Year 10 for Ripken, and No 'Ego Stuff'
By Richard Justice
Washington Post Staff Writer
February 28, 1991
SARASOTA, FLA., FEB. 27--Cal Ripken Jr. begins his 10th season with a pair of important new teammates, a new role and a new status. He's no longer the highest-paid Baltimore Oriole, and in a spring when Jim Palmer has reappeared, he's not even the most famous.
There's more. The hair above the temples is streaked with gray, and he admits the responsibilities that go with fatherhood have forced him to structure his offseason work -- and his life -- more than ever.
Yet while much has changed, much remains the same, especially the sheer joy that has gone into this decade-long journey. That was clear again today as the Orioles held their first full-squad workout and Ripken bounced through the day, literally sprinting through drills, smiling, signing autographs and looking very much like a man who would choose to do nothing else for a living.
He has become ever more reluctant to sit and talk about himself, but this afternoon after a long day on the field, he led two reporters to a corner of the spring clubhouse and talked about his love of the game, Glenn Davis, The Streak, whatever was asked.
"I sometimes feel embarrassed about the way I feel about this game,"he said."Maybe you get philosophical when you turn 30. It's embarrassing that I'm as bouncy as a little kid about being back here. I was out there today and wondered what Dewey Evans thought seeing me jump around like that and seeing how happy I was to have a baseball glove on. People notice that I like to have it on. I'm happy to feel like that. I'm tickled to death about it. After a long season, you're ready for a break, but by this time of the year you can't wait to start again."
He's special for many reasons, and not just for the numbers that have redefined offense for a shortstop and will someday send him to the Hall of Fame. He's special because of the way he approaches his job and the esteem in which he is held around baseball.
When the Orioles traded for Glenn Davis and signed him to a $3.275 million contract, they were making Davis their highest-paid player by almost $1 million.
They were also redefining Ripken's role.
Since Eddie Murray departed after the 1988 season, Ripken has been the most (and sometimes only) feared Oriole in the batting order. Now, with Davis and Evans, he may be a smaller part of a bigger overall picture, a situation that the Orioles hope will take some pressure off Ripken. He hit only .204 with runners in scoring position last season and his .250 batting average was 24 points below his career mark.
What hasn't changed is the amazing consistency. He has played 1,411 consecutive games -- second to Lou Gehrig's 2,130 -- and posted dazzling numbers, hitting between 21 and 28 home runs, driving in between 81 and 110 runs and averaging 70 walks the last nine seasons. He made three errors in 1990.
General Manager Roland Hemond said that in trying to get Davis he never once worried about how Ripken would react because he already knew.
"Cal has always been a professional in every sense of the word,"Hemond said.
Ripken was booed at times at Memorial Stadium last season, but dozens of baseball executives say he's pretty much a role model for what they want in a player. He's meticulous in his preparation, from the weightlifting to the pregame meal (4 1/2 hours before game time) to the pregame routine (back exercises, ground balls to loosen up his arm, etc.).
And he reacted to Davis's contract by inviting Davis to his house for pre-spring training in his hitting cage and lifting in his weight room.
"I disagree with the importance placed on the money,"Ripken said."I look at baseball as a profession with two parts. There's the part on the field, and that's my job. There's also the business side, and I don't have to take care of that. You get a good agent and you trust him. You maybe feel that you're lucky you get paid at all. When I'm on the field, I don't see someone for what their salary is. I just see another player. I look at us as all equal on the field.
"I know Glenn a little bit, and as far as I can tell, he feels the same way. He's got a job to do, playing first base and hitting cleanup. He wants to win and play a team game. It's weird to try and understand this game. . . . It's not like basketball where you rely on someone else to get you the ball. The ego stuff . . . I don't want to speak for him, but I just don't think that enters into it."
Ripken still remembers the fun of breaking into the big leagues with a lineup that had Murray, Ken Singleton, Al Bumbry and others.
Ripken wasn't The Star and he wasn't even counted on to be The Hitter. That changed two years ago when Murray was traded"and all of a sudden I looked up and I'm the only guy with a track record. I thought I had to do everything."
Ripken didn't enjoy a lot of things about last season. He admits he tried to do too much. At one point, he swung at every pitch, believing that if he didn't do the job, no one else would. At other times, he became selective and walked 82 times during the season.
"I still believe I can be a .300 hitter,"he said.
Finally, there's The Streak. He has played every Orioles game since May 30, 1982, and once strung together a record 8,243 consecutive innings.
"I know it's there and I have to talk about it,"he said."But the last impression I want people to have is that I'm obsessed by it. . . . Maybe it'll be important after the fact. I just come out to play."
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