Lost Ballparks

Best of Lost Ballparks: Cal Ripken Jr. (HOF 2007)

• Mike Koser • Season 2 • Episode 1

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(This episode was recorded in 2022). 

We’re curating the most downloaded episodes for new listeners discovering Lost Ballparks. If you’re a longtime listener, thank you for being part of this incredible community!

As a 15 year old freshmen, he stood 5’7 and weighed 128 pounds. He batted 9th on his Aberdeen High School Team and finished the season hitting .128. Who would have believed that he would one day grow into a 6’4, 225 pound Baseball Hall of Famer?!  Cal Ripken, Jr. finished his career a 19 time All-Star, AL Rookie of the Year, 2x AL MVP.  He collected 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, was a 2x Gold Glove winner, 8x silver slugger, World Champion, played in the most consecutive games (2,632)  and was a 2007 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Announcer:

Podcast open

Mike Koser:

Hi, I'm Mike Koser. Welcome to the season two premiere of he Lost Ballparks Podcast.

Jon Miller:

Cal Ripken with a three-run shot down the line of the first pitch, and Baltimore has scored five times. Number 390 in the illustrious career of number eight, Cal Ripken.

Mike Koser:

Cal Ripken Jr. 

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah.

Mike Koser:

  I really appreciate you doing this.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Oh, my pleasure.

Mike Koser:

Born and raised just 31 miles northeast of Baltimore. On June 13th, 1978, you got to do what very few players get the opportunity to do. You signed a contract with your hometown team, the team that you grew up watching and loving, the Baltimore Orioles. Man, you were such a kid when you signed.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

(Audio from early in his career) I'm learning as a hitter. I'm learning the pitchers. I'm learning how to hit the ball to right field and how to hit the ball left field. All of that, you know, is helping me become a better ball player, and maybe someday soon I'll be in a big league uniform.

Mike Koser:

$500 a month and a $20,000 signing bonus.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

All that's a matter of public record, isn't it?

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Uh yeah. The funny part I always laughed about is I guess people look at baseball and they have for some time now, as uh, you know, it's this uh big paying job. And I remember my first salary in the big leagues was 40 grand. You know, I you signed, uh, signed that, and then I made my bonuses because I was rookie of the year, and so I made a little bit more money than that, and it quickly it escalated. But the $500 a month, you go away to play Bluefield in Bluefield, West Virginia, you got your check and it was $406 after taxes, and then you had to pay your rent and live off that for the month. In Bluefield, West Virginia, my rent was $100 a month, and uh everything was pretty cheap around there. So I actually kind of made money. Next year I made $700 a month in Miami, and my rent was $800 a month. So we lost. We lost money.

Mike Koser:

After some time in the minors, you get called up to the majors in the 81 season at the end of the 81 season, and your dad, Cal Ripken Sr., who had been a part of the Orioles organization since 1957, was the current third base coach. He must have been so proud.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, uh he's he was my dad, and uh he was a professional. And many times he had the professional face on and not the dad face on.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So uh, you know, it was kind of interesting when I when I got to the big leagues, they were asking how cool it is to have your dad on the team. And I was thinking it's kind of cool, but I had to I had to tow the professional line. But my dad used to always say, when I look at this organization, I was in the minor league organization, developing players, and I look at all these players as my sons, and I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, going, No, dad, I'm your son. But he just wanted to play it down. But I could tell, you know, that he was extremely proud of me from the day-to-day activities. And especially when I hit my first home run on opening day 82, I came around the bases, and the first person that you shake hands with is the third base coach. I guess nowadays they shake hands with the bat boy and the guy on deck, and then the first base coach, and then all the way around. But my first handshake was at third base, and it was my dad.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, that was against the uh Royals at Memorial Stadium on an 0-1 pitch. And the fascinating part about that is just a few years earlier, here you are as a teenager shagging flies, probably before games, helping your dad out any way you can at the at the ballpark. And now you're the starting third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, playing alongside a lot of the same guys who would have called you "little rip".

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Well, it was uh it was sort of weird because most of my first 14 years of my life, my dad was a manager in the minor leagues. So I did put a uniform on, I shag balls, I was out and then I had times when I came down and worked out at Memorial Stadium at around 15 or 16 when my dad got to the big leagues. It felt really cool to be in a big league ballpark just working out. But when they turned the lights on, and I made my major league debut, which was as a pinch runner, by the way, uh Weaver put me in to pinch run in the 12th inning for Ken Singleton. And I was on second base, I kind of looked up around, it was like this big lighted stage. And you and all of a sudden you go, Man, I haven't experienced this. And uh made me stop and think for a minute. Frank White put a pickoff play on right away, and uh and I got back safely, and he goes, just checking, kid, and went back to the uh to second base, and I scored the winning run in that game. But I will tell you the experience of being in a big league ballpark at night with the lights on and a lot of people in the stands, uh, you know, it felt like you were standing in the middle of the stage, which was very different than any other experience I had.

Mike Koser:

What did you think of Memorial Stadium, by the way? What were your impressions? What did what were some of the unique characteristics of the ballpark that, I mean, obviously you grew up going there, but what did you... what did you love about that ballpark?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So uh growing up in Baltimore, I mean, Memorial Stadium was where the Orioles played, and the Orioles were really good, you know, a celebrated World Series there. I remember Brooksy, you know, having the great World Series in 1970 where he dove and caught all kinds of balls from Lee May and Johnny Bench.

