Posts Tagged ‘cal ripken’

Ripken Card Montage

I once aspired to collect every Cal Ripken card ever made…that was until I realized there were like seven thousand different ones. If you have 15 minutes to kill you can see all (or at least most) of them in amazing detail.

Cheers and Hail

Cal Ripken Jr…Skipper?

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Radio Cal Ripken expressed an interest in returning to the game as a major league manager. Ripken was quoted as saying, “I’m starting to think about it a little more now. When my boy goes off to college, if there’s a time to come back to the game, maybe that’s the time.”

I’ll be honest, I’ve never pictured my favorite athlete of all-time managing, despite the fact that he was born and bred to do it. I picture Cal as the G.M. or the owner of a MLB team, not an actual field coach…I see his brother Billy as a manager. And when we talk about Cal having any position with a MLB team, whether it be manager, G.M. or owner…it has to be with the Orioles…right? I can’t see Cal becoming the manager of the Marlins or the Nats.

This is a make or break year for Dave Trembley, regardless of Cal’s words. Anything less than .500 will probably lead to Trembley’s dismissal. Would Andy Macphail be confident enough to hire Cal to be the manager? Cal would certainly demand more power than any other manager…ever. And how much money would it take? A S-load. And every crab eating O’s fan out there is going to clamouring for Cal to be the next manager, any other choice and the B&O Warehouse will be receiving bomb threats.

For the record Cal’s son Ryan is only a sophomore in high school, so by Cal’s words we’re talking about 2 years from now. But, with Cal being on record as saying he would like to manage…let the countdown begin.

Cheers and Hail

Aug 24/25 Happy Bday Cal Ripken And Albert Belle

Happy birthday Cal Ripken. What more can I say about Cal? He’s my all-time favorite athlete in any sport. What more can you say about his stats? He’s a 19 time, yes… 19 time All-Star selection. One of only 8 players to have 300+ HR’s and 3000+ hits. 82 ROY, 2 time MVP and Hall of famer. Simply the greatest shortstop of all-time. In retirement Cal has been very busy. He (along with brother Bill) has started many business ventures under the Ripken Baseball umbrella. Minor league teams, books, memorabilia, public speaker, commercial endorser and more. His vision of growing baseball at the grass roots level has blossomed into hundreds of thousands of children learning to baseball “The Ripken Way.” Happy 49th Mr. Ripken.

Happy birthday Albert (Joey) Belle. Albert signed a 5yr-$65 million contract with the Orioles prior to the 1999 season. I remember him hitting an opposite field home run at Camden Yards in the opening game that season…I turned to Porkboy and said “he’s gonna hit 162 this year!” Ooops. Albert was on the Orioles payroll from 1999-2003, although he only was active in the 99-00 seasons. During his 2 seasons with the O’s Albert hit 60 dongs and drove in 220, so that was a little over $1 million per homerun. Albert developed an arthritic hip that cut his career with the Orioles short. He is one of only 5 MLB players (Ruth, Foxx, Gehrig & Pujols) to hit 30+ HR’s and drive in 100+ in 8 consecutive seasons. In retirement Albert got big as a house and started stalking escorts. Happy 43rd Mr. Belle.

Cheers and Hail

Taking A Rip At Ripken

We all have a professional athlete that’s our favorite, one that’s just on a different level from all the rest. For me, it’s Cal Ripken, hands down. So when I was surfing the web a few years ago and stumbled across Ripken Baseball’s fantasy camp, I knew I had to go.

So that’s how it came to be that I dug in to the box to bat against Cal Ripken. He wasn’t throwing batting practice puss. No, Cal was mixing it up. Our count ran to 3-2 before I laced my frozen rope down the 3rd base line. Fastballs and curveballs up and down, in and out. And then…boom. Being the competitor that Cal is, my second time up he threw me change up that almost made me throw my back out. The double comes around the 15 sec mark, and check out the stache on my teammate.

And I came back the following year to have that catch with Cal. I guess all he needed was a good battery mate to fix his pitching problems. He pitched a two hit shutout.

Round trip airfare from Tampa to Baltimore…$250

Cheers and Hail

The Six Degrees Of Fatpickled

Six Degrees of Fatpickled is a weekly rundown of 6 items that I have enjoyed. Make sure you check them out.

How could I write a blog about partying with athletes, and not include this guy? (Deadspin)

Darrius Heyward-Bey is s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g. (Shutdown Corner)

Comcast sports reporter Lisa Hillary sees a rat at Verizon Center during live broadcast. (DC Sports Bog)

Cal Ripken wins big at the Derby with Mine That Bird. (Baltimore Sun) Also won in 2006 with Barbaro, both horses won from post position 8.

I have a love hate relationship with Peter King, this week (like most)…hate. (SI.com)

The last sports team that made me truly happy, thank you Juan Dixon. (YouTube)

Cheers and Hail

Fantasy Thoughts Of The Week (that don’t include Audrina Patridge)

Studs