36 Quotes by Cal Ripken, Jr.
Cal Ripken, Jr. is an iconic figure in the world of baseball, renowned for his unwavering dedication and record-breaking achievements. Born in 1960, this American athlete spent his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles, earning the nickname "Iron Man" for his incredible streak of 2,632 consecutive games played, surpassing the previous record by more than 500 games.
Beyond his extraordinary durability, Ripken was a formidable shortstop and third baseman, earning numerous accolades, including two American League MVP awards and 19 All-Star selections. His strong work ethic and commitment to the sport have inspired generations of athletes, leaving an indelible mark on the baseball community and making him one of the sport's most revered legends.
Cal Ripken, Jr. Quotes
Leadership isn't about simply being in charge and treating your people like soldiers and barking orders. Leadership is sharing your knowledge and your direction so that others grow and reach their potential.
Get in the game. Do the best you can. Try to make a contribution. Learn from today. Apply it to tomorrow.
You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.
If you do a job, do it right or there is no point.
I've felt some great feelings on the baseball field... in front of 50,000 people and millions on TV... but the feeling you get when you give a kid a chance, that is a hundred times greater than that feeling.
As long as I can compete, I won't quit.
A lot of people think I had such a rosy career, but I wanted to identify that one of the things that helps you have a long career is learning how to deal with adversity, how to get past it. Once I learned how to get through that, others things didn't seem so hard.
Stubbornness usually is considered a negative; but I think that trait has been a positive for me.
Whether your name is (Lou) Gehrig or (Cal) Ripken, (Joe) DiMaggio or (Jackie) Robinson, or that of some youngster who picks up his bat or puts on his glove, you are challenged by the game of baseball to do your very best day in and day out. That's all I've ever tried to do.
The best thing you can do in the whole world is to play baseball. That's a lucky job... The passion for baseball is always going to be there.
Sometimes I think sportsmanship is a little bit forgotten in place of the individual attention.
When things happen to you in the worst way, you live with it, you go over it, you think, 'What else could I have done?
I'd like to be remembered. I'd like to think that someday two guys will be talking in a bar and one of them will say something like, 'Yeah, he's a good shortstop, but he's not as good as ole Ripken was.'
So many good things have happened to me in the game of baseball. When I do allow myself a chance to think about it, it's almost like a storybook career. You feel so blessed to have been able to compete this long.
I always thought being a gamer and someone who had a sense of responsibility to the game and to my teammates was the honorable thing.
We consider ourselves the luckiest fans on the face of the Earth.
Different styles work for different guys... If you can handle shortstop and hit, teams will find a way to pencil you into the lineup.
You can keep going on and on about the interactions of people, which makes it a great drama and great event ,and you'll always hold that special, but if you're looking at a baseball moment, the feeling you get when you win the World Series by far exceeds anything else in the game that you're able to do.
Each and every day had its challenges.
What keeps me going? I guess it's just a desire to keep trying to contribute and do things in life.
I love baseball. The game allowed me the influence to impact kids in a positive way. This gives me a chance to talk to some social issues.
There is somebody in our lives that we could call the Energizer Bunny and we admire for those qualities.
By far, the best moment of my big league career was when I caught the last out at the World Series.
There is a feeling when you are in Yankee Stadium that it is a very sacred ground you are walking on and you know you had the same feelings that other great players have had in other eras that played right there on that field.
The last thing you want to do is go down in the history of All-Star game competition as the only injury (his nose was broken by Roberto Hernandez) sustained during the team picture.
My approach to every game was to try to erase the games that were before and try to focus on the game at hand.
That's the result of the black cloud on baseball, .. Until it's rid of steroids, people are naturally going to think that.
As long as I can compete, I won't quit. Reaching three-thousand is not the finish line as long as I can contribute.
Early in my career, I decided I never wanted to get out of shape.
Disadvantaged kids many times don't have the support network that we all have. I know how important my parents were in my life and many of these kids don't have that support network.
The streak has become my identity; it's who I've become.
The reality is that players can't play forever.
A lot of people have been telling me that I was going to be in the Hall of Fame and those are nice words and I try not to think about it, but when the call came, it made it real. It was a pretty darned good feeling.
If you really think about it, the stadium can't last forever. There is going to have to come a time when it replaces.
There are so many great moments in Yankee Stadium. There is nothing better or no better place better to compete when you are good and the Yankees are good and you are playing a big series in September in Yankee Stadium, four game series, there is no greater excitement anywhere than the Yankee Stadium.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, you couldn't say you were better than the other person because you knew you had a secret. You knew you had cheated.
― Cal Ripken, Jr. Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
