Cal Ripken, Jr.

Calvin Edwin Ripken, Jr. (born August 24, 1960 in Havre de Grace, Maryland, is a former shortstop and third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001. A 19-time MLB All-Star, Ripken is considered one of the best shortstops to ever play the game. At 6' 4" (1.93 m), he pioneered the way for the taller and larger shortstops. He was raised in Aberdeen, Maryland, a town near Havre de Grace, by a baseball family. His father, Cal Sr., was a long-time coach in baseball who managed the Orioles in the late 1980s. Ripken attended Aberdeen High School as did his brother Billy, who later played second base for various teams, including the Orioles. He has two other siblings, Elly and Fred. He is married to the former Kelly Geer and has a daughter, Rachel, born in 1989 and a son, Ryan, born in 1993.

Ripken is best known as baseball's "Iron Man" , playing in a record 2,632 straight games, spanning sixteen seasons, from May 30, 1982 to September 20, 1998. He played his 2131st consecutive game on September 6, 1995, against the California Angels, breaking the 56-year-old record set by the "Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig, the legendary New York Yankees first baseman who ended his playing streak after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Ripken was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility on January 9, 2007.

Cal Ripken retired on October 6, 2001 and paid for a new stadium in Aberdeen, MD. He is a part owner of the Aberdeen IronBirds, the Single-A Rookie affiliate minor league baseball team associated with the Orioles. On June 28, 2005, he announced that he was also purchasing the Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League, an A-level affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Ripken has also made donations to charity causes, including many donations supporting research on Lou Gehrig's disease. He and his brother Billy also formed the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation to give underprivileged children the opportunity to attend baseball camps around the country and learn the game. The Foundation is a branch of Ripken Baseball. In addition to controlling these camps and Ripken's minor league teams, Ripken Baseball controls for-profit camps and designs ballfields for youth, college, and professional teams. He also gives speeches about his time in baseball and some of the lessons he has learned. Ripken publishes a weekly advice column in the Baltimore Sun.

Currently, Ripken is promoting his own line of baseball training videos. On January 10, 2007, Ripken expressed interest in purchasing the Baltimore Orioles if current owner Peter Angelos were to sell the team. He has yet to be approached about the potential purchase of the team.