Free Republic

While he’s no longer rocking pinstripes on a regular basis, it’s hard to think about the New York Yankees and not turn your attention to the great Derek Jeter. Even after his retirement from Major League Baseball in 2014, the captain of all captains continues to remain a permanent fixture in the city with which he spent his entire career. And really, that shouldn’t be a surprise. That’s usually what happens when you’re an all-time great shortstop. Throughout his incredible career, Jeter showed himself to be one of the greatest shortstops to ever step on a diamond. While there have...

ABERDEEN, MD (WJZ/CNN) – Police in Maryland arrested a suspect who allegedly tried to carjack the mother of baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. The incident occurred on Tuesday outside of a bank in Aberdeen, MD, north of Baltimore. Police say a man with a handgun approached 75-year-old Violet Ripken and demanded her car. Ripken pressed the panic button her key ring, setting off the car's alarm and scaring the man away. He was later captured by police.

Baltimore Orioles "Iron Man" Cal Ripken Jr. announced a $100,000 reward Thursday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man who kidnapped his mother for a day last year, a case that is still unsolved. "After talking as a family with members of law enforcement and friends, we decided we would try to reignite interest in the case," the Hall of Fame shortstop told reporters during a news conference at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Violet Ripken, Cal's mother, then 74, was abducted at gunpoint the morning of July 24, 2012, from her Aberdeen, Maryland, home. Her disappearance...

WASHINGTON - Sports, not politics, will be Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr.'s emphasis in his new role as a special envoy for the State Department. "This isn't a political statement for me, necessarily," Ripken said Monday after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice formally announced his appointment. "This is about the kids and planning baseball and using baseball for good reasons." Ripken, who set the Major League record for consecutive games played — 2,632 games in a row, earning him the nickname "Iron Man" — said he was ready for the task, which will take him first to China...

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn took their place in baseball's shrine Sunday, saluted as much for their Hall of Fame careers as their character off the field. Commissioner Bud Selig and a record crowd came to cheer them and all that was good about the game. A continent away, a different scene played out. Barry Bonds failed to tie the home run record, a chase tainted by his surly nature and a steroids investigation. Ripken and Gwynn sensed that poignant counterpoint on their induction day. "This day shouldn't be all about us," Ripken said. "Today...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Mark McGwire, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. headline the first-time candidates on the 2007 baseball writers' Hall of Fame ballot released Monday, sure to spark debate on Big Mac's place in history as the steroid era comes under renewed scrutiny. Jose Canseco, whose book last year led to a congressional hearing on steroid use in baseball, also is on the ballot for the first time. Canseco said he used steroids along with McGwire when they were teammates. McGwire denied using illegal performance-enhancing substances, but when he appeared before a congressional committee, he evaded questions. "I'm...

HUNT VALLEY, Md. -- Calling steroid use "cheating" and a "black cloud" hanging over Major League Baseball, former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken said he was dismayed Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance and was suspended. Speaking Tuesday at a media event for next month's Constellation Energy Classic, the Champions Tour golf event for which he is honorary chairman, Ripken said he was "shocked, surprised, just like everyone else. I hope there's a reason or an explanation." Ripken, who played with Palmeiro from 1994 to 1998, said he was in the Bahamas when he learned his former teammate...

<p>A 20-year-old man, naked and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the back, showed up Thanksgiving evening at the home of retired Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, claiming he had been kidnapped and pleading for help, police said.</p> <p>The man, Brian Robins, 20, of Baltimore, was found outside Ripken's home north of Baltimore shortly after 9 p.m. ET Thursday and was taken by helicopter to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO -- One evening in early September 1995, hours removed from the defining moment of his own 21-year career, Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. made a casual observation. "The meaning of baseball," he had said, "is to look back on moments." Little could Cal Ripken Jr. envision at the time that fans would eventually look back and choose his as baseball's Most Memorable Moment. Ripken's 2,131st consecutive game on Sept. 6, 1995, breaking a record Lou Gehrig had held for 56 years and was considered beyond challenge, carried fans' vote as their most indelible memory. Results of three months of...