Curt Gowdy:

Would you believe that? Well, this guy's in another world. I mean, he's unbelievable. Watch this play by Brooks Robinson.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And he jumped up and celebrated right there in the same grass. So when I got to the big leagues, you know, it was like this is sacred ground. You know, this is where uh where my hero played. And I'm standing right in the same dirt, the same grass that uh he he stayed in. So I always had a special affinity for Memorial Stadium because we're close. I went to the 66 World Series game against the Dodgers. We sat in the upper deck.

Vin Scully:

Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant day to you, wherever you may be. welcoming you to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, and the 1966 World Series.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And I remember I had a perfect view down just straight away left. And Frank Robinson hit a home run that uh in that game. And that that series they swept the Dodgers in four, you know, very unexpectedly. And that was really a cool, exciting uh part of that. So that was my first real memory of being in that ballpark. I was six years old. But having uh then played in that ballpark, it had it was symmetrical all the way around. It was 309 down the lines, it had a high wall down the lines that immediately went out to 360. You could get a cheap home run, hit a line drive down the left field line. You know, the ball could stay fair, stay fair, because a lot of times they're hooking down there and it stays inside the foul pole. You could jam one or push one down the right field line, a high fly ball with two strikes. And occasionally you might get that to land in the first row at 309, 310. But I thought it played really extremely fair. And before they put this big screen TV out in right center field, that wasn't there when I first came to the big leagues, and the ball wouldn't carry out there in uh center field at all. But when you put that in there, then the ball started to carry a little bit more to center field. So extremely fair. A lot of people would say it was a pitcher's ballpark.

Mike Koser:

We talked to Jim Palmer a few weeks ago, and he was saying that in April and May, before trees would grow in, the white house in the background, it was tough for hitters to pick up the ball.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Jim Palmer had a phenomenal record. Earl Weaver made sure that he pitched every Sunday day game there because he threw the ball straight over the top. He was tall, and uh the ball would come out of that white house out there. And it's kind of funny now, Memorial Stadium is knocked down. You know, we as the in the Cal Ripken Senior Foundation, we came in and put a youth field in there, you know, a youth development park in the same exact location where home plate standing in the same place. Wow, because they tore all the stadium down. And Billy and I were cutting the ribbon years ago, and we're standing in the batter's box and you're looking out and you still see that white house in uh in center field that uh brings back those uh those good memories. But yeah, Palmer Palmer had an unbelievable record, period. Yeah, he had an unbelievable record in day games at Memorial Stadium.

Mike Koser:

Well, after a slow start to your rookie year, you go on a tear toward the end and finish your rookie campaign with 28 home runs, 93 RBIs, and you beat out uh future Hall of Famer, Wade Boggs, to win AL rookie of the year.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

We had Wade Boggs that year, Kent Hrbek that year, Gary Gaetti, and all of those guys had monster numbers. So I mean uh Gary Gaetti, Hrbek, I think hit .301 for the year. He made the all-star team. I think I might have edged him out in home runs towards the end, and I might have edged them out in RBIs, but they both got off to a really good start. And Boggsy hit his normal, I don't know, .350 or .340, whatever he does.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

In a year where there were a lot of deserving people for rookie of the year, somehow I I edged him out in the voting.

Mike Koser:

Let's talk about some of the old lost ballparks that you played in that first year. What stood out to you about uh your first trip to Tiger Stadium?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

When I look at uh Tiger Stadium, you know, when I first came to the big leagues, games weren't on TV all the time. It was a game of the week on Saturday, you had a Monday night game, you had some TV that if you were on the road that was uh your local broadcast would send it back, but we weren't on TV all the time at all. So I remember that most of us sat around the TV when we were growing up for a chance to see all the All-Stars uh play. And I remember the All-Star game uh where Reggie hit the Transformer on the roof.

Curt Gowdy:

There's a long fly. That one is going up, it is off the roof and hit the Transformer up there. A tremendous smash. Only eight players have hit the ball over the roof there in Detroit. And Jackson nearly did it then out of the ballpark.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Uh Hank Aaron uh hit a ball opposite field for a home run. I mean, there was a lot of home runs. Roberto Clemente went in the upper deck in right center field. It was 440 to straightaway center. But it was interesting how the park was built because the fans uh in the upper deck were just right above the people uh that were in the in the box seats. And so it felt like they were all on you. And it had a really good feel to it. If you pulled the ball on either side, you gotta it was an easier home run, you know, than it would be in some ballparks. But uh it played so big to center field that you had to constantly kind of set your cutoff positions differently. If ever somebody ever hit a ball over the center fielder's head, you've heard of the double cutoff, but I think sometimes you needed a triple cutoff to get the ball back into home plate. It was so cavernous, yeah. But uh biggest memory I I uh remember of uh Tiger Stadium was we won the World Series in '83. Uh the Tigers were pretty good, and our division uh, you know, was pretty competitive, you know, all the way through that year. But in 84, they get off to 35 and 5.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, and what a lineup. I can still hear Tigers broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell running through all the all-stars that played for the Tigers that year.

