It was an interleague series, so rarely did the Orioles find themselves ever playing there, and this would be the last trip for Ripken since he had already announced the 2001 season was his last season.
Being Key West Citizen sports editor, I carried a fair amount of clout. And I had known Ripken's first roommate in the minors was a pitcher named Brooks Carey. Many may not know that name, but in Key West where Carey is from and did coach the Key West High baseball team for three seasons and coached them to a state title in 1998, he was revered.
So the day before I made the trip to Miami for the game on this particular Sunday, I had written a column talking to Carey about his time as a teammate of Ripken's in rookie ball in Bluefield, W. Va. If you've never heard of the town, it's mentioned in the Stylistics' 1973 hit "Rockin' Roll Baby" as well as the home of famed mathematician John Nash of "A Beautiful Mind" fame.
Turns out Ripken knew quite a bit about pitching and he and Carey, he told me, would talk about pitching. But this is where he first got to meet him as a teammate in the Orioles' minor league organization. Carey told me he would be at Pro Player Stadium for the opening Sunday game of the three-game set. So I brought a copy of the paper with me as I made my way up Sunday morning through the Florida Keys on the Overseas Highway and onto Florida's Turnpike in Florida City until reaching Miami Gardens and where the Marlins play.
The trip took three and a half hours to make, but I got to my destination at 11:45 a.m. on this Sunday morning. I found my way to my press box seat for the game -- the first time I ever covered anything at this stadium. But before I could relax and then have lunch before the game, I sought out Bill Stetka, the director of public relations with the Orioles. After I found him on the field, I introduced myself to him and handed him a copy of the column I wrote on Ripken and Carey in my paper that day. Then he leans in and tells me something I really didn't know.
"Our trainer, Richie Bancells, is also from Key West."
"Oh? Is he nearby?"
Suddenly, Stetka is walking me over to the Orioles dugout where Bancells is all by his lonesome watching batting practice. Stetka introduces each other and for the next 10 minutes, me and my mini-tape recorder are listening to everything Bancells is telling me. He's a Key West guy through and through -- went to Mary Immaculate High School, where he graduated in 1973. Was with the Orioles organization since right out of college in 1977 and became the head trainer of the Orioles in 1984 (a position he held until retiring in 2017).
I would get a later feature story on him for the paper. And Ripken would later say it was Bancells who helped to keep him healthy during the streak of 2,632 straight games.
I had that interview in the can, ate lunch and was at my press box seat. Many Orioles teammates of the past like Terry Crowley and Eddie Murray, now Orioles coaches at that time, along with former Orioles manager Earl Weaver and the legendary Andre Dawson (a South Florida native) were part of a 20-minute ceremony that saw Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski give Ripken a plaque featuring the 1967 Miami Marlins team that Ripken's feather, Cal Sr., managed. Ripken Jr. took a look at the plaque and the solo picture of his father for which Ripken looked at the spitting image of him and said, "I guess I do look like my father." He thanked the Marlins' organization and the fans since Miami was an Orioles affiliate long before becoming an MLB franchise in 1993.
As for the game, the Marlins won, 7-1, over the Orioles. Past and future World Series champions Charles Johnson, Kevin Millar and Mike Lowell all hit home runs for the Marlins. For the Orioles, it was Ripken, fresh off a two-home run game the night before in Atlanta, who drove in the team's only run with a groundout that scored Chris Richard.
I obviously wanted to get interviews with plenty of people. After the game, the Orioles held a presser just for Ripken. I honestly can't remember how I phrased it, but I told him his first minor league teammate, Carey, was at the game today and if he had seen him, which he had not. Side story: In 1998, Ripken came to Key West with Bancells as part of a charity event to help a friend of Carey's, while Carey was Key West's head baseball coach.
I left the press conference and I came upon one of Ripken's agents/handlers. Apparently, this man knew who I was when I mentioned my name and said, "Oh, yeah, Cal was reading that story you did on him (and Carey) when I saw him before the game."
I already had a small history with Ripken after exchanging stories with him at the 1996 MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia. To this day, he's still one of the best human beings I have ever interviewed.
Eventually, I left from there to go to the other side and wrapped my way into the Marlins' clubhouse and into interim manager Tony Perez's office. He was conducting the postgame press conference. In 1983 when Ripken's Orioles won the World Series, Perez was playing for the Philadelphia Phillies. I asked him the big difference between that Cal Ripken Jr. and the one he saw play on this particular day.
"He's got no hair," Perez said, then started to laugh. "He's bald now. It was a long time ago (since he saw him). But it was nice to see him."
After he had ended his press conference, I looked for star players who played the infield and may have been inspired by Ripken. I hit the jackpot with Lowell, who grew up in Puerto Rico and idolized Ripken as a child.
"When I was in high school, my mom said, 'If you're going to play like anyone, I wish you would play like Cal Ripken," he said to me. "She said that because he's tal and he's gifted with this good, raw speed and he's basically used good balance to maximize his talent to allow him to go this far."
He continued on. "To play 16 years without a day off is ridiculous. That's a record that will never be broken. I played every day for two years in the minor leagues and I felt like I played 14 years in a row right there."
I exited the Marlins' clubhouse, went back upstairs to the press box, grabbed my stuff and headed out of the Pro Player Stadium to the closest Kinko's to write and send my story to my assistant and layout guy, Matt, back at the Citizen, and then make the 3 1/2-hour journey back to Key West, arriving back at my apartment on Duck Avenue just after 9 p.m.
But I also think back to one quote Ripken gave about the fans during his final season at his press conference after the game.
"I just really want to say thanks," he started. "I wish I could keep it to a couple of words and say, 'Thank you,' and make people understand how much I appreciate it. Being in a position to look back in the stands and see all the faces and some of them are sad and some are happy, you look at each one and just want to say, 'Thank you.'"
No. Thank YOU, Cal.
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