Who Is The Best Oriole Of All Time?
Cal Ripken Jr. is the best Baltimore Orioles of all time. Ripken Jr. is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001).
Ken Ripken’s 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, and 1,695 runs batted in made him one of the most productive players in his position, but he also won two Gold Glove Awards for his defense.
To his credit, he was a 19-time All-Star and two-time American League MVP (MVP). After 56 years, Ripken has broken Lou Gehrig’s long-standing record of 2,130 straight games, which many considered unbreakable.
During his first year of eligibility, he received 98.53 percent of the votes, the sixth-highest election percentage in National Baseball Hall of Fame history.
His father, the Orioles player and coach Cal Ripken Sr., was constantly on the road as a player and coach in the team’s organization. The Baltimore Orioles selected Ripken Jr. in the second round of the 1978 MLB draft after he played high school baseball at Aberdeen High School.
In 1981, he made his MLB debut as a shortstop, but in 1982, he was switched to third base, where he remained for the remainder of his career.
When Ripken was a rookie in 1988, he earned the American League Rookie of the Year Award and started his streak of consecutive games played. In 1983, he defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series to win his first American League MVP Award.