Ernie Harwell:

Castillo at third, Trammell at short, Whittaker second, Evans is at first base, Herndon, Lemon, and Gibson make up the outfield. Parrish is catching, just getting under way at Tigers Stadium.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

They win 35 out of their first 40 games, and we were trying to stay afloat, trying to stick to have them stay in range. Then they went on to win the World Series. But there was a couple of series coming into Detroit where that place was rockin. It was jam-packed, people were all over the place. It felt like that stadium was moving, people were yelling. And I thought that was one of the most exciting venues to play in because they they had created so much exciting excitement. They had a really good team. We were a really good team, and it was a really fun place to come in there and play, but it did feel like all the fans were right on top of you in and around home plate.

Mike Koser:

Do you remember the first time you played at Yankee Stadium?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So I wished uh Dave Winfield a happy birthday uh recently. I think he turned 70, I don't know, a few months back. And I did a little video for him. And my first recollection of Yankee Stadium came flooding back in my mind. I think my first at bat at Yankee Stadium was against Mike Morgan, I think. He threw me a 1-0 sinker and I hit a bomb to left center field. It was 4 30 in the in that point at left center field. And I think Winfield was playing left field at the time, and he ran back and jumped up over the fence, caught the ball, and slammed into the fence. You know, and I came back shaking my head, you know, because that's a home run in any any ballpark besides Yankee Stadium. And I think Ken Singleton said something like, Welcome to Yankee Stadium. And so I said, you know, when I first met you, Dave Winfield, I didn't like you a lot and took my my first at bat. You took that homer away from me. And he laughed a little bit. But uh that was my recollection. And when you think about Yankee Stadium, in the early 80s, you know, they were still pretty good, but they were kind of in a transition, I think. We were really good at that time. And so when you come into Yankee Stadium, it wasn't the exciting Yankee Stadium place. They didn't have a lot of people uh, you know, watching the game. Then there was a period of time when we went into a rebuilding and they were really good. And you go in there and play in Yankee Stadium and their place is packed, they're yelling at you, they're beating the crap out of you. And that's not a lot of fun to be there too. But there were times when we were good and they were good at the same time. And uh those rivalries are when you come into the Yankee Stadium, and this happened a few times in the month of September with the pennant on the line, got through the dog days of August, and now you have four game series in Yankee Stadium that can determine who's gonna win the uh the East or who's gonna have a chance to make that playoff spot. And I remember beating them three out of four a couple of times in Yankee Stadium that pushed us two games up and assured us that we were gonna win it. And in those games, the excitement level was from the first pitch all the way to the last. I mean, if it was a one-one pitch in the first inning and they thought it was a strike and they called it a ball and it was two to one or two and one count, people the place would erupt on a one-on-one pitch. And it felt really exciting. And then if it was a close game in a seventh or eight, and the manager had to come out of the dugout and talk to the pitcher on the mound to maybe discuss how we're gonna pitch this guy or whatever else. I came in sometimes from shortstop, and this very rarely happens. It was so loud you couldn't hear the conversation. Now, that happens at uh the Metro dome, you know, when it was really loud, there was the King dome, when you have an indoor space where the sound doesn't go anywhere. But outside, but outside it it was unbelievable. And you and sometimes you would allow yourself in those moments when I was walking back to my position to look up around and you go, man, this is really cool. And then as quickly as you said that, you had to go back into your game face and say, Okay, focus up. I gotta do what I got to do. But you allowed yourself to kind of see the moment for what it was. That was an exciting place to play, especially when uh it was really important. The New York Yankee fans, they didn't need a board to tell them that uh, you know, to clap or to yell or scream. And I think they truly believe that they're the tenth man, that they helped and they had a home field advantage by uh by being there. But I from as a player standpoint, I loved being in that environment when we were both good.

Mike Koser:

Your first all-star game came in 1983 at Comiskey

PA Announcer:

from the Baltimore Orioles, shortstop, Cal Ripken Jr.

Mike Koser:

That ballpark, too, had so much history. What was some of the things you remember about Comiskey Park?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Well, so Comiskey uh in the 83 season, not only was my first all-star game, we won the World Series that year. Right. And the White Sox uh won their division, we won our division, and we developed quite a rivalry back and forth. And so it had that sort of history uh already that uh, and it was a good old ballpark, and uh the two teams are good that were coming in there, so it made it more exciting uh for sure to play in that ballpark. But I remember I made the all-star team as a reserve. Uh Robin Yount started, um, he was voted in at the shortstop position, and I got in the game in the uh about the fifth.

Vin Scully:

Cal Ripken finishing up at shortstop for Robin Yount.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And just being in the locker room with all the great players, and it was a big uh laugher for the American League. Uh um Fred Lynn had a grand slam off Atlee Hammacker. Uh, I think Jim Rice might have a home run, Cecil Cooper might get a home run. I mean, there was a lot of home runs. There was a blowout, so there wasn't a lot of pressure when you came into the fifth inning. We already had that the game pretty well in hand. But I remember being so nervous that uh, you know, the intensity of uh just being out there in the field, I felt like I was getting ready on every pitch, like overly getting ready, like, ah, you know, this is uh gotta be super ready. Right. And I remember Manny Trillo looked over at me like and saw me, and he just kind of shook his head and went back to his position, almost thinking, like, it's really not any different than how you when you play during the regular season. But uh it felt that way to me. I felt like I had a big surge of adrenaline, and you really wanted to do well because, again, as I said earlier, watching the All-Star game was really important to all of us growing up. It was a chance to see all the games players, and you felt like the whole world was watching you at that moment.

