Cal Ripken Jr.: Baseball to me – you can be of any size and shape to play the game. It’s really interesting, you look at the history of players, you have MVPs that are (José) Altuve, and Dustin Pedroia, or small guys but swing a good bat, good high ball hitters. They can have a big influence on the team. Any size, any shape. Other sports, you know, it’s good to be tall if you’re playing basketball, you know, it’s good to be super quick. In football it’s good to be big and strong, or the fastest person on the field.
You know, there are almost some physical aspects of those games in order to play at the highest level. Baseball you can be any size, any shape, and you can give it a try. And there’s an individual part of baseball that when you’re at the plate, you’re all by yourself, you know, you’re trying to do it. In the field, the groundball is hit to you, no one else is helping you field that groundball.
But it’s the way that you play together that you can blend that individual contribution to a team dynamic which I think is the coolest part. So, the nature of the game, it’s not slow to me, it’s a cerebral game, it’s a lot of thinking that goes on, but you can take a lot of individual performance and blend them, you know, they call it chemistry in baseball, that you’re blending those talents, and personalities, for a desired effect so you can win. And there’s no better feeling than winning.