On August 24,1960 Cal Ripken Jr. was born in Harve de Grace,Maryland. At the time his dad was in Topeca,Kansas nearly a half a continent away. Cal Sr. was a catcher for fox cities (Wisconsin), an Oriole farm club in the three-I League, and celebrated the birth of his first son by driving in the winning run in the 10th inning agianst Topeka. Cal Ripken Jr. inherited athletic talent from both his dad and his mom. Vi Ripken first got her future husbands attention while she was playing softball in collage. – Cal’s sister Ellen was born a year before him.
The other members of then Ripken family have also demonstrated with a bat and a glove. In 1978, his senior year, Cal pitched 60 innings and struck out 100 batters. He also batted . 492 and drove in 29 runs in 20 games. Cal was the winning pitcher in the Maryland High School championship game. When Cal started high school he only stood 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 127 lbs. By the time he graduated he had grown to 6 feet and added 50 pounds to his frame. Cal quickly signed up to be an Oriole’s Minor leage team in West Virginia.
By 1981 Cal had progressed to the Orioles top minor leage team. Cal got married and a couple of years latter had a baby and named it Rachel Marie. Cal Ripken Jr. wen’t back to playing baseball and became the first to beat Lou Gehrig’s record. Father-son combinations on the same team have been rare in the majors,but the Ripkens were not the first. There were many other father-son pairs also. In 1987 Cal was joined by his brother Bill,who played alongside him at second base. So then they had a threesome.
The Ripkens wanted to share their good fortune with others. They were active in helping many organizations. They included the Childrens Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital,the Balimore School for Performing Arts. He also started a literacy progam in Baltimore. It is known as the Cal Ripken Jr. ,Lifelong Learning Center, it teaches adults how to read and also math. He won a national award because he was such a caring person. Cal Ripken Jr. was one of the best ball players ever known. He was an ALL-STAR hero that won him honors as the game’s Most Valuable Player.