Joe Garigiola:

This is what it's really all about, man. They come out to see them, they want to see the stars, the marquee people, and uh Johnny Bench, Yastrzemski put em all in , and it is an exhibition. And they're getting their money's worth tonight.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, in 83, too. I mean, what a year. You bat .318, uh, more hits, 211, uh, more doubles, 47 than any player in baseball. The Orioles beat the Phillies in the World Series to win the 1983 World Championship.

Jon Miller:

Line drive, Ripken catches it at shortstop and the Orioles are the champions of the world.

Mike Koser:

And a few weeks later, you're named 1983 AL M VP.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Right. So it kind of was interesting after your rookie of the year, and I finished really strong in my uh rookie of the year, and we went to the last day of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers and uh to decide to penn it. We were both tied at one after 161.

Keith Jackson:

The American League Eastern Division Championship game live from Memorial Stadium in Baltimore between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Baltimore Orioles.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

We lost Jim Palmer, got beat by Robin Yount, basically. Um Don Sutton started that game, but you know, Robin Yount hit two homers off of Jim Palmer and they won that game. And we all watched that celebration in '82. And I think all of us to a man were thinking, where could we have made up that one game? You know, could it have been in April, could it have been in May? We lost this one where we should have won. So I think everybody was super focused at 83 and we got off to a good start. We didn't allow it to go down to the uh to the last game of the season. We uh we were motivated to get out early and uh take care of business. So we did. And for me personally, I think I hit about .280 in the first half. You know, I was still learning as a hitter. They were always talked about the sophomore jinx second year there, that the league might know you a little better. Now they're pitching you a little differently, and you got to make adjustments and all this kind of stuff. So I was making those adjustments, but still learning. And then I took off. You know, uh, the second half that season, I don't know what my stats were. In September, I was really hot and it just kept getting better and better. I climbed over .300 and I just kept rolling. And uh I was getting big hits. I was hitting the ball down the right field line, the left field line. I was using the whole field. It couldn't have been a better time. And Eddie Murray probably had 35 homers and he had more RBIs for that team. So it was him and I that were being considered for the uh most valuable player. So we finished first and second. And I think I got the nod because they gave me a little bit more value out of playing shortstop. That was an interesting move when Earl Weaver moved me over at shortstop. It was perceived as a temporary move to bolster the offense. We weren't uh really rolling in '82. Um, he always liked the idea of me being the shortstop because uh worked out at the stadium and all that, and he had the guts to do it. And so uh that move was thought to be temporary just to get things going. But now in my second year, I had established myself as a good shortstop. I was gonna be the uh your shortstop there, and I started to really learn the position. So the intangibles about being out there probably my greatest uh accomplishments to me was my ability to play shortstop as a big guy. I think I still knock on wood, uh I think I might be right. I still uh have the American League assist record for a season, you know, at shortstop. And I went uh full season and only made three errors at that position.

Mike Koser:

So you had 680 chances in 1990. You make three errors. I mean, it's crazy to me. How on earth do you not win gold glove that year?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Well, there were a lot of years where I thought I was deserving, statistically speaking, and how I played, and I ended up getting the gold glove two years in a row. And and it was the 91 season and 92 season, and and uh second MVP season, and it almost seemed a little political, you know, if you think about it, and it shouldn't have been, because the managers and the coaches vote on the uh gold glove at the time. I don't I think they've changed the format a little bit now and they and and they hand out stats, but I think many of them would look at it and it was about reputation. Who's who should be the gold glove at shortstop? Oh, yeah, who do you take note of with no research done and they just fill out the ballot? And uh so in that year, I think Ozzy Guillen was uh given the short gold glove at shortstop. I'm not sure. Yeah, he was the year the year that I had in '84, I had uh over nine, you just said 680 chances, only three errors. The year in 84 had 900 chances, and that's the year I had broke the assist record. And I think there's only been two shortstops, and and I could be wrong on this, that it was only two shortstops that had uh had more than 900 chances in a season. It was me and Ozzie Smith. And so Ozzie Smith, I think, did it twice, and I did it once. So we are two diametrically way different players. I mean, here's a guy that's that's acrobatic, gymnastic, um, is quicker than anybody I've seen, going left or right, covers all kinds of ground, makes plays in a really flashy but great way. And here I am, sort of a boring, maybe get my footwork right, perfect my backhand, use my strong arm, play deeper, you know, know the uh know where the ball is going to go before it's hit, you know, those sorts of things. But in the end, we both had the same caliber of success to that level. And we were two different shortstops. So when I look back, I'm extremely proud of the success I had. And the gold glove, I think for sure I should have won the gold glove that particular year. Yeah. But I think I lost out to Alfredo Griffin, I lost out to Alan Trammell, you know, in a couple of years where I thought that I was more deserving than other years.

Mike Koser:

The 91 All-Star game, by the way, was played in Toronto at the Sky Dome. And to kick off the festivities, you go out and absolutely dominate the home run derby.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So I let off the home run derby. And I was hitting .349 coming into that game. And so everything was going really right, and I was swinging about and I was thinking, I don't want to mess with my swing at all. What am I doing, you know, swinging for the home for the fences here? But I went up there and I said, okay, let's just take this like it's a regular round of BP. Don't try to hit the ball over the moon, all that kind of stuff. I had an easy line drive on the first swing that landed in the center field bleachers.

Announcer:

Hey, that might be out of here.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Whoa! And I went, whoa. And then I started adding a little bit more on it. I think at one point I hit seven straight homers. I think I hit uh at the time, I ended up with 12, I think, 12 or 13 before I got my 10th out. And at the time it was a record, and it was it's pretty exhausting, you know, swinging that way out the middle. And so I ended up winning the uh the home run derby, which was uh fun.

