Ebbetts Field
On the ball
Three dimensions of Fame
By DAVID BULLA
Ebbetts Field Editor
Forty is a peculiar age for someone who has spent most of his life around sports. Not only is one no longer a viable participant in most competitive sports, but now almost all of the best of one�s peer have said so long to the games people play.
After decades of benign neglect, golf, fishing and bowling make a lot of sense.
The two athletes with whom I have most identified in my four decades are reaching the end of the line. One, Larry Bird, has long been retired from the National Basketball Association as a player. The former Boston Celtic forward had to retire early because of a bad back. Every middle-aged person in the country who quit doing situps when they got to college knows the twinges that sent Bird to the sidelines for good. The last few seasons he has been back in pro basketball, though this time not as a player but as the coach of the Indiana Pacers after the Celtics decided to hire University of Kentucky coach Rick Pitino and snub the native of French Lick, Ind. Bird will coach his last NBA game in a month or two and retire to play golf in Florida.
Meanwhile, Cal Ripken Jr. is nearing the end of the line of a career that has seen him play in 2,632 consecutive games, hit 404 home runs (the most ever by a shortstop) and garner 3,000 hits -- getting the latter April 15 in Minneapolis. Ripken, 39, may well be playing in his last season. Perhaps he will play one more.
Yet he probably won�t play next year. Ripken, like Bird, has back problems. Ripken had off-season surgery on his back and is comfortable enough now to play baseball again. But now that he has three different credentials that will land him in the Hall of Fame, there�s no reason to play until his skills completely erode away.
Perhaps Ripken�s most incredible feat, though, is the fact that he�s played his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles. In the era of free agency, this is an anomaly. Pro baseball players are no longer identified with the cities in which they play. When you think of Williams, you think of Boston. When you think of DiMaggio, you think of New York. When you think of Banks, you think of Chicago. Certainly, the free agent era has enhanced players economically. Yet the price has been the fans� love affair for their teams� players. Fans certainly don�t associate Albert Belle with Baltimore, Roger Clemens with New York or Mo Vaughan with Anaheim.
That Ripken has lasted so long in Charm City shouldn�t be that surprising. After all, his first major hurdle was replacing Mark Belanger as the Orioles� everyday shortstop. Belanger, a wiry fellow, had great range and a nearly flawless glove. With Brooks Robinson playing to Belanger�s right at third base, opposition hitters faced the best left side of the infield in baseball history. If Belanger had been anything more than a .228 hitter, he would have made it entirely impossible for Ripken to succeed him.
Ripken, of course, came up as a third baseman. At 6-foot-5 with a strong arm, he was perfect for the job. However, in 1982 Orioles� manager Earl Weaver had a hunch: this kid is so good he might be better at shortstop. After all, Belanger had retired after the �81 season and the Orioles needed an everyday shortstop who could hit. Lenn Sakata was a good fielder and a decent hitter, but he didn�t have very much power. Thus, Weaver inserted Ripken at short on an everyday basis.
Weaver didn�t get to see the fruits of his decision pay off. After the Orioles lost the American League�s Eastern Division to the Brewers on the final day of the �82 season, Weaver retired. The next season Baltimore won the World Series. The American League�s most valuable player was one Cal Ripken Jr. He had a league-leading 211 hits, 121 runs and 47 doubles. He also had 27 homers and 102 runs batted in.
In the post-Weaver era, the Orioles have not been the pernennial contenders that they were in the 1960s, �70s and early �80s. In fact, there have been only three competitive seasons since the �83 world�s championship. Yet the franchise is oddly much more successful now than it was when Weaver donned jersey No. 4 on 33rd Street. Back then the Birds occasionally drew more than 2 million fans a season to Memorial Stadium. Since they moved to Oriole Park at Camden Yards near the revitalized Inner Harbor in downtown in 1992, no Oriole team has played before less than 3 million in any season. One of the main reasons, other than the amenities of the Disney World-like theme park on the corner of Russell and Camden, has been the presence of No. 8. As closely associated as Michael Jordan became with Chicago, Ripken is even more closely associated with Baltimore. Ripken�s father, Cal Ripken Sr., was a long-time Orioles� coach and briefly their manager. His brother Billy also played for the Birds. Cal and Billy were raised a half hour northeast of Memorial Stadium.
So when Ripken hangs up his spikes for the last time, perhaps in October, he will leave behind a mile of memories: the blare of �What a Feeling� being played on the public address system at Memorial Stadium; the roar of Section 34 in Memorial as Wild Bill Hagy led the spelling of O-R-I-O-L-E-S; the histrionics of Weaver as he discussed another call with an umpire; the smell of McCormick�s spices at Oriole Park; the delivery of P.A. man Rex Barney�s �Give that fan a contract�; the cleansing feeling of a Maryland thunderstorm on a hot summer night; the relaxing tones of Jon Miller describing another Rip masterpiece in the hole, and that one magical night at OPACY when Ripken broke Lou Gerhig�s major-league consecutive games record.
Even if the Orioles have not been as great in the Cal era as they had been in the Robinson-Belanger era, it was a heckuva, whale-of-a time in the city on the Patapsco River. Time to start working on that Cooperstown speech, Cal. Suggested title: �Walking on Sunshine.�
But please, Cal, don't talk about bad backs, golf and bowling. Those of us who already are 40 are too familiar with those subjects.
| Disclaimer | About EF | Staff | Contact EF | Production | Search |
Back to Ebbetts Field homepage
� 2000 Ebbetts Field
[email protected]
Get your own Free Home Page