Bill Ripken Is An Idiot

[BigJonEmpire]

I'm so tired of his logic-free ranting. Is MLB that short of on-air talent?

[madducks]

His teammates didn't like him either during his playing days. Well, maybe except for his brother.

[Pauly]

that card is worth a pretty penny if you have it (at least it used to).

[cavebird]

His teammates didn't like him either during his playing days. Well, maybe except for his brother.

My first thought was that he wasn't an idiot, he was an ff, lol.

[Pauly]

In December 2008, CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell wrote that Ripken had revealed to him that he (Ripken) had written the offending phrase on the bat himself:

I got a dozen bats in front of my locker during the 1988 season. I pulled the bats out, model R161, and noticed — because of the grain patterns — that they were too heavy. But I decided I’d use one of them, at the very least, for my batting practice bat.”

Now I had to write something on the bat. At Memorial Stadium, the bat room was not too close to the clubhouse, so I wanted to write something that I could find immediately if I looked up and it was 4:44 and I had to get out there on the field a minute later and not be late. There were five big grocery carts full of bats in there and if I wrote my number 3, it could be too confusing. So I wrote ‘F–k’ Face on it.

After the season was over, in early January, I got a call from our PR guy Rick Vaughn. He said, ‘Billy, we have a problem.’ And he told me what was written on the bat and I couldn’t believe it. I went to a store and saw the card and it all came back to me. We were in Fenway Park and I had just taken my first round of BP. I threw my bat to the third base side and strolled around the bases. When I was coming back, right before I got up to hit again, I remember a guy tapping me on the shoulder asking if he could take my picture. Never once did I think about it. I posed for the shot and he took it.

[Sour Masher]

So, at least he was a self-aware FF? That count for something?

[Gregg]

In December 2008, CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell wrote that Ripken had revealed to him that he (Ripken) had written the offending phrase on the bat himself:

Never heard that story before. Pretty funny. Thanks for posting it.

[The Dane]

Bill Ripken isn't great, but is he really that much worse than most of the commentators we see on national broadcasts?

His analysis is crap, but they all are. He sometimes goes out on a limb for no apparent reason and finds something interesting, sometimes not, but then they all do that.

He's not worse than Kevin Millar or a dozen other guys.

[Fresno Bob]

Bill Ripken isn't great, but is he really that much worse than most of the commentators we see on national broadcasts?

His analysis is crap, but they all are. He sometimes goes out on a limb for no apparent reason and finds something interesting, sometimes not, but then they all do that.

He's not worse than Kevin Millar or a dozen other guys.

being no worse than Kevin Millar or Harold Reynolds is faint praise, Intentional Talk and whatever the Chris Russo show is called are "auto-offs" for me when watching MLB Network

[Fresno Bob]

for what it's worth, Bill and Cal worked with my son on turning double plays at the fanfest when the All Star Game was at SF. Max was probably as big as Billy even then

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[BigJonEmpire]

being no worse than Kevin Millar or Harold Reynolds is faint praise, Intentional Talk and whatever the Chris Russo show is called are "auto-offs" for me when watching MLB Network

Truth and ditto.

[The Dane]

being no worse than Kevin Millar or Harold Reynolds is faint praise, Intentional Talk and whatever the Chris Russo show is called are "auto-offs" for me when watching MLB Network

Yup. Me too. Can't watch that show at all.

I guess I have a little soft spot for Ripken, as a Giants fan. In 2010, most of the national baseball media wrote off the Giants. I get why for a thousands reasons, but as someone who went to some games, I could tell that something special was cooking here. He was the first guy I saw pick the Giants to win it all and he stuck with them the whole way. I remember a graphic MLB Tonight put up at the start of the playoffs where they had fifteen or so analysts (I believe my personal favorite Joe Sheehan was among them.) pick their World Series Winner and he was the only one with the Giants. His reasoning pretty much echoed my own: there's a special spirit on that team. I know that from an analytical perspective, that sounds like hogwash, but I've seen it, as I'm sure have many other people who have had the fortune to follow a great team for a stretch of years.

He's an idiot, sure, but when everyone picked the Braves in the NLDS and the Phillies in the NLCS, and every single m-fer in the whole goddam world outside of the Bay Area picked Texas to roll the Giants in the Series, there was idiot Billy Ripkin touting the Giants team and the aura it had that year.

That was probably the happiest I've ever been following sports, that first Series win, and Bill was the only person in the national media who could see what I was seeing. For that, he gets a pass with me.

[Judge Jude]

I attended an event about 10-12 years ago at the Ripkens' baseball academy in Aberdeen, Md. they have mini versions of The Green Monster at Fenway and such.

Billy got on the bus as the tour guide and told one hilarious story after another. then we get to the main stadium and what is supposed to be the big thrill - an audience with The Great Cal himself.

about 2 minutes into that wooden speech, we all were thinking, "Um, can we go on another bus ride with Billy instead?"