Ripken, the fat Paris Hilton of baseball

Ripken was already overexposed in any area of life. He's like glue running over the planet, trying to plug up every available space. It's rude, it's offensive. No one has the right to invade every waking minute of my day, but this creepy individual honestly believes EVERYONES' eyes and ears belong to him.

• He's all over radio and television either as a "personality" or hawking something. He's Mr. Media. Which should be something different than being a baseball player. He's apparently infected my government as well, getting some pork from taxpayers for his personal projects. They may be good projects, but it's all about him, a constant shameless grab for public money and attention.

He incessantly drips throughout XM Radio of course. The payoff: HE'S BORING. He's not a broadcaster. He has a raspy boring voice, is a boring speaker, and has nothing to say. The worst is yet to come--he has a brother he's foisted on XM listeners who's even more tedious, boring and has even less talent. But the brother wants to make money, so like Cal, he tries to get it from you and me by INCESSANTLY GRABBING MEDIA ATTENTION. Government, media, now talking about buying a team, perhaps the Orioles.

• At the end of his playing days he was disgusting as well, caring not for the team, making everything revolve around him. How could anyone stand a selfish creep like this? The truth is he was a horrible nightmare even then, caring only for COMPILING his own stats. ALL RIPKEN HAS EVER BEEN ABOUT IS PUBLICITY & MEDIA. JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE GOOD AT BASEBALL DOESN'T ENTITLE YOU TO INVADE EVERY DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE.
• And, Jesus, Peter Schmuck, writer and WBAL radio pal, Yankee fans don't care about Ripken. I NEVER think of Lou Gehrig in conjuction with Ripken, his nickname, his memorabilia, etc. There's no connection, Pete. We're not going to Cooperstown to celebrate by some faint association with Gehrig, as you once posited. Ripken is an infestation, a ballplayer who couldn't just enjoy the public attention that naturally came his way. He hogged it, he greedily has put his dull, boring, paws into everything along with his grasping, idiotic brother. Please take a trip to a foreign country both of you.

When I drive on I95 near Baltimore, I start crying, as I'm forced to see highway signage with his name on it. If I close my eyes, I'll crash the car and certainly die but that might be a better choice. A couple of years ago, I'd hear some Oriole's radio broadcasts where the first commercial in a break was a long sappy, boring song which I couldn't even understand for months. Finally it dawned on my that the lyric was, "the Ripken yearrrrrrrsssssss................." by a lush-voiced vocal group. The first spot in a commercial break wasted on this kind of crap? That happens to be the most valuable commercial time in the game, and to think a retired ballplayer would even allow his former team to waste this key time on his giant ego, when it could be developing revenue and relationships with other advertisers is stunningly sick to me. Who are all the spineless media people handing him these platforms? STOP.

• He was extremely over hyped many years ago. Neither he nor his brother should be allowed on any radio station for at least 10 years. I've recently cut back a lot of radio listening if I think there's a chance I'd have to hear anything by or about these 2.

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