Ripken shares secrets to successPublished on 01/30/2006 If only the work hours were different, Cal Ripken Jr., baseball's "Iron Man," might have ended up in a cornfield rather than the infield. Ripken joked during the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting that while his dad worked on a farm as a young man, he wanted a career that would let him sleep until noon and play all night. Ripken set a major league record of nearly 17 years of continuous play, appearing in 2,632 consecutive games before voluntarily sitting out a game. He said he was often stumped when fellow players or reporters asked him how he did it. "Everybody believes I possess a secret," he said as he explained the traits he sees as necessary for succeeding in life. "In a sense you were trying to define perseverance," he said during his keynote presentation. Ripken shared eight qualities that he credits for his longevity:
Ripken recalled a period when he was not hitting well and the media were calling for him to end his playing streak. When he was considering throwing in the towel, a fellow player gave him some blunt advice. "Basically, 'Fix your hitting, stop whining and go back to playing,'" Ripken said. Ripken shared a similarly straightforward philosophy for doing his job every day. "Be prepared, come to the ballpark ready to play and if the manager chooses you, you play," he said. He said a love of what he did carried him through all of his efforts especially in the latter part of his career when he was up against much younger players. "My ability to keep coming back was that I loved it so much," he said, adding that he always made sure nobody would come in and outwork him. But Ripken believes more than anything else, his value to his team was that he was consistent. "In baseball you can't always get the game-winning hit, you can't always make the game-winning catch, but what defines your value are the things in between," he said. Caption: Cal Ripken Jr., was the keynote speaker at the AFBF annual meeting. | |