Enjoy this one, Baltimore. Nobody can predict when it will happen again.
Cal Ripken Jr.?s induction into the Hall of Fame could be the last for an Orioles? player for the foreseeable future.
Ripken doesn?t want to speculate because it?s too difficult to picture the next bronze plaque with a player wearing an Orioles hat.
“I hate the fact that people come in and say ?this is the next Eddie Murray.? It puts undue pressure on people,” Ripken said. “There?s talent that you can see and every player that comes to the big leagues has that sort of talent, or they wouldn?t be there. It?s hard to project success over time. I came in with a splash, but can you do it over a long period of time?”
The perfect example is Ripken?s opinion of outfielder Nick Markakis, whose in his second year with the Orioles.
“It?s not smart to start to project someone early on. But it?s clear, you can see that Markakis has talent,” Ripken said. “You?re interested and curious how that can play out, and you hope that anyone can have a full and long career. And he certainly has that talent.”
When Ripken is inducted Sunday, however, Markakis will only be about 250 games into his career.
Former Orioles ace Mike Mussina seems destined for Cooperstown. Ripken thinks the right-hander has a good shot.
“Mussina is a Hall of Fame type of player, for sure,” Ripken said.
The voters aren?t as convinced.
“Mussina is probably two really good years away from being a candidate,” said ESPN The Magazine senior writer Buster Olney, who spent two years covering the Orioles.
But if Mussina makes it, will he enter as an Oriole or ? gasp ? a Yankee?
Orioles fans may have their best hopes in 2010 and 2011 ? when Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro, respectively, are eligible.
But even if either player gets voted in, they may not choose to enter the Hall of Fame as an Oriole. Alomar won a pair of World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays, while some of Palmeiro?s best seasons were with the Texas Rangers.
