The Average White Guy

Cal Ripken Jr. is probably the baseball player I admire most of all the players I watched play the game in my lifetime. He well was above average all around the game, and his stats are worthy of a first-ballot election to the hall.

Cal Ripken Jr. epitomizes a true baller. He could have played at his level during any era in the sport’s history. He brought the old-school baseball mentality to today’s game: work hard, be prepared, do it for the team, and never put personal statistics before team statistics. Cal went out there and played hard every night for a record-breaking 2,632 consecutive games - that’s 16 and a quarter seasons without a day/night off - for the same club. That’s unheard of in today’s free agent-driven baseball. He switched from his native position at short to third base later in his career, and excelled there too. If ever there were a player who deserved to be the first 100% voted inductee, it is Cal Ripken Jr.

Although his on-field accomplishments are really supposed to constitute his criteria, how can we ignore what he’s done for the game off the field? Cal Ripken (and his brother Bill) are involved in youth baseball programs everywhere. His undying love for the game keeps him rolling with the kids, to help them understand the greatest game in the world, and to love it with everything they have, the way Cal does.

Few athletes in any sport these days can say they are humbled by the game they play. Professional athletes in general have become money-hungry, greedy, big-headed, and self-centered. They use their sport as an avenue for making a huge salary. It’s become a “who shouts the loudest gets paid the most” system in pro sports, with owners shelling out big bugs to the assholes, just because they draw a crowd (See: Barry Bonds, Terrell Owens, Allen Iverson, Randy Moss, etc…) and crowds = money. Cal never shouted, called attention to himself, or thought he was more than the game. He was humbled by baseball, the fans, and the awards - not driven to exploit them.

In the history of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, no player has entered by receiving a perfect ballot (i.e. every voter voted “yes” for that player). The voters are current hall of fame inductees, other baseball professionals, and baseball writers. Why the media is included in the voting, I could never understand, but that’s the way it is.

I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the Baseball community gives Cal every available vote, but there will a reporter or writer out there who has a grudge with Cal over a response to a question, or a denied interview. It happens to every player, and I don’t think Cal will be the exception. No man is more deserving of the honor than Ripken, and someone will inveritably screw it up for him, because the guy is a prick.

So I hope Cal will be the first, but I just don’t see it happening. It will be a terrible shame, even in the midst of a great triumph.