Bill Ripken

SINCE this is Election Day, the vote here goes to Bill Ripken as the '90 Orioles' Most Valuable Player. He's going to wind up hitting .280-something and defensively he's the best second baseman the club has ever had, including Bob Grich and Dave Johnson.* Orioles owner Eli Jacobs knows how to make money but not friends, obviously because he's more interested in money. But he's pretty dumb for not having had Gov. Schaefer as his guest at a ballgame, which, according to the September Baltimore Magazine, has irritated Schaefer.

Any resemblance would be hard for all but the most die-hard Orioles fans to notice. But it's there. The new Aberdeen IronBirds logo, unveiled Monday, was inspired by a furious, bat-wielding Orioles bird mascot introduced after the 1967 season. Billy Ripken, who turned 3 years old that year, remembered it well when he began thinking about refreshing the IronBirds logo. "He was mean-looking," Ripken said. "He had a bat in his hand and a had a little lean forward. " That bird's menacing look combined with inspiration from the recent Iron Man movies - since Ripken and his brother Cal, baseball's ironman, run the team together - form a slick new character that the duo hopes will continue to draw young baseball fans to games.

It is left to his big brother to produce key home runs and clutch RBI. For Bill Ripken, success is measured on a less grand scale.Such as the suicide squeeze he dropped yesterday in the Orioles' 2-0, Opening Day victory over the Cleveland Indians.Ripken's bunt turned a potential bad play into a nifty bit of fifth-inning strategy. The Orioles just had taken a 1-0 lead on Chris Hoiles' one-hop, RBI double over the left-center-field wall.With Leo Gomez on third and his No. 9 hitter coming up, manager John Oates called for the suicide squeeze on the first pitch.

It all seemed so right. The Orioles long ago chose Thursday night to unveil Cal Ripken's statue at Oriole Park because of the obvious connection to what happened here on the same date 17 years ago, but they could not have known it would be so perfectly timed to coincide with the re-emergence of the team as a late-season contender and the start of a huge four-game series against the Yankees. The significance certainly wasn't lost on Ripken, who used his edition of the Legends Celebration Series to forge a link between the Hall of Famers who will forever populate the plaza behind center field and the new generation of Orioles players who have responded so well to the leadership of Buck Showalter.

MILWAUKEE -- Second baseman Bill Ripken may be back on the active roster, but he was not in the starting lineup for last night's series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers.Juan Bell played last night and will be in the starting lineup again tonight, though manager John Oates insists that Ripken is the club's everyday second baseman."Billy is our second baseman," Oates said before last night's game, "but Billy's stats are very average against [Don] August and [Jaime] Navarro. Last week, Tito went 2-for-2 against one of them and had a triple and two RBI against the other."

Orioles second baseman Bill Ripken was hit in the head in the second inning of last night's game by a fastball from Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Alex Fernandez.Ripken suffered a bruise to the left side of his forehead. He left the game immediately and was taken to University Hospital for precautionary X-rays and a CT scan, and both tests were negative.He also was examined in the Orioles training room by team doctors Charles Silberstein and Marshall Levine.Ripken returned to the clubhouse after the game, but did not talk to reporters.

Two-thirds of the Baltimore Orioles' Ripken connection was ejected from last night's 2-1 loss to Detroit after Bill Ripken was called out on strikes by plate umpire Rich Garcia.The brouhaha occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning, enlivening an already-tense battle in which neither team had scored.Garcia banished Bill Ripken and his father, Cal Ripken Sr., who was held back from the umpire by first manager Frank Robinson, then coaches Johnny Oates, Tom McCraw and Al Jackson.The incident began when Bill Ripken was headed back toward the dugout and lasted through nearly 10 minutes before the game resumed with Cal Ripken Jr. lacing Steve Searcy's first pitch to center field for a single.

The scene is the third base coaching box at Camden Yards, 2 1/2 hours before last night's Orioles game against the Texas Rangers. Cal and Bill Ripken are standing around, talking baseball.Nothing new there. Not even the Texas on Bill's uniform is unfamiliar now, after a season in Arlington. Still, meeting his former Orioles teammates on the field -- not in the clubhouse -- is strange."When we go to Toronto, a lot of guys still come up to [reliever zTC Tom] Henke," said Bill Ripken. "When you're with a team for a length of time, you don't forget the people you've been around."