PA Announcer:

The individual champion of the 1991 Gatorade home run derby for the Baltimore Orioles with 12 home runs today, is Cal Ripken.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And then we went into the game, and I had a three-run homer off of Dennis Martinez in straightaway center field.

Jack Buck:

He hammered that one Gwynn is on the run ...on the run, forget it!

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And I still give Tony LaRussa a little bit of uh um heat for this one. I was two for three and I lined out on my third in bat. And coming up for my fourth in bat, they had brought Rob Dibble in the game.

Jack Buck:

And this guy has been perfect coming out of the bullpen for Cincinnati.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And it was first and second, no outs. And I'm sitting there thinking, okay, great, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna get a chance to hit, I'm swinging really well. You know, I started to walk through his home plate. And Tony LaRussa whistles at me um for the dugout, calls me back. I'm thinking he's gonna give me some sort of scouting report or something. I don't know. But he said, no, no, I'm I'm hitting for you.

Jack Buck:

Now Ripken is out, and we're gonna have a pinch hitter for him. Now, Ripken has a single and a three-run homer, and Ozzie Guillen will bat, and he might be bunting with nobody out. It's tough to bunt Dibble.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

I said, Ozzie's hitting for me? And he went up there and Tony put the bunt on. So Ozzie Guillen bunted the runners over to second base, pinch hit for Cecil Fielder, and he pinched it for Danny Tartabull with Rafael Palmero and Harold Baines. So I guess when you have that kind of bench coming off, and Harold Baines ended up uh Ralphie got walked, and Harold Baines had a sack fly to make it four to one. So Tony was playing for that fourth run. Uh I was elected uh most valuable player.

Jim Kaat:

Boy, what a couple of nights here. I mean, when you go home tonight and you talk about the home run hitting contest being in this place, what's the thing you're gonna take from this game with you, most of all? Jeez, I don't know. Uh they had a home run.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

It was just a great feeling. The 91 season all the way around was pretty special.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, you hit .323, 34 home runs, 114 RBIs, you win uh gold glove, right? 91. And then I mean by any measure it was a career year, but a little bittersweet because that's the final year of Memorial Stadium.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, I wanted it so desperately. Uh I made the last out of uh Memorial Stadium. I don't know if you researched that and know that.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, off uh Frank Tanana.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, and I hit into a double play. So so uh, you know, for a long time, when you play a while, you're a you're able to amass certain statistics. And one of the statistics, one of the records I owned was that I had grounded into most double plays in the history of uh baseball. Do you know who I broke the record of at the time?

Mike Koser:

Who?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Hank Aaron.

Mike Koser:

Really?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So because Hank Aaron played 24 years, I think Albert Pujols has passed us. He's uh far out there ahead, so maybe I'm not in that conversation anymore.

Mike Koser:

Hey, but good company.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, for sure.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, so when Jim Palmer was on season one of the podcast, we were talking about that final game at Memorial Stadium.

Jim Palmer:

Yeah, it was a memorable moment.

Mike Koser:

And I mean, I got goosebumps when I went back and looked at the video again of uh, you know, they're playing Field of Dreams music and all the all-time great Baltimore Orioles past come running out of the dugout to take their position on the field. Brooks Robinson goes to third.

Announcer:

Here he comes, number five.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

I don't think they had to tell him where to go either. I think he knew the way. You know, that was a really cool idea. So those of us that are in the tunnel that get to experience it. We're all waiting in the tunnel, but we had a different experience. You get to sit there and talk to all the players while they individually get pushed out. And I was towards the end. I think Earl Weaver might have been the actual end. So by the time you get out there, everybody's already standing in their positions, and you don't see the magic that has developed during that thing. That wasn't until a few years later I ended up watching that, you know, from the perspective of being out on the field on TV. And I and I said, Man, that that's a really cool experience. I wish I would have seen that. But then I thought for a minute how cool it was to sit under there and talk to Earl and Boog and Frank, and we're reminiscing about uh the ballpark and all the things that the ballpark had, because everybody was in that mood. So I had a totally different experience as being able just to be in there. I wouldn't say it's a ghost-like experience because the when people came on the field, it had that magical uh throwback in time sort of feeling. But when I had when I was in the tunnel underneath, and we just had a chance to have all these conversations, and it lasted a long time. That was your own special sort of throwback moment.

Mike Koser:

So April 15th, 2000, at the Metrodome, you collect hit number 3,000.

Announcer:

There it is! Number 3,000 and another milestone for Cal Ripken Jr. And no better than to greet him right there, Eddie Murray.

