William Oliver Ripken (born December 16, 1964 in Havre de Grace, Maryland) is the son of Orioles coach and former manager Cal Ripken, Sr. and the brother of Cal, Jr.

Bill played way above his abilities in his first season with Baltimore, hitting .308 in 58 games for his father. Showing good range a field, he remained Baltimore's regular second baseman in 1988 despite hitting .207 for new manager Frank Robinson.

He played in only 245 games during his final six years and was released in December 1992 after a string of injuries. Billy never matched his brother's durability, taking a total of 12 trips to the disabled list during his career. After retirement, Bill partnered with brother Cal to form Ripken Baseball, which owns two minor league teams, the Aberdeen Ironbirds and Augusta Greenjackets.

Ripken appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on May 2, 1988. The Orioles had lost their first 18 games of the season (they would lose three more before collecting their first win against the Chicago White Sox), and Ripken's photo was used in an emblematic fashion to symbolize frustration at the team's struggles.

Bill Ripken is perhaps best remembered, however, for an infamous baseball card. In 1989, Ripken's Fleer card showed the player holding a bat with an expletive written in plain view on the knob of the bat. Fleer subsequently rushed to correct the error, and in their haste, released versions in which the text was scrawled over with a marker, whited out with correction fluid, and also airbrushed. On the final, corrected version, Fleer obscured the offensive words with a black box (this was the version included in all factory sets). Both the original card and many of the corrected versions have become collector's items as a result.

Achievements and Honors

• An 11th round draft pick out of high school in 1982, Bill made his Major League debut in 1987 at the age of 22.
• Bill played 912 games in 12 seasons, including seven years with the Orioles (1987-'92, '96), three years with the Texas Rangers ('93-'94, '97) and a year each with the Cleveland Indians ('95) and the Detroit Tigers ('98).
• Known mostly as a utility player, Bill ended his career playing games at every infield position (2B - 769 games, SS - 72 games, 3B - 62 games and 1B - 13 games) and he owned a career fielding percentage of .985.
• In 1990, Bill led the American League with 17 sacrifices.
• While Cal is found extensively in baseball's record book, Bill Ripken owns a baseball record all to himself. On June 12, 1997, Bill was playing SS for the Texas Rangers against the San Francisco Giants in the first regular season interleague game in baseball history. In the bottom of the second inning, he singled with Damon Buford on second and collected the first RBI in MLB interleague play history!

Career Statistics

Contact Information

Direct emails for Bill Ripken to: bripken@hofmag.com