Baseball: Cal Ripken, Jr. Announces Retirement

The end of the 2001 baseball season will also mark the end of the career of one of the game's all-time great players, both on and off the field. In an era where sports stars are indistinguishable from business people and the bottom line is measured more frequently in dollars than wins and losses, Cal Ripken, Jr. represents the last of a once-proud breed. Ripken has played his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles, leading them to a World Championship in 1983, winning Rookie of the Year in 1982, and Most Valuable Player honors in 1983 and 1991.

Ripken is one of only 7 players in Major League history to have 3000 hits and 400 home runs. His greatest accomplishment, however, is undoubtedly his consecutive games streak of 2,632 games, which spanned 17 professional seasons. The previous record, which was considered to be unbreakable, was 2,130 games by Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees. Ripken has stated that he would like to pursue a career in the front office of a baseball organization, similar to the role Michael Jordan has assumed in basketball.

"I want to be able to test my philosophies about a whole organization,'' he told the Washington Post. "I've gathered a lot of information. I've kept my eyes open and watched the evolution of baseball. And I would love at some point to have the opportunity to test those philosophies.'' The natural fit would for Ripken's post-playing endeavors would be the Baltimore Orioles, a team he grew up rooting for and the one for whom is father coached and managed and his brother also played.