How Cal Ripken could clean up baseball

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

Cal Ripken answered a question last week from an audience related to the issue of steroids and Alex Rodriguez, and it was in that context in which he gave this interesting answer: "I really want to know why [Rodriguez used steroids]," Ripken said at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's Men's Night Out banquet Thursday. "I'm going to make it my business to find out," he said.

"The steroid era really puts a dark cloud over baseball," Ripken said, "and that dark cloud is hanging and hanging."

There's more context needed on that answer about Rodriguez. Ripken also said it might take him years to get such an answer. So to be clear: Ripken is not jumping on a plane and planting himself in front of A-Rod's locker like some reporter on stakeout, demanding to have his questions addressed. He's just curious.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

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