Billy Ripken on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1988.

William Oliver Ripken (born December 16, 1964 in Havre de Grace, Maryland) is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball from 1987-1998. He threw and batted right-handed. Ripken, who is the brother of Cal Ripken, Jr. and the son of Cal Ripken, Sr., played alongside his brother and was managed by his father as a member of the Baltimore Orioles from 1987-1988. Ripken remained with the team through the 1992 season and returned for a couple short stints later in his career. Image File history File links Billy_Ripken. ... Image File history File links Billy_Ripken. ... The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Matthews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Founded Incorporated   County Harford County Mayor David R. Craig Area  - Total  - Water 14. ... The position of the second baseman Second base redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is currently under construction // This year in baseball Events January 14 - Catfish Hunter and Billy Williams are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. ... This article is currently under construction // This year in baseball Events January 12 - Former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell is the only player elected this year to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. ... Calvin Edwin Cal Ripken, Jr. ... Calvin Cal Edwin Ripken, Sr. ... Major league affiliations American League (1901–present) East Division (1969–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 4,5,8,20,22,33 Name Baltimore Orioles (1954–present) St. ... // This year in baseball Events January 7 - Pitchers Tom Seaver and Rollie Fingers are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. ...

After retirement, Billy partnered with brother Cal to form Ripken Baseball, which owns two minor league teams, the Aberdeen Ironbirds and Augusta Greenjackets.

Major league career

Although he was not the great hitter that his brother was (he ended his major league career with just 20 home runs, 229 RBIs and a .247 batting average), Ripken was a good defensive second baseman and utility player. In 1990, Ripken led the league in sacrifice hits with 17, though he had 19 the year before that, which was third in the league. In baseball, a home run is a base hit in which the batter is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring a run himself (along with a run scored by each runner who was already on base), with no errors by the defensive team on... In baseball statistics, a run batted in (RBI) is given to a batter for each run scored as the result of a batters plate appearance. ... Batting average is a statistic in both baseball and cricket measuring the performance of baseball hitters and cricket batsmen, respectively. ... // This year in baseball Events January 9 - Jim Palmer, a three-time American League Cy Young Award winner, and Joe Morgan, a two-time National League MVP, are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in their first years of eligibility. ... In baseball, a sacrifice hit (also called a sacrifice bunt) is the act of deliberately bunting the ball in a manner that allows a runner on base to advance to another base, while the batter is himself put out. ...

In a 12-season career, Ripken stole 25 bases, scored 287 runs, and had 674 career hits in 2729 at bats. He played in 912 career games. The all-time stolen base leader, Rickey Henderson, swipes third in 1985 In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate. ... In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances safely around all three bases and returns safely to home plate. ... In Major League Baseball history, Ty Cobb had a record 4,191 hits by 1928; Pete Rose would surpass it 57 years later, and finish with 4,256 career hits. ... In baseball statistics, an at bat (AB) is used to calculate other data such as batting average. ...

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. The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Matthews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ... May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... See also: 1987 in sports, other events of 1988, 1989 in sports and the list of years in sports. // Auto Racing Stock car racing: Bobby Allison won the Daytona 500 NASCAR Championship - Bill Elliott CART Racing - Danny Sullivan won the season championship Indianapolis 500 - Rick Mears Formula One Championship - Ayrton... Major league affiliations American League (1901–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 2,3,4,9,11,16,19,72 Name Chicago White Sox (1904–present) White Stockings <no city in official name, but based in Chicago> (1901-1903) Ballpark U.S. Cellular Field (1991–present) Comiskey...

1989 baseball card

Billy Ripken's 1989 baseball card depicting the words "fuck face"

Billy Ripken is perhaps best remembered, however, for an infamous baseball card. In 1989, Ripken's Fleer card showed the player holding a bat with the expletive fuck face 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. There are at least ten different variations of this card, image here. Image File history File links Ripkenffcard. ... Image File history File links Ripkenffcard. ... 1989 in baseball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in the mid-19th century, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubblegum. ... The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language. The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning to fill, via expletivus, filling out. It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding -- the padding... A bottle of correction fluid Correction fluid is an opaque, white fluid applied to paper to mask errors in text. ...

Shortly thereafter, speculation began on how the expletive came to be on Ripken's card. At first, it was believed that a Fleer employee touched up the photograph and added the obscenity. As related by Ripken, some of his Orioles teammates played a joke by writing the words there, and they went unnoticed during the photo shoot.

Despite his confession, many find it highly implausible that Ripken and the Fleer employees involved with the production failed to notice what was written on the bat, and suggest that one or more of them knew about the obscenity but deliberately allowed it to slip through. One reason for this suspicion is that the obscenity is right-side up. Had Ripken simply grabbed the bat and posed for the photo, not knowing or seeing what was on the bat, odds are that it wouldn't have been so straight.

There is a musical group from Massachusetts, "The Billy Ripken Fuck Face Card," that takes its name from the Fleer baseball card incident. To quote one of the bandmembers, drummer Shawn Fogel: "The background of course is that Billy wasn't that good — or liked by his teammates — but got on the team because his brother Cal insisted on it." While this doubtless makes a good story for a band name, the accuracy regarding Ripken's placement with the Orioles and his relationships with teammates is unknown.

External links

• BILLRIPKEN.COM (Looking for the FF)
• Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
• The 1989 Billy Ripken Fleer Baseball Card, Before and After