Cal Ripken Jr, baseball’s Iron Man, is nearly 52 years old but still working hard

How do you measure success now?

Personal Post

Baseball has taught me you move the ball forward, continue to work and continue to have successes. It’s the accumulation of those successes that make it all worthwhile. In the business world, it’s like I gave everyone a 20-year head start on me. I don’t expect to know everything; it is all learning to me. Hopefully, I will continue to learn and continue to move the ball forward, incrementally.

Success is in the process. It is in the execution. It is in the operation. It is in the day-to-day. You can have a plan, a plan to work off of, but plans evolve and change ever so slightly through the game action. We call each and every day a game. In my world I had a game every day. Granted, there’s not an event every day, but it is the same process.

What keeps you going?

When I finished my baseball career, I was 41. At 41 you’re young, but in baseball some people think you are too old to play, so you are pushed out that way. If you have made some money and saved some money, you have choices. Some people look at me and say: I thought you’d be in pajamas all day or you would be playing golf all the time, leading a life of leisure. I am thinking, where is the meaning in that?

To me what keeps you vital is: You don’t live each day remembering who you were. Baseball almost seems like another lifetime ago. You need to do something that makes you feel good day-to-day. Just as you have a sense of accomplishment as a baseball player each and every day — you have a goal to win a game or success as a hitter or make good plays in the field — I need to feel I am accomplishing something.

Business and kids business give me that chance. I am comfortable with the business of baseball. I am very astute at how kids think in the game of baseball. The whole business concept was to provide a whole big league experience for kids.

They all want to be professional baseball players, but only 1 percent of all people can fulfill that dream, so you want to bring that experience to all the other kids who don’t have a chance. In Aberdeen, we have a mini Camden Yards. Ours is a two-thirds size field with a big brick building like the warehouse. Some big left-handed kids can hit the warehouse. It is a great feeling. We have a mini-Fenway. Kids can get the sensation of watching the Orioles play in Boston.

What is left that you want to do?

The clock seems to tick a lot faster when you get older! I used to think five years was an eternity. It seemed a long way off. Now it is a planning cycle. What’s next? I’m not sure. Definitely, I am in a transition time of my life. Both my kids are going to be out of the house. My wife, Kelly, and I will be empty-nesters, which then could provide opportunity, or there could be a lot of emptiness. I’m not sure yet. I look at it in a positive way.

What advice did your dad give you that you give to your children?

The most important thing a dad can give his kid is confidence. I remember an expression my dad used to tell me when I went away to play pro ball: No matter where they send you, know you belong. It’s a simple thing, one that I didn’t fully realize at the time. I was a 17-year-old kid when I was drafted; some of the other guys were 22, 23, 24, and you think, “What am I doing here, these guys are better than me.” Then you remember the comment that your dad said and you see the significance. Know that you belong.

I always thought there was a burden on my kids. People expect more of them athletically. My daughter is a wonderfully graceful athlete but wasn’t a competitive one. She is a wonderful skier. Early in school, sometimes, gym teachers were expecting her to be the star of the field hockey or the star of the lacrosse team. [They wondered] why isn’t she more motivated to play basketball? It put a burden on her. Then with my son, who did like competitive sports, that burden went everywhere with him. He is under scrutiny a lot more. I can’t shelter or protect him from it, but I can help give perspective.