Cal Ripken, Jr. has always been a bit different than most other professional athletes.  He grew up with the game, following in the footsteps of his father.  He worked hard, was friendly to the fans, and he always, always played.  In 1983 he earned the first of his 19 All-Star positions and was named the American League MVP, receiving the traditional plaque with a baseball diamond at its center.  On September 6, 1995, Ripken passed Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played.  On June 14, 1996, he broke the world record for consecutive games played when he reached 2,216, surpassing Japanese player Sachio Kinugasa.  When he retired in 2001, so did his famous #8. 

The monument built for him outside of Camden Yards was stolen Tuesday night by four young men in a prank almost worthy of the Darwin Awards.  Surveillance Cameras caught the men on tape as the picked up the four-foot monument and placed it in the bed of a pickup truck.  An all-points bulletin was put out by police, but it turned out to be unnecessary.  The young men—at that point in East Baltimore—were creating a disturbance, and someone called the police complaining of disorderly conduct.  The Ripken monument was still in the bed of their truck.

Ripken has made no comment about the theft.  As expected, he is maintaining his cool and his dignity.  These are the hallmarks that made him one of the most popular players in baseball.  He was not only a great shortstop, but is a great man as well.  Even with his success and good looks, he has been with his wife for almost 22 years.  He and the former Kelly Greer exchanged wedding rings after the 1987 season.  They have 2 children, Rachel and Ryan, who were there to throw out the ceremonial first balls of his 2,131st game. 

During that game, as soon as it became official after the first half of the fifth inning, his teammates had to push him out of the dugout to wave to the fans, who had erupted into a tremendous standing ovation.  His initial response to the ongoing applause was “a sense of anxiety that it was unfair to stop the game in the middle…You felt for the pitchers—it’s almost like a rain delay…I’ll celebrate it as much as you want after it’s over, but let’s stay with the game.”  His humility set him apart as much as his talent did.

Since his retirement, he has been involved with a number of charities, including the one he and his brother Billy founded, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation to give underprivileged children the opportunity to attend baseball camps all over the country.  Ripken Baseball, his company, operates camps and designs baseball diamonds for youth, college, and professional teams alike.  Cal Ripken Youth Leagues are springing up all over the place, and are becoming more popular than Little League.  He is part-owner of two Minor League teams as well.

In 2007, Cal Ripken, Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Mia Hamm, Jeff Gordon, Alonzo Mourning, Mario Lemieux, Andrea Jaeger, Tony Hawk, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee founded Athletes for Hope, a charity that encourages professional athletes to get involved in charitable causes.  Once the athletes are involved in a charity, Ripken knows, many more people will be interested in joining in to help. 

The Hall-of-Famer will, no doubt, have his monument back in place, although the stolen one was damaged during the theft.  For the Baltimore Orioles—and for all of Major League Baseball—a tribute to Cal Ripken, Jr. at Camden Yards is something as necessary as a smoothly-turned double play.

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