Dozens of visitors to Camana Bay’s Gardenia Court on Monday night got a glimpse of one of American baseball’s all-time greats – and found out he’s more or less a regular guy.
Cal Ripken Jr. is a 19-time All Star, received the third-highest votes of all-time during his induction to baseball’s Hall of Fame and in 1995 broke a Major League Baseball record for consecutive games played which had stood for more than 50 years.
Yet for all the achievements in sports, Mr. Ripken advises parents to make sure their children are, first and foremost, having fun in the sports they play.
“Is there anything I can tell [the children] to make them big leaguers? No, except dream to be a big leaguer, because it does happen. The odds are against you … you’ve got to have a tremendous amount of talent.
“But don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it,” he added. “But I would tell you that baseball is supposed to be fun. Many times now in the baseball climate kids are playing baseball year round. To me that’s OK if the kid’s driving that. But it’s not OK if the coaches are driving that and it’s not OK if the parents are driving that.
“Kids nowadays, when you do that too often … you take some of the fun out of it. If you’re not having fun … it’s OK to take a break. Never forget that it’s supposed to be fun.”
“I was a hometown kid, I had a dream to play in the big leagues, I had a dream to play for the Orioles and that happened. I also had a dream that we’d win about 10 World Series and that didn’t happen.”
Mr. Ripken, 52, was in the Cayman Islands for the launch of his children’s book, “All-Stars: Wild Pitch”, part of a series aimed at children age 8 and up.
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