Report; Cal Ripken Jr. Is Honored at DCA
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Cal Ripken and family with Cynthia Harriss and Mickey
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Future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. began his final road trip to Southern California on Friday, July 27th. That evening his Baltimore Orioles would be begin a three game series with the Anaheim Angels. But first, Ripken would visit Disney's California Adventure with his family to be honored for his amazing career. On this day, Disney's California Adventure would be proclaimed Disney's CAL Adventure.

Ripken is known not only as a great baseball player, but also one of the great human beings of professional sports. Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss put it well in a comment to us after the ceremony: "I spent some time with him this morning. There’s a reason he is a wonderful inspiration. The way he spends time with his family, you can’t make this stuff up, he impressed as an athlete and as a father. It's a storybook tale."

Emceeing the event was ESPN's Gary Miller, host of the daily Up Close interview show. Also speaking were former Ripken teammate Doug DeCinces and Rex Hudler, former teammate and current Anaheim Angels announcer. Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss was also on-hand to make the proclamation.

Below is a transcript of the event along with video clips of the entire speeches of Rex Hudler, Cynthia Harriss and Cal Ripken.

Gary Miller
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Gary Miller
Welcome to all of you who are lucky enough to be here at Disney’s California Adventure today. It’s my pleasure to be here for you on this special day and to honor this special man. For the past 21 years, every time the Baltimore Orioles have come to town, Cal Ripken Jr. has been with them. The three game series with the Angels that begins tonight down the street marks Cal’s final appearance in uniform here in Southern California. We’re here today to pay tribute to the outstanding career of one of the game’s greatest player, ambassador and role model. I’d like to take a moment to extend a special welcome to the members of Cal Ripken Baseball (little league) who have joined us here today. Let’s give them a big hand.

That’s how big Cal is. He has a league named after him. Now I’m going to be a typical baseball fan for a few minutes and talk about Cal’s accomplishments as a ballplayer. The streak lasted 17 seasons. To detail these accomplishments will take almost that long. In 1982 it all started when Cal won the American League’s Rookie of the Year award. The next year he was the Most Valuable Player. He did that again in 1991. He has hit more home runs that any shortstop in American League history and in the process he pretty much reinvented the way that position is played. You see, until Cal came around shortstops used to be little guys - PeeWee (Reese), Scooter (Phil Rizzuto), Little Louie (Luis Aparicio), Campy (Bert Campaneris).

No shortstop in the Hall of Fame has a higher fielding percentage than Cal and he had to scoop down lower than anyone to get the ball. He holds the major league record for consecutive games without an error at shortstop, 95. One year he made three errors as a shortstop. That’s mind boggling. His nineteen consecutive All-Star nominations is also a record. In 1991, the MVP season, he was also the MVP of the All-Star game. He won the home run contest to boot there. You might have seen the All-Star game earlier this month in Seattle. Cal hit a home run in that game. Once again, he was the All-Star MVP.