Cal Ripken

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter passed Cal Ripken Jr. for sole possession of 13th on the all-time hits list with 3,185 with a first-inning double Friday night against the Chicago White Sox. Ripken released a statement saying: “Congratulations to Derek on passing me on the all-time hits list. Derek has been such a special player for such a long time and I am happy to see him continue to play at a high level. He represents the game and the Yankees wonderfully and I hope that he continues to play and continues to give all of us baseball fans great memories.”

Is there anything more Bawlmer thanCal Ripken Jr.? How about a horse named after the Orioles' Hall of Famer winning the Preakness next year? It could happen. Sagamore Farm owner Kevin Plank was at a function earlier this year with Ripken, and decided he wanted to honor the Iron Man's streak. His company, Under Armour, also outfits Ripken Baseball and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. So when Plank and Sagamore purchased a 2-year-old at the April Keeneland sale, he named him Twentyonethirtyone.

Already an author and a Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken is adding foodie to his resume. The Oriole great has launched a line of hamburgers. According to the Daily Record, Ripken and Roseda Beef, a Baltimore company, have teamed up to sell Ripken Gourmet Burgers at Giant. Mmmmm. Ripken burgers. The six-ounce meat patties will be available only in the Maryland, D.C. and Virginia area, the paper says. They cost $9.99 for four. They have apparently just hit stores.

There's the Hall of Fame plaque, the World Series ring and the hardware he won for Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player (twice) and countless other accomplishments. Sometimes, Cal Ripken Jr. looks at that stuff and wonders: Is it really mine? "The farther removed [from playing] that I get, the more it all seems like another lifetime. But I'm pretty sure it all happened to me," said Ripken, 51, who spent 21 seasons with the Orioles before retiring in 2001. "When you're not playing baseball, day to day, in many ways your career is like looking back on a dream.

The date - Sept. 6, 1995 - had been circled on calendars, not just in Baltimore, but throughout the country. The countdown for the Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. to break Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games record had gone on for months. And yet, if I had any idea of what was about to occur - the moment that would overcome the ballpark, the emotion that would transfix the nation, the hundreds of thousands of newspapers and mementos that The Sun would sell - I would have been even more nervous than I was walking into 501 N. Calvert St. that afternoon.

The Orioles don't play until tonight, but I figured I'd give you something baseball-related to read today. Bert Sugar, best known as a boxing historian, died Sunday from cardiac arrest. He was 75. Sugar is remembered for wearing his fedora, chomping on his cigar and churning out story after wonderful story about boxing. But Sugar was a baseball historian as well. He had a great perspective on the game. In 2005, I was charged with writing a piece about the 10th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. setting baseball's Iron Man record . My fantastic and ambitious sports editor at the time, Randy Harvey, challenged me to write a wide-sweeping article with historical perspective, something I'm not sure I had done before.

Cal Ripken, the former Baltimore Orioles star known best for setting the major league record for consecutive games, is spending some of his free time these days as an author. In this Baltimore Sun video, Cal and co-author Kevin Cowherd talk about " Super-sized Slugger," about a pudgy kid who gets pushed around while trying to earn a spot on a baseball team. Cal says he wanted to address the issue of bullying, and give kids a way to deal with it. Here's the description on Amazon: Cody Parker is the new kid in school.

Cal Ripken Jr.will not come to your kid's school and help him polish off a bully. What exactly do you want for $16.99? But with his latest children's book, the Hall of Famer hopes he can arm your kids, informationally, with what they need to handle bullies and some of the other down sides of growing up. "Bullying is huge," Ripken told The Sun Monday evening. "Parents think it's just a phase, or life, or part of toughening up, but I want kids to know, 'You have options and the options are caring adults.'" Released Tuesday, "Super-sized Slugger,” written with The Sun's Kevin Cowherd, is the Hall of Famer's second children's novel.

When looking back at last year's Orioles , the one thing that stuck out to Cal Ripken, Jr. was that their pitching was ranked last in the majors. Before the former Orioles great held the eighth annual Cal Ripken Sr. Aspire Gala on Friday night at the Marriott Waterside in downtown Baltimore, he sat with one of his honorees, Yankees slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira, and talked about the importance of having quality arms. Two of the game's greatest hitters of their respective generations, lodged in a conversation about pitching.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban was at Gilman Wednesday night to take in the Greyhounds' basketball victory over Calvert Hall . Saban, of course, is in the process of wooing Gilman football/basketball standout Cyrus Jones to join the Crimson Tide. The All-Metro Offensive Football Player of the Year is also considering Ohio State (who had assistant Luke Fickell at the game), Auburn, Virginia Tech and Maryland. But that wasn't the only star power at Gilman, as Cal Ripken Jr. and his wife Kelly were there to cheer on their son, Ryan, who also plays for the Greyhounds.