Ripken Addresses Legislators At MML Convention

Ripken Addresses Legislators At MML Convention
Ripken

OCEAN CITY — The Iron Man was in Ocean City this week.

Former Orioles and Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. gave the keynote address to kick off this year’s Maryland Municipal League (MML) Convention. Drawing from his book, Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference, Ripken gave municipal leaders from across the state tips on conviction, passion and attitude that he feels are as valuable off the field as on.

While the eight elements Ripken refers to in his book were initially conceived of as a list of the qualities he felt would be necessary to break his famous consecutive games played record, which still stands at 2,632, those same lessons are applicable in municipal government and life in general, according to the baseball legend.

Those eight elements are: the right values, a strong will to succeed, loving what you do, preparation, anticipation, trusting relationships, life management and the courage of your convictions. It’s all in keeping with this year’s MML theme of “Educate, Engage, and Excel.”

“You’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to love what you do. If there was one thing that allowed me to break that record, it was that I absolutely love being a baseball player,” Ripken told the packed MML crowd. “And it’s the love of what you do that carries you through the hard times. The easy times are easy. You just show up and you do it because it’s easy. The hard times take a lot of effort to actually show up and do it.”

Ripken saw more than a few rough periods during his 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. He spoke briefly about the 1988 season, which has a black mark beside it for any Orioles fan. Ripken and his brother, Bill, both played for the team at the time and his father, Cal Ripken Sr., was the manager.

“We started that season 0-6. And then they fired my dad. And then, just to prove that it wasn’t my dad’s fault, we decided to lose 15 more [games] in a row,” Ripken joked.

But eventually the team was able to turn things around and by the next season was shooting for the playoffs. It all boils down to a willingness to keep showing up even when things aren’t going your way, which has a fitting parallel with trying to run a local government. A degree of stubbornness is a good thing, said Ripken, as is the conviction to stand up for what you believe is right.

Even with that conviction, things will go wrong and preparing for those eventualities was a big theme of Ripken’s speech. Strength, mental and physical, is necessary on the field and Ripken noted that strength tends to be earned by putting in hard work beforehand. But perhaps more important than just building strength is shoring up weaknesses, something the former Oriole said few people like to confront, especially if they’ve become comfortable in their lives and in their career.

“Once you have a certain degree of success and once you live life a little bit, sometimes you get into a coasting mode,” Ripken said, “sometimes you get into a complacency a little bit. And you want to be able to be in touch with that edge that you had coming in.”

In government and in baseball, the most important thing is showing up ready to do work, added Ripken. Everything else comes after that. That’s why, while he put up Hall of Fame worthy numbers in hits, runs and bases, Ripken’s legacy as the Iron Man comes from his willingness to keep showing up. He left the gathered leaders with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, one that he said he often carried with him during his career.

“’Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat,” Ripken said.

Ripken is a Maryland native, hailing from Aberdeen, Md. He played his entire professional career, 1981 to 2001, with the Baltimore Orioles.