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Iron
man: Cal Ripken Jr. goes to bat with a business to
promote the joy of baseball
IMAGINE NEVER missing a day of work in more than 15 years--pushing
the ball forward through sweltering weather, a strike and
even a death threat. Cal Ripken Jr. did just that, playing
in 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games from 1982
to 1998 and shattering Lou Gehrig's 56-year-old record. Throughout
his 21-year career, Ripken stepped up to the plate more than
11,000 times and had over 3,000 hits.
After
setting down his bat in 2001, Ripken turned his perseverance
and love of baseball into a business. He's president and
CEO of Ripken Baseball, a Baltimore-based sales and marketing
business with five divisions: |
Ripken Management & Design;
Ripken Youth Camps and Clinics, the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation,
the Aberdeen IronBirds, and IronClad Authentics. These subsidiaries
offer everything from baseball programs for underprivileged
children to sports collectibles.
"I honestly believe the joy of baseball
is felt at the grass-roots level. Very few people go to
the big leagues," says Ripken, "but all these
people can enjoy baseball for the rest of their lives."That's
what drives Ripken today: to promote baseball, emphasizing
integrity, endurance, passion and strength, without neglecting
the joy of the game--it's "The Ripken Way." Ripken
has also been seeding his message internationally, inviting
youth teams from across the globe to the Cal Ripken World
Series each year.
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