BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Cal Ripken Jr. Signs $32.5-Million Deal

Shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles celebrated his 32nd birthday Monday by signing a five-year contract worth $32.5 million in salary, signing bonus and employment after his playing career, a deal whose average annual value of $6.5 million is the second-highest in baseball.

The total worth exceeds Bobby Bonilla’s five-year, $29-million deal with the Mets, but its annual value is short of Ryne Sandberg’s four-year, $28.1-million contract with the Cubs.

Ripken, whose 1992 salary is $2.1 million, will get a $3-million signing bonus and a base salary of $4.5 million in 1993, $4.8 million in 1994, $6 million in 1995 and 1996 and $6.2 million in 1997. He has an option to void the contract after three years. The remaining $2 million will be derived from a job in the Orioles’ front office, a position that will pay him $500,000 per year for four years.

“I thought I would feel a sense of more relief than I do now, and I think that will take a while to come over me,” Ripken, 32, said.

Ripken is batting only .247 with 10 homers and 56 runs batted in this season. He also has gone a career-long 56 games without a homer.