Ripkens Youth Baseball Field At Memorial Stadium Now Open

It was 19 years ago — and about 30 degrees warmer — when Cal and Billy Ripken played in the last game at Memorial Stadium. But on Tuesday, when they replanted home plate in its old spot off East 33rd Street, the past returned as if on a welcome summer breeze.

"It does make you think of all the memories you have of playing here," Cal Ripken Jr., said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new youth baseball diamond opening in the old home of Baltimore's Orioles and Colts.

"My favorite one is hitting my first home run and shaking Dad's hand," Ripken said of his father, Cal Sr., then the third base coach and later manager of the Orioles. "No words were exchanged, but it was a good moment for a dad and a son."
Joining the Ripkens to cut the red ribbon stretched across the new home plate were Gov. Martin O'Malley, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and other supporters of the $1.5 million project.

The funds were raised by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, which was started by the Ripken brothers in honor of their late father and dedicated to bringing baseball to disadvantaged youths. The project received $400,000 from the state's Program Open Space funds.
"What a fitting tribute to have on this hallowed ground," O'Malley said.

The park will return sports, albeit at the amateur level, to a site that was home to so many great Baltimore pro teams. The diamond has a removable center field fence that will enable it to be converted to a football field — in the same orientation as the gridiron on which the Colts played.

Tuesday's ribbon-cutting was the first time former Baltimore Colt Joe Ehrmann had been back since his playing days.

"It gets your adrenalin pumping," the former lineman said of stepping back on the grounds. "You can hear the band playing in the recesses of your mind. It's great to reclaim this field."

With new housing and other buildings surrounding the site, he and the other former Memorial Stadium denizens at the ribbon-cutting said it took a couple of minutes to get reoriented. But once they did, the details were as clear as if they'd happened yesterday.

"The stadium was rocking," Cal Ripken said, remembering the heart-stopping end to the 1982 season when the Orioles were three games behind Milwaukee with four games to go. "We beat them in a doubleheader. We win Saturday. We're all tied up. The fans come with brooms. We have Jim Palmer on the mound."

Despite the 10-2 loss and the end of the season, Ripken said he still thinks of that series when he drives past 33rd Street. Now, he hopes the kids who will play there will make memories of their own.

Called Youth Development Park, it is the first of 18 such facilities that the foundation plans to open in at-risk communities in six states. This one is to be managed by the adjacent Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Family Center Y at Stadium Place.

Morgan Scroggings, 12, a student at the nearby Stadium School, was among a group of kids who attended the ceremony and said he looked forward to playing on the field. Maybe not baseball, though.

"I played it once. It's fun, but not as exciting as other sports," he shrugged. "I play football and basketball, and I wrestled for five years."

Which is probably OK with Cal Ripken, who says the park is more than a place for kids to play sports.

"You just want them to find themselves," Ripken said. "You just want them to grow and develop into being good, productive citizens."
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Cal Ripkin, Jr. And Orioles Celebrate Anniversary

Cal Ripken Jr. was never big on self-promotion as a Hall of Fame player for the Orioles and though his name is now attached to a stadium in Aberdeen, a street outside of Camden Yards and a youth baseball league, he is still not one to remind anyone of his greatest career achievement.

The 15th anniversary of that achievement — breaking Lou Gehrig's legendary streak of 2,130 straight games — was marked before Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays with Ripken, who recently turned 50, throwing a perfect strike from the pitcher's mound to Orioles utility player Jake Fox.

It was 15 years ago Monday that Ripken broke Gehrig's streak, Baltimore's Iron Man passing New York's Iron Horse.
"It seems like time has gone by really, really fast," Ripken told reporters in the press box after Sunday's ceremony. "I only realize it when I look at the age of my kids. In many other ways, it seems like the whole night that happened out here is just a couple of years ago. But 15 years? We all get old. Time goes by much faster when you leave the game then when you play it."

But the memories of that night against the California Angels , highlighted by Ripken's impromptu victory lap around the stadium high-fiving with fans, remain.

"I have a special memory, a special feel of it from inside my spikes," Ripken said. "It was a wonderful human moment, a wonderful family moment, a great baseball moment. But I guess the farther you get removed from it, in some ways it feels like maybe it wasn't you who did.
Though it seems doubtful that anyone will ever break Ripken's record, the man who played every game for 16 straight seasons in a 21-year career thinks it can be done.

