Famous Baseball Players

Base Ball Players

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Calvin Edwin Ripken, Jr. (born August 24, 1960 in Havre de Grace, Maryland), commonly known as Cal or Cal Jr., less frequently Junior or Rip, is a former Major League Baseball player. Cal played his entire career for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001 at shortstop and third base. A 19-time MLB All-Star, Cal is considered one of the best shortstops to ever play the game. At 6' 4"/1.93 m, Cal pioneered the way for taller and larger shortstops. Cal 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. Cal attended Aberdeen High School as did his brother Billy Ripken, 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 - 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 Yankee first baseman who ended his playing streak after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.