Mike Koser:

And how perfect was it that your good friend and teammate, Eddie Murray, was there to greet you at first base? He was the Orioles first base coach at the time, and I think he got his 3,000th hit five years earlier, also at the Metrodome.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, ground ball in between um second, first and second, I think, when he was with Cleveland. Yeah, so uh leading up to that, I mean, I was uh so many hits short going into that season, start the season, you know, trying to get hits. Anybody will tell you that when you go up there trying to get a hit, you're not gonna get a hit. You need to allow that to happen. You need to see the ball, get a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it, and whatever happens, happens. So yeah, but it's natural when you're uh when you're chasing after something, you know, and chasing after 3,000. You can say intellectually, well, it's gonna happen at some point. You know, let me just play the game. But the anticipation was building and building and building, and I wasn't swinging very well. And so we go into that game, I was three hits shy of 3,000. And you know, you don't you don't really you have games where you hit three hits, but you don't really think you're gonna get three hits, you know, tonight. So uh I got a couple of hits, and all of a sudden, uh in my first chance to get the 3,000 hits, and I kind of had a talk with myself. I said, don't try to do too much, just try to hit it, you know, hit a ball right back up the middle, you know, and all that. And on the first pitch, I pulled my hands in and hit a line drive straight up the middle from hit number 3,000. And when I was running down, uh it's interesting, I didn't round first base. I went all the way and I barely got to first base. I stood, you know, it was like you're watching it and you're there's a relief that goes on that okay, there's hit number 3,000. Yeah, all this pressure can go away. Now I can just play play baseball. And the cool part about it was just getting to the bag, Eddie was standing close to the bag and I just stopped. You know, I hit the bag, and Eddie was the first person I had a chance to shake hands with, which made it special to me.

Mike Koser:

Um, when you got hit number 3000, do you remember who sent you a telegram and what it said?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Well, Reggie sent me one.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, but Pete Rose did too.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Congratulations on 3,000. You're uh still over a thousand away from me or something like that.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, you're only...Yeah, what was it? You're 1,256 away.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

But uh, and uh so that's amazing just in itself to think about uh the consistency and how many hits he put up um over his career. But I got a chance to play against Petey, and he was on the uh 83 World Series team for the Phillies, right? So it's almost like for as a boy boy growing up, I loved the Cincinnati Reds and I loved the Orioles, and maybe I was just a front runner because they were winning all the time. The big red machine, you you copied all the different stances from all the guys. And on that Phillies team, there was a lot, old players from uh I think there was Pete Rose, Tony Perez.

Mike Koser:

Joe Morgan, Joe Morgan, too. So you had Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Pete Rose.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, but uh it was fun to play against him. He was still intense at the end of his career, like he was, you know, uh in the very beginning, or when he ran over Ray Fosse at home play in that all star game.

Mike Koser:

I'll never forget, by the way, September 6th, 1995 at Camden Yards. I can still remember the details of that game. Game like it was yesterday, breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record 2131.

Chris Berman:

Game audio

Mike Koser:

For you, the day started off pretty normal. You dropped your daughter Rachel off for her first day of school. It's a big day for her. Did she understand that that was going to be a big night for dad?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Well, I think we tried to explain, but nobody could really understand. I'm not sure I understood what was happening. 94, we went on strike uh August 12th. They canceled the World Series, they locked us out of spring training, came to some sort of agreement, and we started the season late that year. And so when the business side shows its head in the in taking away the product from the fans, you know, everybody feels bad. You know, I remember thinking, you know, how do we how do we say you're sorry? And nobody wants to be in that situation. Sometimes that's the only way to resolve it. Um, never quite understood that. I can't figure out why those are necessary, but sometimes they are. But in that particular time, I remember thinking, coming to spring training, I wasn't thinking about the streak, wasn't thinking about the record is going to go up fall in that particular year if everything goes the same way it's always been. You want to make yourself available to the fans a little bit more in spring training. But when I went out, the media kind of swarmed me on the first day of spring training, and then all the questions were about the streak.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And so then the streak ended up turning to be a positive thing that maybe fans started to look at as uh, you know, forget about that business side and an ugly strike and uh the cancellation of the World Series. He's being compared back to a time when maybe baseball was considered a game, not this big form of entertainment, these big dollars that we all love the game. And so um the street got a lot of attention. In turn, I was saying thank you as much as I could, you know, all the way through that process. And I wish that we would have been a playoff team the month of September. I wish we would have been focusing on making the playoffs. We fell back and it was pretty much out of it. We played the California Angels in that series in uh '95. We beat them in all three games. So we played a role in that and we were competitive and we were a pretty good team, but we were just out of the playoff run. But when I think back on it, the fact that the uh the World Series was canceled the year before, there seemed to be some sort of outpouring and fans looking for something that was good in baseball. And they they grabbed a hold of the streak and it made it made for a really special time. So as the season went on, you just tried to keep your head down and deal with it as best you could.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And came up with different ways to make yourself available. But I tell you what, it was one of the more exhausting seasons, you know, mentally. I bet. And so when it came down to it, I wasn't sleeping a whole lot, you know, and the uh the the night before you uh tie the game, and then there was a sense of relief that saying, okay, tomorrow's gonna come, it's inevitable now. And so you wake up uh after going to bed really late, take your daughter to school for the first time, have your have your moment in the car with her, and then come back and come to the ballpark and uh have that play out the way it did was uh was pretty darn special. But I don't think any of us could really understand what was happening while it was happening. It was just uh you were I I think you surrender to the moment. And by surrendering, a lot of good things happened. It just it just it unfolded. Nobody could have choreographed that night. Oh my gosh. No one could have that uh haven't come out any better. The lap around the ballpark, the spontaneity of uh Bobby Bonilla and Rafi Palmero to push me out there that moment during the ceremony where one of the all-time greats, Lou Gehrig's former teammate, Joe DiMaggio, comes out to speak.

Announcer:

Wherever my former teammate, Lou Gehrig, is today. I'm sure he's tippin his hat to you, Cal Ripken.

Mike Koser:

Fourth inning home run.

Chris Berman:

Ripped to left! Oh my goodness! He's done it again!

