People in Sports: Cal Ripken Jr. on steroids

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — With the almost daily talk of steroids in baseball, Cal Ripken Jr. had a basic concern — did the kids think it was OK to use performance enhancing drugs?

So Ripken, a future Hall-of-Famer and now one of youth baseball's leading champions, asks them whenever he had the chance.

"I kind of wanted to get an idea if, do they think morally, it's OK, which it's not," Ripken said Monday. "And my experience is that 99.999 percent of them come with the answer that it's wrong. So I'm really happy and satisfied with that, knowing when they make choices, they might not make the choice to go in that direction."

Ripken and brother, Billy, also a former major-leaguer, were on hand to open The Ripken Experience-Myrtle Beach, a $23 million facility that's as close to a dream complex as these middle-school players might ever have.

Intermixed between the seven existing fields — two more are under construction — are individual batting cages, pitching warmup areas and smaller fields for infield practice.

The Ripkens' father, Cal Sr., was a longtime member of the Baltimore organization and became the first in major league history to manage two sons. So the Ripkens grew up steeped in the "Oriole Way" of doing things. The two brothers published their book, "Play Baseball The Ripken Way," two years ago.

So it was shocking to Cal Jr. when the full force of steroid allegations hit the game.

"We find out it was more problematic than we thought," he said.

Ripken thinks the major leagues and the players' association have good plans in place to stop future use.

"So from my perspective, I'm satisfied the process will work," Ripken said.