After Only 22 Swings, Ripken Goes to Head of the Swat Team

Nobody would dispute that the Baltimore Orioles’ Cal Ripken has power. He is, after all, the first shortstop to hit 20 or more home runs in nine consecutive seasons.

But what Ripken did Monday during a homer-hitting contest at Toronto’s SkyDome was exceptional, even for him.

Ripken hit a home run on his first swing in the event, held in conjunction with the All-Star game, failed to do so on his second, then hit six in a row.

Seven home runs on eight swings. Towering home runs. One bounced off the front of the fourth deck. Three landed in the third deck. One went 470 feet. Three traveled at least 450 feet.

Ripken hit 10 in 14 swings and wound up with 12 in 22 swings.

“It was a freak, a total freak,” he told John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun. “I don’t know what got into me out there.

“I have to be honest. It was as unbelievable to me as it was to everyone else. It got to the point where I said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, but it’s incredible.’ That’s just not something I’m likely to do.

“Every pitch coming in looked big. Huge. Like a beach ball.”

And went out like a cannonball.

View from the top: The season looks a little different from the top of the division, according to outfielder Joe Carter, enjoying his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays.

“The All-Star break kind of jumped up on me this year,” said Carter, who appeared in his first All-Star game Tuesday night. “Not once in the last two or three weeks have I heard anybody on our team mention it.

“In Cleveland (where Carter spent six seasons with the Indians), guys would be saying, ‘I can’t wait for the All-Star break.’ Guys would be making All-Star break plans the first week in June. We were losing so much, guys just wanted to get the first half over with.”

Trivia Time: When Arch Ward, former sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, put together the first All-Star game in 1933 as part of the Chicago World’s Fair, why was Comiskey Park chosen as the site instead of Wrigley Field?

Keeping up a family tradition: Robbie Knievel, son of retired motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, successfully cleared Montana’s largest casino and a tall cottonwood tree during the weekend on his 500cc cycle.

Knievel was in the air 1.7 seconds, covering 140 feet as he soared over the tree and the Sleeping Buffalo Barn, a 26-foot high structure at a resort near the town of Saco.

A crowd of 2,500 paid from $12 to $15 to watch the leap.

Knievel, 29, said he plans to set a world distance record in Salt Lake City in a few weeks by going over 20 beverage-hauling trucks.

Call them Reekboks: Sunday, Anchorage will host the Great Alaska Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest.

The worse the shoes, the better the chance of winning.

Sneakers will be ranked in eight categories with odor being the prime consideration. Lost soles, tormented toes and haggard heels will also be point grabbers.

Anyone 18 and under with a pair of sneakers that can’t be worn without a gas mask is encouraged to enter.

Trivia answer: The site was determined by a coin flip.

Quotebook: When Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Andy Van Slyke went into a slump, his 7-year-old son, A.J., had a suggestion: “Maybe you can talk the other team into throwing to you underhanded.”