<FONT color=blue>PestWorld '08 Coverage</FONT>: Cal Ripken Jr. Addresses Attendees

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Baseball’s Iron Man spoke to a packed house about leadership and success at the 2008 PestWorld convention near Washington, D.C.

Cal Ripken Jr. retired from baseball in 2001 after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. He is one of only eight players in history to achieve 400 home runs and 3,000 hits.

In 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played (2,130) and voluntarily ended his streak in 1998 after playing 2,632 consecutive games. Although he finished his career at third base, this future Hall of Famer is still best known for redefining the position of shortstop.

During the standing-room-only keynote session, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, Ripken outlined his eight steps to reach personal and professional success:

1. Take the right approach. Ripken said his position as shortstop and his longtime record as a great hitter sometimes put a lot of pressure on him. When he would get in a slump, he would really beat himself up, and sometimes question if he should take a day off.

So, one day he took his case to teammate Rick Sutcliffe. The six-foot-eight-inch, 260-pound pitcher said if Ripken took a game off, the story would certainly appear all over the newspaper: the sports page, the front page, maybe even the business section.

But he told the Iron Man that his name would certainly appear in another section he hadn’t yet thought of if he skipped a game: “The obituaries, because I’m gonna kill you.”

That encounter made Ripken realize that he was more than just a hitter for his team. The rest of the squad relied on him. “My job is just to be available to the manager,” Ripken said.

2. Have a strong will to succeed. When Ripken was a young ballplayer, he became very upset when things wouldn’t work his way. He would throw tantrums, helmets, even his fists, because he wanted to win so badly.

But his parents encouraged him to channel that inner drive and power to more positive endeavors: running, doing pushups or practicing his fielding.

“That’s what it is, it’s power inside of you,” he said.

3. Be passionate. Ripken credits his many successes to the fact that he truly enjoyed what he did for a living.

“I absolutely loved every minute of what I did,” said Ripken. During the 1988 season, his team started 0-21. “It was the love of what I did that got me to the other side.”

4. Be competitive. Ripken came up through the baseball system as a third baseman. One day, his manager tried him temporarily at shortstop. That "temporary" move lasted 15 years.

But when new, younger players would come up and gun for his position, he wouldn’t turn them away. He would give them advice and try to make them feel comfortable. But, when it came to doing drills on the field, he was out to beat them on every play.

“You shouldn’t be satisfied with who you are. You should always strive to be better,” he said. “Try and find something that will give you that edge.”

5. Be consistent. Hitting homeruns for the Orioles was great, Ripken said, but he could do much more than that. He could sacrifice fly, he could bunt, he could bunt for a hit, he could steal a base, he could even call pitches when he had to.

He told the audience that they should look outside their skill set, and find things they can do that other members of their team can’t (or don’t). That makes you irreplaceable, he said, and allows you to define your own true value to your organization. 

6. Be a person of conviction. Stand up for yourself when you know you’re right, Ripken said. Be courageous and stubborn if you have to.

7. Be strong. A baseball player’s physical and mental strength are his primary tools for success. Ripken said business owners should find out what their main tools are, and focus on maintaining them.

“Don’t forget about your tools. Keep them sharp,” he said.

8. Manage your life well. During his tenure with the Orioles, Ripken played for nine different managers. That’s a lot of different management styles and opportunities for his role with the team to change. He couldn’t control who a new manager would be, or how he would run the team, but he could work with his new boss.

Whenever a new manager would come to the team, Ripken would go into his office before spring training and ask him what he thought Ripken’s role would be. He would listen, and then offer his own perspective on the upcoming training and season: He needed to focus more on his fielding and spend more time in the batting cages, and then play more on the field as the season approached. 

“Change came to me,” he said. But by making himself available and by working with his boss, Ripken was able to establish his own place with the team.

Ripken closed his talk with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Then, he simplified the message through a baseball filter: “You can’t accomplish anything from the sidelines,” he said. “You’ve got to have the courage to get in the game.”

After the session, NPMA raffled off an autographed No. 8 jersey. Barbara Nixon, American Pest Management, Takoma Park, Md., won the jersey, and gave it to her son Matt, a longtime fan of the Orioles.