Cal Ripken Jr.

Cal Ripken Jr. redefined durability and consistency in professional sports. Playing 21 seasons at shortstop and third base for the Baltimore Orioles, he broke Lou Gehrig's “unbreakable” record for consecutive games played, ultimately extending it to 2,632 straight games — a streak that earned him the nickname “The Iron Man.” A two-time AL MVP and 19-time All-Star, Ripken was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

In 2001, Ripken and his family created the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation in honor of his father, focused on using baseball and softball to help young people in underserved communities build character and life skills. Over 25 years, the foundation has built more than 125 Youth Development Parks, installed hundreds of STEM learning centers, and reached well over ten million young people nationwide, including through Badges for Baseball, a juvenile-crime-prevention mentoring program developed with the U.S. Department of Justice that pairs police officers with at-risk youth.

In 2002, Westcoast Sports Associates honored Cal Ripken Jr. with the Roy Firestone Award, recognizing both a record-setting career and a foundation that has become one of the most far-reaching youth sports philanthropies in the country.