Baseball's "Iron Man" and future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. will speak at 8 tonight in Eisenhower Auditorium as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS).
Ripken, 45, retired from baseball in October 2001 after 21 consecutive seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. In September 1995, Ripken made history when he broke Lou Gehrig's 56-year record of 2,130 consecutive games played.
Ripken ended his consecutive-game streak at 2,632 games, when he voluntarily sat out a game in 1998. His record, known as The Streak, still stands today.
Billy Lippert, pitching coach for the Penn State baseball club, said that when he thinks of Ripken, The Streak is the first thing that comes to mind.
"He broke a record that nobody ever thought could be broken," Lippert said. "It's just amazing, considering that people go on the injured list every day from anything to a broken leg to a hangnail."
The son of a long-time coach and Baltimore Orioles manager, Ripken joined the Orioles in 1981. In 1982, he started at shortstop and was named the American League Rookie of the Year. The next season he won the Most Valuable Player award and led the team to their third World Series title.
The 6-feet-4-inch, 220-pound Ripken was more muscular and larger than past shortstops. Ripken was also a threat on offense, another rarity for a shortstop at the time. He holds the record for career home runs by a shortstop.
Lippert said Ripken helped pave the way for other larger, power-hitting shortstops like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Miguel Tejada.
"Historically, the shortstops were considered light-hitting," Lippert said. "He was pretty much the first to come along that says, 'You know I can do more than field, I can hit for power, I can run, I can play great defense on top of all that.' "
DSS Chair Leah Weiser said Ripken would speak about perseverance and leadership because those are the things he's most famous for.
"He is really a nice role model for people in college to actually see because they're all striving toward a goal to fulfilling their graduate or undergraduate studies and headed for fulfilling a career of their own," Weiser said.
In 2001, Ripken and his family established the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, which helps teach life lessons through baseball to disadvantaged youth from all over the country. With NikeGO, the non-profit arm of Nike, the foundation has donated more than $1 million in baseball and softball equipment to school systems across the country.
Penn State spokeswoman Karen Zitomer said Ripken's philanthropy has made an incredible impact.
"Not only is he someone who has excelled in his own right within his sport, he's trying to use his love of baseball to help cultivate that passion among a new generation," Zitomer said.
Mark Mihalik, president of the baseball club, said Ripken is someone many people can relate to -- not just athletes.
"Whether you were an Orioles fan or not, you couldn't help but love him," Mihalik said. "He was a hard worker his entire career. That's such an inspiration to a lot of people."
There are still a few tickets left for the event, which is free to the public. Tickets are required and can be obtained from the Eisenhower Auditorium box office, the HUB-Robeson Center, or the Downtown Theater Center. There is a maximum of two tickets per Penn State ID.
The event is sponsored by the DSS and co-sponsored by the Kinesiology Department, the Student Athletic Advisory Board and the baseball club.
Also speaking in the series are Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell in January and Civil Rights activist Yolanda King in February.
