Ripken sees parallels in Orioles’ return to relevance

Cal Ripken Jr. was 23 the last time the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series. He was the shortstop then, cradling the final out of the championship on a live drive off the bat of Philadelphia’s Garry Maddox. It was 1983.

Ripken always envisioned more moments on baseball grand stage. The Orioles were perennial contenders, a model franchise. He was young and talented and hopeful.

He would also be wrong.

“I am grateful looking back that I found out what it felt like to win one,” Ripken said.

Cal Ripken is 54 now, a slightly older and paunchier version of baseball’s all-time iron man. He is still here, the immortal front man of the Orioles’ last three decades, a forever icon in Baltimore and back at Camden Yards as the American League Championship Series began on Friday night.

In a city that has not seen a World Series in 31 years, Ripken is the unofficial host, the counterweight to George Brett’s presence here over the last two days.

Yes, the Orioles have experienced more success than the Royals over the last three decades — including playoff appearances in 1997 and 2012 — but the championship drought here in Baltimore has been longer and drier.

Ripken was part of those days, too.

“We dropped off and (the fans) got disenchanted,” said former Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson, who is the club’s vice president of baseball operations. “And now they’re back. And I think everything has come full circle.”

Here in Baltimore, the streets are filled with Orioles gear and orange T-shirts. The lights at the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium — which sits just across the street from Camden — have been turned orange for the playoffs. Cab drivers pull on their Orioles caps and talk about the three-game sweep over Detroit in the American League Division Series.

“Baltimore is truly a baseball city,” said former Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick, who played on the 1997 playoff team. “They have great passion. They missed it for 14 years getting back to the postseason. So I think they’re kind of reflecting on what they’ve been waiting for.”

For both cities, the waiting defined the last generation of baseball.

In the early 1980s, the Orioles were the franchise of Ripken and Eddie Murray and an aging Jim Palmer; the Royals the team of Brett and Frank White and Willie Wilson, a collection of athletes who terrorized opponents on the bouncy turf at then Royals Stadium.

“Being on that turf, it felt like they had a total advantage,” said Ripken, who will serve on the TBS broadcast team for the series. “(It) seemed like it was a track meet all the time.”

All these years later, Ripken can remember many things about playing the Royals of the mid-1980s. One of the clearest is this: Brett, the Royals’ hit machine, grousing about being in a slump while stroking a couple of singles.

“He would always complain that he was struggling and be three for six or three for seven in the series,” Ripken said. “He was a fantastic player, and he was the heart and soul of that team.”

Three decades after the last Orioles championship, you might say that Baltimore and Kansas City have followed parallel tracks. The legends retired. The franchises languished. The losing numbed a fan base. And so on.

Consider this: Over the last 15 years, the Royals have the most losses of any American League team. The second most? Yes, it’s the Orioles.

Now the two franchises are here, rebuilt and redeemed, their former stars watching, four victories from the World Series.

“It’s a bit ironic to look at the two organizations,” Ripken said. “They were great organizations, and they were thought of a certain way around baseball. And then for a while they went away. And now they’re both back.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 7:01 AM with the headline "Ripken sees parallels in Orioles’ return to relevance."