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MLB ALL-STAR GAMEJuly 10, 2007Cal Ripken, Jr.SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MIKE TEEVAN: We're very honored to have Mr. Cal Ripken here. In a couple of weeks, he will be the newest member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Congratulations. Q. What is it like for you to come here as the sort of Hall of Famer to be; you walk around now with a different sort of stature? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Hall of Fame in a great year, it's a great honor. I don't think anybody else looks at you totally differently from that point. I don't feel much differently. You are joining, I guess, the all-time game's All-Star Game, if I can use an All-Star Game analogy, game's best players in any given year are coming here, but in the Hall of Fame it's almost like you're creating an All-Star Team for all-time. It's a tremendous honor. It has been a year where people have been congratulating me and they react to me in an overly positive way because it's a celebration of baseball. I don't think things have changed. I like walking around and I enjoy being in the All-Star games. I was just in the American League clubhouse and saying hello to a couple of guys that I still knew. Most of the guys are in the coach's room, by the way, that I still know. (Laughter.) It's fun to be around the game and around this event. From my shoes it doesn't feel much different than any other year. Q. Have you come to this every year since you retired? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: No, I think I've been back, different corporate appearances, it's different reasons to come back. I enjoy being here. I think I've been to the All-Star Game every year, yes. Q. You're getting a lot of local attention back in Baltimore, you had the Cal Ripken Day in Hartford County not long ago and you have something coming up in Baltimore County. How are those viewed? Is it almost like another victory lap in a way around Camden Yards, get to go see people you know and things like that? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: The wonderful thing about the Hall of Fame celebration is that there are many pockets of celebration. Going back to Hartford County Day, that was a county I grew up in and they celebrated it with a nice parade and ceremony and wishing you well. I think everybody takes pride in the fact that -- in Hartford County that I came from there. But it's interesting, Baltimore County is where I live now. So it seems like those little pockets of celebration, they are just as special as the big one, and everybody wants to be a part of something as special as the induction to the Hall of Fame. Everyone I've talked to says they are going to the induction ceremony. I don't know how possibly all of the people I've spoken to are going to be up there. But it will be really cool that weekend to see all the people, because people do bring energy and it makes the event better. Q. Near the end of breaking Gehrig's record, you talked about the streak had become almost bigger than life in some ways. How do you look at it being away for a few years, and also when Tejada went down, the longest streak now is so far behind those numbers and doesn't appear anybody is going to challenge that. CAL RIPKEN, JR.: I was feeling really bad. Tejada was breathing down my neck for a minute, so I had him taken care of. (Laughter.) I never looked at the streak being larger than life, per se. From my shoes I played the game every single day and it was a challenge every day and while you're doing it you don't allow yourself to reflect and think about it and how hard it might be. When it's all finished you look back and say, I was lucky, I was lucky in a lot of ways. You get hurt in a hundred or thousand different ways and miss a game. I was able to bypass that and do it. So thinking about playing in all the games in that many years is more amazing now when you look back on it than having done it. But having said that, if I was able to do it, certainly somebody else can do it. I wasn't Superman by any means, and it takes a special set of circumstances, a little bit of stubbornness and a lot of luck, and it can be done. Q. In terms of putting things in perspective and looking back from your personal perspective on your impact and influence on the game, what stands out to you among the things that you're most proud of in terms of what you left behind in baseball and how you changed the game or impacted the game? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Well, I think all of us that play the game want to feel that we have left our mark a little bit or made a contribution or made the game somewhat, a little bit better than it was when you found it. I think that's everyone's goal and everyone's hope. We are all smart enough to know that the game of baseball is great and no one person makes it and no one person carries a load more than someone else. It's an accumulation of all the things that happen. One of the things I was proud about is that I played a role in the '95 season, and it was almost by timing that the World Series was cancelled; there was a strike in '94, and baseball was hurting a bit and a lot of people were angry and maybe not so willing to come back to the game. During the course of that streak, it seemed like that streak connected an era of baseball through Lou Gehrig and sort of a feeling that people started to come back and really look for something good in baseball. I think the streak in that particular year might have been a part of the puzzle that again, it became more of a celebration; it was a feel-good. I think a lot of people say that you played a role in bringing fans back to the game, and that makes me feel good; if I played a slight role by how we handled the streak and how we went through and celebrated baseball through the streak makes me feel good. Q. You said several times now that you're collecting your thoughts and trying to figure out what you're going to say and it's a process and everything else. Three weeks away, have you pretty much put it together and how hard has it been? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Well, I have an outline and a frame and put things down on paper. I wouldn't say it's refined by any means. For me, there's certain parts of it that's emotionally packed and I have to practice more times to get that emotion to a point where I think I can deliver a message. I'll probably lock myself in a room the last week and really start to get my mind around it. But I guess actually giving a speech, standing up there at that moment is probably like a live game; you really can't totally prepare for it. You can start to get your thoughts together and try to limit your mind how it might be, but the factors that come across when you're actually standing out there, I don't think you can totally prepare for. And so I'll do the best I can on the substance and the content of the words, then I'll just try to be able to figure out how to handle it emotionally and kind of, you know, get through it. I've seen other people, it is an emotional roller coaster when you thank all of the people and think about all of the people that were instrumental in your life to get you there. Eddie Murray made me cry, some other people made me tear up a little bit and they have teared up. So I understand it's an emotional time. And since my dad was such a big part of my career and who I became as a baseball player, it's pretty powerful. Q. Can you talk about your Iron Clad Memorabilia Company? Just tell me about its genesis and its purpose. CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Its genesis and its purpose; I think the collectible industry in itself I thought was always pretty cool. Just as maybe I collected pennies or looked at pennies when we were younger that had imperfections to find value, so you could find a coin that would be worth 30,000 bucks or something. Also some negativity, there's forgeries and cons so to speak in that base. Our effort was to make sure that any of your memorabilia was real and authenticated and you know that it was real. So it's an attempt -- I've used the collectible industry over the years for many good uses. It could be a lucrative way to raise money really quickly. You could put a lot of effort into a fund-raiser and try to get a certain amount of money, or you could decide to sign your name for a while and use that money to start a literacy program. So we've looked at those ways to say -- I'm a little bit more mature now. I don't have to think, okay, when you sign your name that I have to rationalize it for everybody else and say it's for charity. You can say, look, you have a reputation of doing good things and if you take the capital and decide to build kids fields, you're doing good stuff anyways, it's all good. So it's an attempt to connect the buyer or the person of the autographed memorabilia or the merchandise to the real thing and make sure you ensure that it is. Q. If I could ask you, Omar Vizquel, 40 years old and still playing shortstop; what do you think of that and do you think he's a Hall of Famer? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Well, he's one of the best shortstops I've ever seen. And athletically, he's a lot like Ozzie Smith in a way. I always wished that I could be like Ozzie Smith. My build wasn't like Ozzie. I couldn't do a round-off into a back-flip and do all of the things that he could do. I always thought Omar was like that, very athletic, very coordinated and could make a lot of amazing plays. He could keep his balance running around in different positions and make plays look easy. Keeps himself in great shape and doesn't surprise me he's playing at 40 years old because he does look much younger and takes care of himself very well. In my opinion he's one of the best shortstops in my era, so I would certainly consider him a Hall of Famer. Q. The last time the National League won the All-Star Game was 1996 in Philly, can you talk about what happened with you and Roberto Hernández? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: One of the more bizarre stories in All-Star Game history was that I broke the nose in the team picture. The way it was broken was we were standing on those platforms and Roberto was getting off after the picture, he seemed to lose his balance and all of a sudden it wobbled and he threw his hands back to catch his balance and I was standing right behind him and he hit me in the nose and I guess I have a nose that's been broken three or four times anyway so I was able to pop it back in and go out and play the game. I'm not Rambo or anything, I didn't do it myself but I laid down on the table and they adjusted it and I was able to go out and play. In an environment like this, I had to have a press conference about how I broke my nose. So I'll do anything for attention. (Laughter.) Q. Other than breaking your nose, what are some of your favorite All-Star Game moments both as a fan and as a player? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: I think the No. 1 moment was my last one, the 2001 All-Star Game when Alex Rodriguez came up with the idea to push me back to shortstop for that one inning. It was a marvelous tribute and one at the time that I really didn't understand because I don't like to be surprised and moved back over the position, but after it was all over and things worked out, I thought it was a really wonderful tribute. Because guys like Derek and Alex, they give me credit for kind of opening and paving the way for a bigger shortstop to be considered. I don't really believe that verbatim. I think maybe my success might have changed the mindset a little bit but those guys would have paved their own way anyway. It was a wonderful gesture and first at-bat I got a standing ovation, I had announced my retirement earlier in the year. Emotionally charged moment, you step back, get your composure and first pitch I saw I was able to hit it out of the ballpark and hit a home run. I ran around the bases and that was a very memorable time. I wanted to get a hit and I wanted to do something to leave the All-Star Game but a home run was a little bit better than a single. Q. Tony La Russa spoke yesterday about the difference between competing and exhibiting in these games, and I wanted to ask you, what kind of attitude did you see in those American League teams you played for, and did it change at some point? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: Well, I mean, there's a fine line, because this is the showcase celebration of baseball. It's the game's best players and it's always been about competing. Naturally when you go out on the field, we all try to do well and we all try to compete and we all try to win. When I first came into the American League clubhouse, the National League had a string of victories and they were dominating the American League and they were thought to be the better league. I remember -- they are having a meeting over there now in the clubhouse, Jimmie Leyland is actually addressing his team right now and those type of meetings happen every time. In the early stages it was like congratulations for being on the team and well deserved; for some might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but let me apologize if I can't get all of you guys in the game because I'm managing this game to win. We're going to win. Those guys over there think they are better than we are and we're out to prove they are not. It was pretty clear, that message was clear, and I don't remember when it started to change but it became more we are a little bit more interchangeable, we are All-Stars in our own way and the fans want to see everybody apply. But the American League has still continued to win over that time frame. The formula is pretty good. But I certainly understand the argument that it is -- it is an opportunity to exhibit or showcase all of the game's best players, but I think the symbol that really everyone should remember about the All-Star Game is when Ray Fossie was run over by Pete Rose. That sort of attitude kind of shows what the game is really all about. It is about winning, it is about competing and everybody wants to see the game's greatest players compete. Q. You talked a little bit about the atmosphere and the environment as you approached the consecutive games record. As this next unbreakable record is about to fall, what do you see as the atmosphere and environment from fans and from the people that you interact with about that record falling? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: I guess you're talking about the home run record. (Laughter.) I guess I'm a little bit on the outside looking in now and that's what happens when you retire. I used to love it when you are in the inside and you are in the know when you're playing and when you're not playing you are more of an outsider and then you become a fan and you watch the game. It is interesting, the fans' reaction has been mixed about the record. I'm someone that actually more personally feels, you don't like to jump to any conclusions, you don't like to cast judgments and I would like to assume everything is on the up and up until I know differently. So I'm going to go about this, wanting it to be good, wanting it to be right, and watching it as a great baseball moment. Q. Wondering as far as the consecutive games thing, how do you feel when you see a manager or a player quoted as saying, well, a day off is a good thing today? CAL RIPKEN, JR.: I mean, we're all different. I was brought up that I wasn't to make that judgment on a day off. Only thing I did was come to the ballpark ready to play and put myself in the hands of the manager and if he decided you were one of the guys to help him win that day, you played. It wasn't my job to say, I'm only 75 percent, I'm not feeling well, I'm not hitting well, this pitcher is tough on me. The manager's job is to make all of those decisions. The irony is the way the streak was formed is that managers like Frank and Earl and Joe and all of those guys put my name in the lineup and was a thousand-plus games it happened, where I didn't have any power over the manager. Now once the streak became a little bit bigger, I can understand a manager feeling like, that his hands were tied a little bit and he couldn't take you out. But my goal was still to play the same exact way as I did before. And it's an approach, it's a sense of responsibility to yourself and a sense of responsibility for your team. I don't begrudge anybody for not playing all the time. But I think most players should in their heart want to come to the ballpark and want to be in there and want to do what they can to help the team win. I think it's just a regular approach and an attitude. I don't think it's gone. I think there's many different schools of thought. You know, I guess I live with a small regret saying if I took a few games off, maybe things would have been a little better. I know that if I would have taken eight games off a year or ten games off a year my batting average would have gone up because I could pick the guys I couldn't hit. Take it off my stats at the end. It was gratifying trying to meet the challenges of the day and it's true, there's one game in front of you, you can't play tomorrow's game until it gets here so you might as well look at this game right here and not get too far ahead. That's really how the streak happened. It was just an attitude. There's a lot of guys. Miguel Tejada playing all those games, he stepped up to a sense of responsibility. He was a key hitter in that lineup, he was a key guy in that defense there and he recognized that without him in the lineup it was different. He had a sense of responsibility and I think a lot of people are like that. End of FastScripts |
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