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, it was really important for me to play well. I gotta tell you, I didn't want to look at it as you're just showing up and it's just another game. You know, the reason that you play every day is because you're deserving to play every day. You're being counted on, and you can never let up. It's important for you to play well all the time. But I mean, particularly in that series, I wanted us to play well as a team and I wanted to do well. That fourth inning home run, though. I mean You know, I hit three homers, um, yeah, one home run in each game of the uh the 2129, 2130, 2131. And I remember Mike Messina, Jim Abbott pitched 2129. And I was struggling a little bit. I was trying to find my swing. Messina, who was a really good athlete, period. You know, he uh we were talking a little hitting before I went up there. He said, Why don't you try this? And so I tried it and hit a home run off of uh uh Jim Abbott, and that just sparked uh hit a home run to right center field, and it kind of sparked this uh confidence going into the next two games.

Mike Koser:

By the way, your kids made you a t-shirt for that game that you wore under your jersey. What did that say?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah, 2131 plus uh hugs and kisses uh for daddy, right? And so, you know, some people think that you had you plan on always to take your jersey off, like in the fifth inning, and then uh all that kind of stuff. But I came up with that idea as a way to show because there was pausing the action. I didn't think that the game was gonna be paused, I was just gonna wear my jersey. But when everything was uh stopped and everything was sort of ceremonial, I would come and I kept saying thank you, thank you, thank you, and it wouldn't stop. You know, I kind of thought, okay, I'm gonna go get another jersey and went inside, got another jersey, brought it out, took this jersey off, and uh went over and handed it to my kids. And the reason I did that was only to show them that I wore the t-shirt.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

To show them that the stuff underneath. But it turned out to be a pretty special moment. So there was uh two uh sets of uniforms wore, one between uh the first when it became official, and then there was another uh uniform to finish the game.

Mike Koser:

And then September 20th, 1998, the streak comes to an end.

Jim Kaat:

Cal Ripken on the phone, presumably to the press box, and he is not in the lineup.

Mike Koser:

2,632 games when you took yourself out of the lineup. The Yankees were in town, they're playing the Orioles at Camden Yards. Uh Yankees come out of the dugout, and it's like there's this spontaneous ovation.

Jim Kaat:

As a group, the Yankees left the dugout, gave Cal Ripken an ovation of their own out of respect, which was a very classy maneuver. And now the fans rise as one.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

I knew the day before, I was the only one to know. And I and I decided to tell Ray Miller um 10 minutes before the game started, you know, so everything would be normal. I'm still in the line, I'd be taking batting practice, all that, because I didn't want to deal with it before the game. Right. I wanted it to unfold and then uh to spend as much time after the game's over. Let's not let's not mess the game up. They didn't announce that I wasn't playing, they didn't put a new lineup up on the board. Uh so when I came out to the dugout, it wasn't until we took the field that people realized that I wasn't there. He's not on the field. And yeah, but you know, the cool part about it was, and I'm and I replay this in my mind, and I haven't talked to Joe Torre about this, and I should. I keep thinking I'll I'll ask him at the Hall of Fame. The umpires had to exchange lineup cards. So the first real indication that you weren't playing was in the lineup card.

Mike Koser:

Oh, right. So Joe Torre would have had to have known at home plate, right?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Yeah. And unless you didn't look at the lineup card, unless he was just talking to the uh and so when he came back, I noticed in the dugout that it seemed like the Yankees knew first. You know, my team knew, but I mean the Yankees uh of all the people, and uh you look over and I saw Derek from the dugout because we haven't taken the field yet, and they all went up to stood on the top step of the dugout and started clapping, and then that sort of moved all the way around the uh stadium, like this the realization that this was happening. There's a funniest part of that story is Ryan Minor was the guy that replaced me right at third, and he thought it was a rookie prank. He didn't want to take the field, and I had to convince him, I go, No, this is for real, dude. Run out there and have a good game, run out there and take the field. But he was hesitant all the way up, kept looking over his shoulder, and he finally ran out on the field.

Mike Koser:

You were inducted into the baseball hall of fame along with Tony Gwynn in 2007. On the weekend of the ceremony, the Otasaka Resort Hotel in Cooperstown becomes this sort of exclusive hotel for members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. At one point after the ceremony, just before the players' dinner, Johnny Bench comes up to you and says, Hey, look, I need five minutes of your time. He takes you out to the iconic porch of the hotel, the one with all of the rocking chairs overlooking the water, and he sits down and he has you on one side and Tony Gwynn on the other. And what does he say to both of you?

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So I guess to give you the context is that there's all kinds of stories that uh like a hazing story or um like initiation. Initiation to get uh into the uh the exclusive club and all that kind of stuff. But I always thought, I mean, everybody that's in the Hall of Fame, you're 50 years away. I mean, what was I 41 when I retired? So I'm 46 years old. Right. You know, going through, and I think it's ridiculous period for any team to go through that sort of initiation. I don't think demeaning someone else or embarrassing someone else is a way to bring them into the fold. I think the veterans should be bringing the young people in and taking care of them, and then bringing them along, and their job should be taking care of the next one. So I was super sensitive about that because I don't like it. And Tony Gwynn was telling me along the way is that Johnny was kind of particularly hard on him because Johnny's got a good sense of humor and uh he's really quick, and sometimes he's got an edge to him. Um, Tom Seaver, like Tom Seaver had an edge to him that way too, that made you suspicious of those kind of guys.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

