Growin' Up With Cal
by brooksflow on Feb 26, 2009 5:19 PM EST
29 comments
We've been going through a major attic overhaul in an effort to finish off the space and get organized. I was delighted to find these posters, which had been forgotten for some time.
via homepage.mac.com
via homepage.mac.com
I can't remember where the small poster came from, but the life size Cal was definitely a Camden Yards giveaway. The picture I took didn't turn out so well and doesn't do the poster's size justice. It also kinda looks like Cal is grabbing the Milk Monster fuzzbump, when he's actually leaning on a bat. Anyway, the poster is Cal's height, 6'4". I even laid it out on the floor and got up on a ladder to get the picture. I remember that it was supposed to be for younger kids (I was probably 15 or 16 at the time - maybe younger), but I got the folks at the gate to give me one anyway. These things brought up some fond O's memories so I just thought I'd share. Go O's!
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AWESOME.
Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing!
by zknower on Feb 26, 2009 8:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Nice!
Gotta love anything Cal…and damn was there enough of it! I have so much Ripken mem that it takes up half my baseball room my house (yes I waist an entire room on baseball…forgive me). Great post, long live the 80’s kids!
The blues have always been American, as American as apple pie. The question is...why?
by sickuvitall on Feb 26, 2009 10:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Some of the only cards I’ve really saved with effort are my pages of Cal cards.
"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler
by SC on Feb 27, 2009 3:10 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Wait a minute...
Looking at the lineup of guys at the bottom of that first poster:
Garvey, Ozzie, Trammell, JAVY?, George Foster, Killer, and Frank Robby.
What an odd collection of players. As I took a closer look, George Foster sticks out too, since his career went south in a hurry, but Javy still looks funny in the middle of those reitred players.
by Brotz13 on Feb 27, 2009 9:21 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
I thought the same thing
I wish I knew where the heck that poster came from. The absence of logos is kind of funny, too. I wish I hadn’t covered it up with the candle, but you can still see part of a Snack-Wells logo. I dunno about in MD, but in NC there was a big time run on the devil’s food Snack Wells for some reason. Enough to make it a story on the local news. I can’t recall whether there was just a shortage or if Nabisco was discontinuing the brand. Reminds me of Cheers when Woody hoarded his veggie-boy.
by brooksflow on Feb 27, 2009 12:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Awesome.
More than one classroom in elementary school had some version of a Cal Ripken growth chart. They were omnipresent in a Baltimore kid’s childhood for at least a decade, I think.
"Believe it or not, I read the paper." - Nick Markakis
by 2632 on Feb 27, 2009 11:52 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
All of Maryland
For that matter.
My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.' -Earl Weaver
by Baltimo on Feb 27, 2009 12:07 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah
We had the Cal Ripken ‘got milk’ poster in my elementary school gym in Silver Spring, MD.
Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey
by jobe on Feb 27, 2009 2:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Cal spanned the States
He was on one of those “read more!” things or something (don’t do drugs, perhaps) in my school in Coloma, MI.
"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler
by SC on Feb 28, 2009 4:51 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Not that it is that important,
but how did you become an O’s fan SC? The team isn’t known for drawing much out-of-area interest…
The blues have always been American, as American as apple pie. The question is...why?
by sickuvitall on Feb 28, 2009 11:24 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
It used to
My best game plan is to sit on the bench and call out specific instructions like 'C'mon Boog,' 'Get ahold of one, Frank,' or 'Let's go, Brooks.' -Earl Weaver
by Baltimo on Feb 28, 2009 12:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
In short:
1. My family didn’t have any baseball fans.
2. When I was seven or eight I fell in love with baseball because I got some baseball cards.
3. I liked the numbers on the back.
4. I liked Cal Ripken and Mickey Tettleton (Cal was Cal, Tettleton had a cool name).
5. I picked the Orioles as my favorite team because of those players.
6. Since I liked the numbers on the back of the cards so much, I began following the box scores religiously in the paper. I kept up with baseball not by watching it much on TV, but reading about it (I watched Cubs games on WGN and Braves on TBS and the playoffs and ESPN and stuff, but that was really it. Most Tigers games were on PASS Sports, which was a pay channel we didn’t have.)
7. When I was playing baseball and got to the age where you start caring about winning, I became a pitcher. I didn’t have a great fastball. Mussina became my hero. Him and Greg Maddux.
"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler
by SC on Mar 1, 2009 6:43 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
You should stick that somewhere on the site
Since you get asked so often :)
[Guthrie's] president of my heart. ~PhilR8
by Stacey on Mar 1, 2009 4:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I'm pretty sure he has it as a macro on his keyboard
so he can just cut n’ paste a few times a season.
