Orioles’ Ripken Plans to Retire After Season

Baseball “Iron Man” Cal Ripken, whose legacy was built on playing every day and whose accomplishments make him one of the game’s all-time greats, will retire after this season, his 21st with the Baltimore Orioles, Ripken said Monday.

Ripken, who will turn 41 in August, said he wants to spend more time with his family and devote more energy to his youth baseball endeavors in his home town of Aberdeen, Md. He also said he hopes eventually to run a major league franchise.

“It’s inevitable that you can’t play forever,” he said. “I’ve maximized my window of opportunity as well as anyone. [Baseball] has given me a lot of joy and happiness and satisfaction. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to do.

“But I’m ready to do other things. I’m ready to be home and be available to my kids and family. . . . I’m sure I’ll miss certain parts of [playing]. But when you put your heart and soul into it at the level I have every single day, you can minimize some of your regrets.”

Ripken, the Orioles’ third baseman, will finish this season, which almost certainly will play out as a farewell tour, including an Oriole Park at Camden Yards finale Sept. 23 against the New York Yankees. His last game, barring injury, figures to be Sept. 30 at Yankee Stadium in New York, which means Ripken will end his career on the same field where Lou Gehrig gave his famed farewell speech in 1939.

Ripken broke Gehrig’s “unbreakable” record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games on Sept. 6, 1995, and went on to play in 2,632 consecutive games--almost 17 seasons without missing one--before voluntarily ending the streak Sept. 20, 1998.

Ripken said he made the decision two or three weeks ago, but held on to it until now “just to make sure” it was not a fleeting feeling.

“I’m not doing this to have a farewell tour or to have people look at it as their last chance to see me,” he said. “What I really want to see happen for the rest of the year is to thoroughly enjoy the game, what I’ve been doing my whole life, for what it is.”

Ripken said his decision to walk away was not related to his performance this season. Ripken is batting .210--or 67 points below his career average--with four homers and 25 RBIs. His playing time has been reduced in recent weeks to three to five games per week.

“Struggling and not hitting can be as frustrating as anything,” he said. “But that’s something I’ve been dealing with for 21 years, whether it’s my last year or my first year. . . . So I have no doubt that, statistically, things will change. I’ll inch up there, get hot, drive in some runs, hit some home runs. . . . I’ve been in this situation before and it’s a matter of persevering.”

Ripken said he chose to make his decision public now to give the Orioles a chance to plan for the future. The team has discussed trading for a third baseman with several teams lately.

Ripken has little left to accomplish in a career that earned him a spot on baseball’s “All-Century” team in 1999 as one of two shortstops (with Ernie Banks). He won a World Series title with the Orioles in 1983, and in the past two seasons, he reached the 400-home run and 3,000-hit benchmarks--becoming the seventh player in history to reach both--which will all but guarantee election to the Hall of Fame.

If he retains his lead in the all-star balloting--he led the Angels’ Troy Glaus by fewer than 8,000 votes Monday--Ripken will be named to play in his 19th All-Star game next month in Seattle.

He is ranked 18th all-time on baseball’s hit list with 3,107, 29th in home runs with 421 and tied for 18th with 1,652 RBI.