CAL RIPKEN JR.

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Cal Ripken is baseball’s all-time Iron Man. He retired from baseball in October 2001, after 21 seasons with his hometown Baltimore Orioles. During his career, he was Rookie of the Year, a 19-time All-Star, a 2-time AL MVP and is one of only ten players in history to amass over 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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In 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s Major League record for consecutive games played (2,130) and voluntarily ended his streak on September 20, 1998, after playing 2,632 consecutive games.

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Today, Ripken is a successful business leader and philanthropist. He founded Ripken Baseball that operates youth baseball and softball complexes across the country. He also owns the Aberdeen IronBirds, a Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliate that plays in his hometown in Maryland.

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In 2001, Cal and his family established the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation in memory of the family’s patriarch. Since its inception, the foundation has impacted over 10 million kids in underserved communities. They make a difference in these communities in three ways: Programs, Parks and STEM Centers. They have constructed and gifted over 125 Youth Development Parks, multi-purpose fields that provide kids with safe places to play and learn and, they have built turnkey STEM Centers in over 200 elementary and middle schools across the nation and provided the curriculum for the teachers to best utilize these critically needed spaces. The foundation’s Badges for Baseball program is operating in dozens of states and bringing law enforcement together with kids to build these vital relationships.

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Since 2007, Cal has served as a Special Public Diplomacy Envoy to the U.S. State Department and has traveled internationally to China, Japan, Nicaragua and the Czech Republic on goodwill trips using baseball to bring people together. And since 2015, Ripken has been a Special Adviser to MLB Commissioner, Rob Manfred, on youth programs and outreach.

 

Ripken lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife, the Honorable Judge Laura Ripken.