holds baseball's record for consecutive games played, will retire at the end of this season, his 21st with the Baltimore Orioles, the team said Monday night. Ripken, who will turn 41 in August, said he wants to spend more time with his family and devote more energy to his youth baseball endeavors in his hometown of Aberdeen, Md. He also said he hopes eventually to run a major league franchise. "It's inevitable that you can't play forever," the third baseman told The Washington Post in its Tuesday editions. "I've maximized my window of opportunity as well as anyone. (Baseball) has given me a lot of joy and happiness and satisfaction. I'm proud of what I've been able to do. "But I'm ready to do other things. I'm ready to be home and be available to my kids and family. .. I'm sure I'll miss certain parts of (playing). But when you put your heart and soul into it at the level I have every single day, you can minimize some of your regrets." Ripken will finish this season, which almost certainly will play out as a sort of farewell tour, including an Oriole Park at Camden Yards finale Sept. 23 against the New York Yankees. His last game, barring injury, figures to be at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sept. 30, which means Ripken, in a bit of historical symmetry, will end his career on the same field where Lou Gehrig gave his famed farewell speech in 1939. Ripken said he formulated the decision two or three weeks ago, but held on to it until now "just to make sure" it was not a fleeting feeling. "I said early in the spring that when I decide, I don't think I will keep it a secret," he told the Post. "I'm not doing this to have a farewell tour or to have people look at it as their last chance to see me. What I really want to see happen for the rest of the year is to thoroughly enjoy the game, what I've been doing my whole life, for what it is. I want to just enjoy the freedom of just coming to the ballpark and enjoying it." Gehrig, one of baseball's all-time greats, and Ripken are inextricably tied. Ripken broke Gehrig's "unbreakable" record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games on Sept. 6, 1995, and went on to play in 2,632 straight games -- almost 17 seasons without missing one -- before voluntarily ending the streak on Sept. 20, 1998. Ripken said his decision to walk away was not related to his performance this season, the least productive of his career. Ripken is batting .210 -- or 67 points below his career average -- with four homers and 25 RBI. His playing time has been reduced in recent weeks to 3 to 5 games per week. "Struggling and not hitting can be as frustrating as anything," he said. "But that's something I've been dealing with for 21 years, whether it's my last year or my first year. ... So I have no doubt that, statistically, things will change. I'll inch up there, get hot, drive in some runs, hit some home runs. I don't know where my (batting) average will end up, but I've been in this situation before and it's a matter of persevering." Ripken also said he chose to make his decision public now to give the Orioles, who do not have a major league ready third-base prospect, a chance to plan for next season and beyond. The team has discussed trading for a third baseman with several teams lately. Although Ripken's news will not come as a major surprise, he had previously refused to call this season his last. He has little left to accomplish in a career that earned him a spot on baseball's "All-Century" team in 1999 as one of two shortstops (with Ernie Banks). He won a World Series title with the Orioles in 1983, and in the past two seasons, he reached the 400-home run and 3,000-hit benchmarks -- becoming only the seventh player in history to reach both -- which will all but guarantee election to the Hall of Fame. If he retains his lead in the All-Star balloting -- his lead was fewer than 8,000 votes over Anaheim's Troy Glaus on Monday -- Ripken will be named to his 19th All-Star game next month in Seattle. He is ranked 18th all-time on baseball's hit list with 3,107, 29th in home runs with 421 and tied for 18th with 1,652 RBI. Ripken was the American League rookie of the year in 1982 and was selected league MVP in 1983 and 1991. In 1990, Ripken set a record for shortstops with a .996 fielding percentage, making just three errors in 161 games. He moved to third base in 1997. While Ripken's greatest legacy -- "The Streak" -- was built on his endurance, the winter of his career has been hampered by injuries. A lower back injury forced him to sit out parts of the 1999 and 2000 seasons, ultimately requiring surgery. This year a fractured rib kept him out of most of spring training, putting him behind in his preparation for the season. "In hindsight, I should have taken a whole lot more time (before coming back), but I made a decision to accelerate the process," he told the Post. "I think the club wanted me to come back. I felt support from them. I felt I could do it. I don't regret the decision, but when we got to the season, I was still trying to find a swing." However, his injuries gave Ripken more time to spend at home -- with wife Kelly and children Rachel, 11, and Ryan, 7 -- and more time to spend on his youth baseball projects, which awakened his passion for