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Ripkens Teach Senior Class: Equipment
After only a few minutes discussing baseball with a Cal Ripken Sr. offspring, it is clear that respect for the game has been passed from one generation to another. What is not so evident are the other things handed from father to son. In some families, a parent presents the keys to a car or some cherished item as a rite of passage into adulthood. Same thing in Senior’s three-bedroom frame house in Aberdeen, but the treasure was a catcher’s most important possession.
“Pops still has his first Orioles equipment bag. When he got to the big leagues he got the nice black one with the orange lettering,” says Bill, noting that minor leaguers must make-do with inferior models.
“When Cal got drafted in ’78, Pops gave him the bag and said, ‘Give this back to me when you get to the big leagues.’ So, Cal had that team bag through the minor leagues and it probably saw some of the same cities that my dad saw.
“Cal got to the big leagues at the end of ’81 and, as we know, has stayed there ever since. So Cal gave Dad the bag back at the end of ’81. I got drafted in ’82 and Dad gave me the bag and said, ‘Give it back to me when you get to the big leagues.’ I definitely went to the same cities that Cal went to. If that bag could talk, between the three of us, it might have some pretty good stories.
“I got to the big leagues and gave it back to him. In the minor leagues you needed the team bag to get your stuff around, but in the big leagues you needed the ‘Steelie.’ My father had two steel [protective] cups. So when we turned the bag in, we could get the steel cup as a trade-in. He said, ‘This is your big-league equipment now.’ That was our graduation present to the big leagues - the steel cup. Not too many of ’em around.”
“You’ll need this,” Cal recalls being told by his father at the presentation ceremony.