And so Johnny came to me before the speech and he said, At the end of this thing, I'll need five minutes of time. My immediate response to Johnny was like, Oh yeah, what what do you want to talk about? And I was and I was looking at him like, and he goes, No, don't you worry about it, just uh I'll tell you when. So I was really suspicious. So then after it's all over, Johnny comes up while we're sitting up there at the cocktail hour and says, Okay, I need five minutes of your time. And so I went and he goes, Sit here, and Tony Gwynn sat on the other side in rocking chairs, and I'm looking around thinking I'm gonna get a pie in the face or something's gonna happen to me, you know, and I'm I'm very uncomfortable. You know, people are behind me, and I'm I'm thinking, what is this? You know, and I'm bothered and I'm physically bothered. And then he starts sitting there and said, just rock back in your chair, look out over the lake. I know you've been pulled in all kinds of directions for a long time, but think how cool it is to be here right now. When I first came in, someone did this for me, and then we sat back or whatever else, and we took a moment to ourselves, you know, give you a moment to yourself to realize how special this is. And then I felt like a jerk. I felt like I didn't allow myself to enjoy that moment because I was suspicious of what was gonna happen to me. So it turned out to be a really good moment. Now, over the years, some of that has died down. I think Johnny missed one of the one of the events. I think it was just recently, two or three years ago. I said, Johnny, you still do that? He goes, No, it's too hard, man. Look at them. There's six or eight of them out there, they can't get them. It's like it's like herding cats trying to get them up here. And I go, I think it's cool. We get them up here. You, will you do it? And he says, sure. And so we took their initiative to go tell the players to come up. And then I guess two by two, if there were six people that gone in that year, you know, one was on each side of Johnny, and I Johnny did his thing. And uh I think it's pretty cool. So I think that that tradition should be preserved. Yeah. And Johnny's the perfect guy to do it.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, what a moment. Uh well, listen, Cal, I really appreciate the time. You know, what a career. In addition to the streak, I mean, 19-time All-Star AL rookie of the year, two-time AL MVP, 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, gold glove winner, obviously, eight-time silver slur. I mean, the list is endless. And so it's an amazing career. And uh, I'm just honored that you uh spent some time with us reflecting on it and talking about some of the great old lost ballparks that you played at.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So you're so you're talking about uh all these different awards and all that kind of stuff. Recently, because of COVID, I went to um the storage area and I started looking because I didn't throw any stuff out. And I started looking through and I figured I'll organize uh some of this stuff and I'll know what I have. And I was really seriously concerned. I thought I lost my 2131 uniform that um the first one for the first four innings. I couldn't find it anywhere. I'd loaned it to different museums, Ripken Museum, Babe Ruth Museum, the Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame had the second one, and we found that really easily. And I'm going, where's the first one? And for the longest time I couldn't find it. And finally you open a box that was mismarked and you look down in it, and there it was. And so there was a there was a happy moment that some of these things that are your stuff reminds you of these special moments, and the physical part of that was uh was important. So you gotta put that in the frame and put that up on the wall, man. Well, I know. So well, I I think I'm gonna put it in safekeeping with one of the museums and I didn't not lose track of where it is. Right. I think what happened was the Ripken Museum closed and they just packed up all the stuff and sent it to the uh storage thing. So I I didn't know where it was for the longest time. And it was it was bumming me out when I was looking through the uh storage thing.

Mike Koser:

Out of all the things that you have from your career, what is the if you could only keep one thing, what is the one thing that you're like, okay, this one I don't want, I want to make sure I hold on to this.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

I set that set myself up for that one, huh? Yeah. There's two things that I have that I think are really special. I caught the last out of the World Series in '83, and I had the ball. You know, they saw a fan tried to take it out of my hand when they ran on the field in Philadelphia, and I had to kind of fight them off for that. So I have that. It's it's symbolic of your dream as a player is to play in the big leagues, but also what's it feel like to win the World Series? And when I caught that last out, a feeling of satisfaction, fulfillment came over me like no other one. So I really love that ball. And Jim Gott gave me a ball from the first day of the streak. The streak started officially May 30th, 1982. Jim Gott uh pitched against us and he got his first major league win from that game. And so then he got the ball, you know, uh for his first major league win. And in 1995, I don't know how it happened, he presented me the ball. This is the from the first game. It's probably the only thing from the first game of the streak. And I'd like to give this to you. And I go, dude, this is your first, this is your memory. This is your first win. You keep that. You know, I don't, I don't want to take that. And he insisted, he goes, No, I would be honored if you would take that. We we we love um being a part of this and what it means and all that kind of stuff. So that's a pretty special gesture um to give up his uh first first win in the big leagues uh ball. Uh could because it represented the first game of the streak.

Mike Koser:

What a great story.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

So it's cool. 

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

My 19 all-star rings are pretty cool too.

Mike Koser:

Hey, Cal, thanks so much, man.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

My pleasure. Thanks for letting me go to memory lane.

Mike Koser:

All the best to you and your family. Have a great day.

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

Okay, you too.

Mike Koser:

Now, look, I will tell you that when I started this podcast a few months ago, I sat down at our kitchen table and I wrote down roughly 75 names of former players and broadcasters that I wanted to talk to for the podcast. There were 10 names at the very top of that wish list that I highlighted and put stars by. Cal Ripken Jr. was one of those .

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Mike Koser

Host