teaching the game. "Maybe that was an early indication. I wasn't sad that I got hurt," he said. "I was energized in a different direction. That made me feel good. I felt like I was starting something that had enormous potential. ... Because of what baseball has done for me, I have that platform and the opportunity to reach a lot of people. Do I know how it's going to work exactly? No. But it's awful exciting to think about making it work." Ripken's place in baseball history would have been secure even without The Streak. He broke into the majors with the Orioles on Aug. 10, 1981, 14 days shy of his 21st birthday. The bulk of Ripken's playing career was spent at shortstop, a position he revolutionized because of his size and strength. Before Ripken, shortstops were generally small and agile defensive specialists. Baseball's current crop of big, superstar shortstops -- the New York Yankees' Derek Jeter, the Boston Red Sox's Nomar Garciaparra and the Texas Rangers' Alex Rodriguez -- often credit Ripken with forcing a philosophical change in the way the position is viewed. For about 5½ seasons, Ripken's double-play partner at second base was his younger brother, Billy. And in 1987, Cal Ripken Sr. became the first major league manager to manage two sons on the same team. He was fired six games into the 1988 season. In 1990, Ripken had arguably the best defensive season of any shortstop, committing only three errors in 161 games, for a fielding percentage of .996, a record for a shortstop. He moved permanently to third base in 1997. Ripken also came to be identified strongly with the city in which he played, his Iron Man work ethic mirroring Baltimore's working-class pride. He grew up 30 minutes from Baltimore and spent his entire professional career in the Orioles' organization, from the day he was drafted on June 4, 1978, to his major league debut on Aug. 10, 1981, to today. However, the better part of Ripken's life has been spent absent from family members -- from the days when his father was on the road to the nearly 21 seasons Ripken spent in hotels and on airplanes while his children grew up without him. "It has affected me more this year than in other years," he said. "That feeling of being on the road, wishing (your kids) were here or you were there. You wonder about what they're doing in their activities. You can't wait to hear what happened in their day. That's a big pull, and it's been pulling me for a couple of years."
Francine Banger	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 11:37 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00	Its about time, he is well past his due in the Big Leagues.
Unicron	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 11:39 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Mar. 01	hoo-rah!!!!!!! he is the worst human being alive. never liked him, never will. Listener since 2/3/99, 882 days before syndication
Rone	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 11:40 AM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Jan. 01	i agree Banger, its definately about time. he was a great player, but i hate watching people like him go out there and struggle. any newbies that want to be adopted can E-Mail Me or IM me at Okterrific771.
Froy King Shit *board owner*	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 2:12 PM
O&A Board Veteran Registered: Feb. 01	I hate to see Cal go, he is easily my favorite Non-Met. He epitomizes everything that is right and good about sports. In an era of huge egos & salaries here is a guy who went out everyday and did his job without expecting any fanfare or special treatment. He's a living legend, I'm sad to see him go. Is my train in vain, has my soul gone to waste Am I just a victim of, a victim of my lost faith
TeenWeek what's a status?	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 2:15 PM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00	Froy, I disagree with you. I think this guy has a huge ego. There were many times during the streak, when he was either hurt or not hitting well at all and he was actually costing his team games by being a detriment in the lineup. He should have retired about 3 years ago. I think it is great that you want to play every day, but it seemed defintely near the end he was playing only for his own intersts and that was the record.
drkn2forget	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 4:57 PM
Psychopath Registered: Feb. 01	Cmon, this guy has been a stand out major league player his whole career..But thank God he is going to hang um up because it is painful to watch him plays these days adopted by FEZ
Rowelentless Black Rock Coalition Do you have a basketball in your car?	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 7:49 PM
O&A Board Regular Registered: May. 00	If you are interested he will play his last game in that dump called Yankee Stadium on Sept 30th. Be dialing! (By the time I post this it may be sold out)
mikeWOW I got a staple in my ass and all I got was this status	posted on 06-19-2001 @ 8:03 PM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Sep. 00	im glad he is retiring... by the way what kind of bullshit is this- he is gonna start on the allstar team! "i hate people that dont get it!"

Displaying 1-9 of 9 messages in this thread.