THE OTHER RIPKEN: An Accidental Hero

The Other Ripken is a short documentary film about a former baseball player named Billy Ripken, by writer/ director Tim Carr. Billy was part of the Ripken baseball dynasty that also included his father Cal Sr. and his brother Cal Jr. All three Ripkens worked for the Baltimore Orioles at some point in their careers. Ripken even made his debut for the team in 1987 during his father’s short-lived tenure as manager of the team.

The Card

Billy Ripken became especially well known in 1989 for a Fleer baseball card showing him with a baseball bat that had a filthy word written on it. Fleer ended up trying to cover up the word in a number of different ways, resulting in at least 12 different versions of the trading card. Over time this particular baseball trading card, as well as some of the censored versions, became some of the more widely coveted. Ironically enough, the Billy Ripken trading card is still more popular today than the trading card of his brother Cal Jr. who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ripken himself didn’t talk about the controversy until 2008, almost 20 years after the incident. In an interview with CNBC, he stated he had written the word on his batting practice bat to be able to separate his practice bat from his matchday bat. The reason the word appeared on the Fleer card was that he had to pose for the shot during a practice session, and he simply didn’t realize he posed with the wrong bat.

The original batch of cards were $5 a piece, but prices shot up to as high as $500 a piece once people realized the cards were unique. Ripken even gave signed copies of the uncensored trading card to his groomsmen when he got married that off-season, figuring they would become more valuable over time and it was better than giving them cufflinks.

The Other Ripken does a good job of showing Billy Ripken’s career as reenacted by actors, as well as his impact on local pop culture and the way his legacy lives on in the city of Baltimore. The narration by G. Love is very funny and the short song by P. Sedaka at the end of this short documentary, which was named for the word on the bat, is very entertaining as well.

Conclusion

I’d never heard of Billy Ripken, but then again I don’t know much about baseball. In every sport there are funny anecdotes that pile up over the years; these are the sorts of stories that take on a life of their own. The Other Ripken is a very funny short documentary about one of them.

Do you think the word on Billy’s bat was inappropriate or was it just good fun? Let us know in the comments!