Duck Around - a progressive blog about the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And getting off my lawn.
by duck on Mar 1, 2009 6:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I love Cal (and the Ripkens) but......
those last couple of years – if I had a dime for everytime he hit a baby grounder or infield pop fly to kill a rally , I’d wouldn’t be worried about the current economic conditions.
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream.What would you wonder
and how would it seem? Neil Young - 'words'
by breweyboy18 on Feb 28, 2009 12:25 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Yeah well same with Brooks Robinson or any other great player that hangs on “too long.” Guys are going to play past their expiration date.
"If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That's all I am. I live it." -- Marvin Hagler
by SC on Mar 1, 2009 6:44 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Brooks' last few years were brutal
Duck Around - a progressive blog about the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And getting off my lawn.
by duck on Mar 1, 2009 7:52 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Sorry to be a buzzkill.....
just an observation. Brooks WAS brutal towards the end – still love them all though.
Go Birds!!!!
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream.What would you wonder
and how would it seem? Neil Young - 'words'
by breweyboy18 on Mar 1, 2009 10:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
No worries
I was just jokin’ around. The mind’s ability to indulge in revisionist history or selective memory is powerful. Buzz back on!
by brooksflow on Mar 1, 2009 11:26 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
From the attic . . .
Brotha Brooksflow thanks for sharing our memories with the faithful . . . I’m so glad my poster is still preserved for the day I have a kid who wants to measure their height against a bedroom door . . . the only problem is how will I trick them into thinking that Cal still plays for the O’s? I can hear it now, our first game at Camden . . . “Dad, where’s number 8? I don’t see him . . .” HA!
"What good are fans. You can't eat applause for breakfast" -Bob Dylan
by gwill2k8 on Mar 1, 2009 5:56 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
'Sup G!
I was wondering if I’d catch you on here. Your poster is well preserved and remains in its sleeve, but you’d better have a big door. I was guessing on my age in the original post, so I’ll ask if you can remember. How old were we? And was it the time HTS filmed us asking baseball questions?
by brooksflow on Mar 2, 2009 10:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
If memory serves . . .
Camden opened in 92 and it had to be that year or the year following . . . perhaps we were both too old for those posters . . . I swear you were denied and you/ or Dad grabbed one on the back end after getting passed the gatekeeper, but maybe that was some other giveaway . . . HTS interviewed us and I’d be willing to bet if any question made the broadcast it was Dad’s about the umps and the rosin bags . . . damn O’s memories, i sure hope this year delivers!
PS Remember when we saw the Birds play the Indians and those Jack-ass Cleveland fans tried to say that Camden Yards was copied after Jacobs Field . . . terrible!
"What good are fans. You can't eat applause for breakfast" -Bob Dylan
by gwill2k8 on Mar 2, 2009 10:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Dad's HTS question
He wanted to know if the baseballs were still rubbed with clay prior to being used in ballgames. I had forgotten all about that until The Sun ran a story on Ernie Tyler breaking his own streak to attend Cal’s HOF induction. If I’m not mistaken Tyler is responsible for the baseballs and the umps. I just can’t remember whether he or the umps are charged with rubbin’ up the baseballs.
Part of me suspects that Dad knew the answer to his own question b/c when we asked him what in the world he was talking about he told us about where they dug up some special clay mud out of a river somewhere.
The attic also revealed more old O’s photos from the 70’s. One or two were of Memorial Stadium and the others were taken from behind third base of players warming up. I might scan ‘em and post a few here, but most of them didn’t turn out that well.
by brooksflow on Mar 3, 2009 12:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I guess A-Roid didn’t read the first poster
by raven on Mar 2, 2009 8:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
We probably should have traded Cal the day after the streak ended at 8:00AM to fill some pitching needs. Do you think he’s 1 of the 106 not named yet? What if cows took illegal drugs and Cal drank too much milk and his sample from that year tests positive. What about all the kids who ingested too much milk with hormones and steroids thanks to Cal. It’s the cow’s fault. Drink more Silk and Horizon Organic. It’s been the cows all along. I friggin new it, with their black and white disquises and code moo’s.
by raven on Mar 2, 2009 8:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
First O's game
I can’t remember what year it was, I think 1991, but I was about 7 and had gone to Memorial Stadium for my first O’s game (I lived in Bethesda) specifically to see Cal, my hero. It just happened that some kid (Wilson Alvarez I think) for the White Sox threw a no hitter. I kept asking my Dad why Cal couldn’t hit the ball… So sad, but at least I’ve seen a no-no.
by DCbird on Mar 3, 2009 2:35 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
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