The Orioles are finally showing life, and another shot of adrenalin might be on the way.Would you believe Bill Ripken?Ripken's agent, Ron Shapiro, said last night that the Orioles are interested in reacquiring the second baseman from the Cleveland organization.The Orioles likely would pursue Ripken only if they first could deal Bret Barberie, who is the $985,000 backup to Manny Alexander.Could it happen?Club officials have yet to approach the Indians about Ripken, but apparently they are discussing him internally.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Baltimore Orioles placed second baseman Bill Ripken on the 15-day disabled list yesterday and recalled utility man Shane Turner from the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings to take his place on the roster.The move came as a surprise to no one. Manager John Oates speculated Tuesday that the strained rib cage muscle suffered by Ripken was significant enough to require a roster move. The versatile Turner was the logical choice to replace him, since utility man Juan Bell will be playing regularly at second base.

When Eddie Murray's sculpture is unveiled at Camden Yards this afternoon, if the sun catches the bronze just so, onlookers might get a glimpse of themselves in the reflection. It's fitting for the Orioles' most prolific hitter ever. Writers, and even some fans who didn't like Murray's personality, projected their own bitterness onto him for his entire career. For the fans who didn't care what they read, only what they saw, they'll have their Eddie. They can cheer the man today, and later they can bring their kids to the statue, point and say, "There's one of the best switch hitters to ever play the game.

Bound and abducted in her own vehicle, Violet Ripken was gone for 12 hours before her disappearance was reported to authorities. And amid an intensive search, she was quietly dropped off by her kidnapper on her secluded Harford County street. A neighbor, Erik Snyder, 28, was arriving home from an overnight shift at a local warehouse when he saw a woman waving a white sweater out of a car window. "There's a woman who's tied up in a car down the street," he told nearby officers, who "zoomed over" to free the 74-year-old mother of Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. Police are trying to piece together why she was taken - and whether her kidnapper even realized who he had been ferrying around Central Maryland for nearly a day. According to Gus Kowalewski, 72, a longtime neighbor who spoke to Vi Ripken about the ordeal, the man confronted her in her garage between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday, blindfolded her and forced her into her 1998 Lincoln Town Car at gunpoint.

I am waiting to hear from Fox Sports on what happened at the end of its telecast of the Baltimore Orioles 13-inning victory over the Detroit Tigers on backup catcher Taylor Teagarden's walk-off homerun. But until I do, let's talk about this like grown-ups, OK? After Teagarden, who had just been activated for Saturday's game, hit the homer and was duly mobbed by his teammates, he stood on the field for a post-game interview with the Fox announcers in the booth, Bill Ripken and Kenny Albert.

The National team, coached by former major league manager Larry Bowa, topped the American squad, 6-4, in the 2011 Under Armour All-America Baseball Game Saturday at Wrigley Field. The American team was coached by former Oriole Bill Ripken. Ripken's nephew, Ryan, of Gilman, was the lone player from Maryland and played for the American team. The game was delayed in the middle of the third inning because of heavy rain that hit the area. Play resumed after about a 90-minute delay, and the teams were tied until infielder Yairo Munoz hit a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to give the National team a 6-4 lead.

Cal Ripken Jr. likes to joke than he and Andre Agassi have a lot more in common than the fact that they're both bald, retired athletes. They're both passionate about raising money and creating opportunities to help kids reach their potential. In fact, Agassi is someone who has inspired Ripken in many ways during his retirement. Friday at the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation's 7th Annual Aspire Gala, the Orioles Hall of Famer sought to honor the tennis legend for his work in education, and at the same time raise money for his own charitable foundation.

Former Orioles Cal Ripken Jr. and Bill Ripken along with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Hall of Fame Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson and Hall of Fame Colts defensive tackle Art Donovan, broke ground today for a youth development park at the former site of Memorial Stadium. The park, which is being built by the foundation in partnership with the Y of Central Maryland, will be the first to be constructed as part of the foundation's Swing for the Future campaign. The foundation said its goal is to develop ballparks in Baltimore and take that model across the country.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Second baseman Bill Ripken suffered a strained muscle in his rib cage over the weekend and may have to be placed on the 15-day disabled list.Precautionary X-rays revealed no structural damage to the rib cage and no sign of lung inflammation, so it appears that Ripken suffered a strained intercostal muscle, perhaps while making a difficult defensive play during the recent four-game series against the Oakland Athletics."I don't know exactly when it happened," Ripken said.

Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation Ground to be broken for park at Memorial Stadium site Former Orioles Cal Ripken Jr. and Bill Ripken — co-founders of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation — along with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake , Hall of Fame Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson and Hall of Fame Colts defensive tackle Art Donovan , will take part in a ceremony Wednesday to break ground for a youth development park...