Calvin Edwin Ripken (December 17, 1935 – March 25, 1999) was an American baseball player, scout, coach and manager who spent 36 years in the Baltimore Orioles organization. He played in the Orioles' farm system beginning in 1957, and later served as coach and manager of the parent club, on which his sons Cal Jr. and Billy played.
Born near Aberdeen, Maryland, which he called home throughout his life, Ripken joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1957 as a minor league player. He spent the next 36 years in the organization, mainly as a coach, with only one season and seven games coming as a manager. As a manager in the minor leagues for 13 years, Ripken won 964 games, and later compiled a 68–101 record managing the Orioles. Several of his students, including Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, and most prominently his son Cal Jr., went on to Hall of Fame careers. He was credited for helping sculpt his team's tradition of excellence known as "The Oriole Way".
Early life
Ripken was born December 17, 1935, near Aberdeen, Maryland, in a general store his parents, Clara Amelia (Oliver) and Arend Fredrick Ripken, owned south of Aberdeen. He became involved in baseball as early as 1946, when he served as the batboy for a semipro team his older brother Oliver played for.
He attended Aberdeen High School, where he helped the baseball team win three county championships and go undefeated in 1952. As a player, he was a catcher. In the late 1950s, he also played and coached soccer, once helping his team win 17 straight games. However, as former teammate J. Robert Hooper recalled, "We couldn't win the championship because Rip was in spring training."
Ripken spent 1960 with the Fox Cities Foxes of the Class B Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League, known as the Three-I League. He had his best season that year, batting a career-high .281 with 100 hits, nine home runs, and 74 RBI. Earl Weaver, eventually a Hall of Fame manager for the Orioles but manager of Fox Cities in 1960, recalled, "He was hitting over .300 until our team bus driver quit and Cal started doing his job, too. The 15-hour bus trips were strenuous work, but Rip always was hard as nails – toughness personified." During spring training in 1961, he suffered an injury after several foul tips went off his shoulder. Initial X-rays showed nothing, but three months into the season it was discovered that Ripken had a dislocated shoulder, an atrophied deltoid muscle, and a tendon problem. He appeared in 58 games with the Class D Appleton Foxes in 1962, and played his final games in 1964, when he made two appearances for the Class A Aberdeen Pheasants of the Northern League. Leesburg folded after the 1961 season. During 1969–70, managing a Triple-A team, he conducted baseball clinics for the Red Wings players. Cal Jr. always listened to these; he found them "boring" but did learn some useful baseball skills in them. Although Ripken always considered Aberdeen, Maryland, his home during this period, he and his family lived all over the country as he moved from city to city. In 1975, Ripken served as a scout for the Orioles.
Coaching
thumb|left|upright=0.9|Ripken Sr. in 1977
In 1976, Ripken finally reached the major leagues when the Orioles named him their bullpen coach. Halfway through 1977, he became the third base coach for the Orioles when Billy Hunter was hired to be the manager of the Texas Rangers. Ripken served in this role through the 1986 season. During this time, and even later when he became a manager, he pitched batting practice and hit fungoes before games. Four years later, Ripken earned a World Series ring as the Orioles won the 1983 World Series in five games over the Philadelphia Phillies.
In 1981, Ripken got to coach his own son as Cal Jr. reached the major leagues. He always downplayed the father-son relationship, saying in 1981 spring training, "There isn't any father-son relationship here. I managed 14 years in the minors, including 1967 right in Miami, and saw hundreds of kids. They're all my sons, more or less. On this field or on this club, my son is just another ballplayer to me. I have a job and a life and so does he."
Managing
Overview
thumb|left|upright=0.9|Cal Ripken Sr. coaching for the Baltimore Orioles during pre-game batting practice before a game a Memorial Stadium, circa 1980s
After 1982, Weaver retired, and Ripken hoped to be a candidate for the managerial position. The Orioles announced they wanted someone with many years of experience for the job, but they went with Joe Altobelli instead. After Altobelli was fired in 1985, Ripken finally got his chance to manage, but it was only for one game in the absence of Weaver, who came out of retirement.
