In honor of the player?s induction next month into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Harford County will recognize one of its most famous natives by declaring Tuesday Cal Ripken Jr. Day.
“We?re trying to make the day aboutCal and the example he sets for kids,” Harford County Director of Tourism Wini Roche said. “It?s really our generation who knows about Cal; so in other words, he?s kind of the parents? hero.”
Ripken graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1978 and played for the Orioles from 1981 until his retirement in 2001.
Don Morrison, Ripken?s coach at Aberdeen, said he couldn?t get Ripken out of the batting cage or off the field in those days.
“Just by his own sheer will and determination … that?s what made him so good,” said Morrison, who is now the spokesman for the county school system. “I?ve never met anybody who had as much will as he did.”
Ripken was “best known for playing in 2,632 consecutive games, which shattered Lou Gehrig?s supposedly unbreakable record of 2,130 games,” according to the Web site for the Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Hall of Fame.
“He hurdled Gehrig?s record, which stood for 56 seasons, and set a new one by more than three complete seasons,” the Web site states. “The celebration of the game on the day he broke the record, Sept. 6, 1995, helped revive baseball?s fortunes after a damaging work stoppage.”
On Tuesday, local Little League players will parade in front of Ripken, down Main Street in Bel Air, where there will be a rally followed by a proclamation and remarks from County Executive David Craig.
Ripken, with his mother, Violet, by his side, then will address the crowd, which Roche hopes will be in the thousands.
She said 4,000 baseball cards, books and Big League Chew Bubble Gum packets will be given to children, so she is counting on at least that many in attendance.
Ripken, who now lives in Cockeysville, in Baltimore County, will then mingle with kids and parents. Two Orioles tickets will be given to for the “best homemade” signs, and 10 randomly selected people who have correctly participated in a Cal Ripken Jr. trivia competition at a link from the county?s Web site will meet Ripken, Roche said.
The event also kicks off the season for Ripken?s minor league team, the Aberdeen Ironbirds.
Another pre-game ceremony is planned at Oriole Park on July 24, five days before Ripken?s Hall of Fame induction.
If you go
Where: Main Street in downtown Bel Air
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday
Price: Free