"I sit inside my own shoes and say, 'If I can do it, certainly somebody else can'," Ripken said. "Somebody else can come along with grit and determination to go out and play every day. It's not much different playing 162 or playing 158 or 155. Looking back on it, the years went by fast and it was pretty remarkable that I was able to stay healthy."

What was also remarkable was how far Gehrig's record Ripken wound up going, playing in an additional 502 straight before stopping late in the 1998 season. Ripken retired in 2001.

"I think it was important for me to keep playing with the same attitude that I did coming into that record-breaking night," Ripken said. "I never set out to break the record. It wasn't my goal. I wasn't hopeful that it would be my identity. I thought it was the right way to approach the game. My Dad was there to enforce that sort of approach; you come to the ballpark; you're an everyday player and if the manager wants you to play, you play."

The late Cal Ripken Sr. remains very much a part of his son's life. As the famous son sat in the dugout with Orioles coach John Shelby before Sunday's game, an image of his father flashed on the big screen in centerfield, looking down as he did from a private box the night Gehrig's record was broken.

"I got a great charge of seeing him today," Ripken said.

Ripken admits that Buck Showalter's hiring as Orioles manager has strengthened his interest in his old team – and the possibility of becoming involved in an official capacity once the younger of his two children goes off to college. Ryan Ripken is a junior at Gilman. "Buck turns on my baseball brain," Ripken said. "I had a chance to sit and talk with him when he came up to Aberdeen to watch [Manny] Machado up there perform. Our conversations wouldn't be that interesting to other people. I always thought Buck was one of the best baseball guys I ever had a chance to talk to. I still have my timetable… and I still value the flexibility and the time that I have now, and you wouldn't have that if you came back to the big-league scene."

As befitting Ripken's style, Sunday's ceremony was brief, though he received a warm ovation from the crowd.

There was no victory lap this time.

"You can't recreate that moment that happened," Ripken said. "I was embarrassed to take the lap that night. I'd be extra embarrassed to take it even now."
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Baseball Birthday Today

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY "IRON MAN" CAL RIPKIN, JR.

Cal Ripken Jr. played for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981-2001 and was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2007. From May 30, 1982, through Sept. 19, 1998, Ripken played in a string of 2,632 consecutive games, a major league record that is known as "The Streak." On Sept. 6, 1995, he played in his 2,131st straight game, breaking Lou Gehrig's record and becoming baseball's Iron Man. Ripken was a 19-time All Star and two-time Most Valuable Player. He finished his career with 3,184 hits and 431 home runs. Ripken was named the American League Rookie of the Year in 1982 after hitting 28 home runs. "The Streak" began on May 30, 1982, when manager Earl Weaver started him at third base. The next season, he earned his first All-Star berth and was named the AL MVP, hitting .318 with 27 homers and 102 RBIs. The Orioles won the World Series that season, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.
Ripken played every inning of every game in 1983. In 1987, Ripken's dad Cal Ripken Sr. became manager of the Orioles, and his brother Bill was called up from Triple-A Rochester. In 1990, Ripken began his major-league record streak of 95 straight games without an error. Ripken won his second AL MVP in 1991.
He also won a Gold Glove, was named MVP of the All-Star Game and won the All-Star home run contest that year. On Sept. 6, 1995, he broke Gehrig's streak and hit a home run against the California Angels. Ripken received a long standing ovation at Oriole Park at Camden Yards while he took a lap around the stadium, high-fiving fans. On July 15, 1996, Ripken started at third base for the first time since 1982. Ripken ended "The Streak" on Sept. 20, 1998, against the New York Yankees. Rookie Ryan Minor took his place at third base.


On June 19, 2001, Ripken announced his retirement.
Ripken was born in Havre de Grace, Md., on Aug. 24, 1960. The Orioles selected him in the second round of the 1978 draft. After retiring, he began Ripken Baseball, a sales and marketing company based in Baltimore that represents his business and philanthropic efforts, along with his brother Bill.

He is married to wife Kelly and has two kids -- a daughter, Rachel, born in 1989, and a son, Ryan, born in 1993.



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