Immediately following the 1986 season, Weaver retired for good, and Ripken was named manager of the Orioles. The Orioles were coming off their first last-place finish in Baltimore, but Ripken expressed confidence in the team at the beginning of the 1987 season, saying, "I know these guys can get the job done. I may be hardheaded, but that's what I believe. We'll be a competitive team." The Orioles got off to a slow start in April 1987, going 9–12 while losing seven of nine games in one stretch. However, the ballclub improved in May, moving over .500 while setting a May record with 56 home runs. In June, the team fell out of contention, dropping to 28–36, their worst start since 1955. Pitching plagued the club; Harvey Rosenfeld wrote it was "the root cause of the Orioles' problems." In 1987, Ripken became the first—and still only—father to manage two sons simultaneously in the majors, as his son Billy was called up at the All-Star break. Ripken managed Cal Jr. and Billy for the first time on July 11, in a 2–1 loss to the Minnesota Twins. The Havre de Grace Record wrote, "The Ripkens of Aberdeen became the first family of sports." On September 14, during a 17–3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Ripken substituted Cal Jr. with Ron Washington after the eighth inning, ending Cal Jr.'s major-league record streak of 8,243 consecutive innings played. Senior said after the game, "I've been thinking about it for a long time. I wanted to take the monkey off his back. It was my decision, not his." The Orioles finished sixth in the American League East at 67–95, setting a team record with 51 home losses.
Ripken stressed "patience" to begin the 1988 season, saying, "We can't just go from the bottom to the top in the snap of a finger ... Have patience and stick with the Birds and root for the Birds." After the Orioles lost six consecutive games to begin the 1988 season, Ripken was fired. Several years later, he said, "It was very difficult to accept. I had been in the organization. I had worked my way up to the big leagues. I spent my life with the Orioles." The move "hurt" and "bothered" Cal Jr., but he worked through it and remained with the team for 13 more seasons, the rest of his career. Billy switched his number from 3 to 7, saying, "I just didn't want to see anybody else wear it." Ripken finished his managerial record with a record of 68 wins and 101 losses.
Managerial record
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+Managerial history of Cal Ripken Sr. Brady Anderson, who played for the Orioles from 1988 through 2001 and hit 50 home runs in 1996, credited Ripken for helping him make it with the Orioles: "I'll never forget earlier in my career how Cal Sr. stayed with me, trying to help me become a better player when it might not have been the fashionable thing to do within the organization." The Orioles offered him the brand new position of coordinator of minor league field operations, but he declined, disappointed at being removed from third base. Ripken maintained that he was not retired, but he never coached professionally again. A heavy smoker who once refuted a claim that he sat in back of team buses to be alone by saying he did so to "smoke cigarettes", Ripken died on March 25, 1999, at the age of 63 from lung cancer, seventeen days after the death of Joe DiMaggio. He was buried five days later, at Baker Cemetery in Aberdeen. A plaque hangs in the Orioles dugout at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to honor his long and distinguished career, and the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League is named in his honor.
Legacy
Altogether, Ripken spent 36 years in the Baltimore Orioles organization, serving as a player, a scout, a coach, and a manager. He is remembered for helping bring about "The Oriole Way", Baltimore's tradition of excellence. Elrod Hendricks, another longtime Oriole coach who kept in touch with Ripken throughout the years, said "He was baseball and baseball was him."
Personal life
thumb|Vi and Cal Ripken Sr. in 1996
Ripken was married to Violet ("Vi"), whom he met in high school. Billy, while not quite as successful as his brother, played 12 years in the major leagues. Cal Sr. also had two older brothers, Oliver and Bill.
Violet Ripken was kidnapped at gunpoint and safely returned on July 24, 2012. On October 15, 2013, a man with a handgun attempted to steal her car, but she scared him away. Lieutenant Frederick Bundick, spokesman for the Aberdeen Police, said the two incidents appeared unrelated. Cal Jr. offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the kidnapper on August 1, 2013.
References
Bibliography
Footnotes