The first pitch is history and the Ripken Experience is underway in Elizabethtown.
To throw out the ceremonial first pitch was Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., for whom the effort is named.
Comparing it to opening day at any of the major league ballparks he played in during his storied 21-season career, Ripken
“What’s really interesting is all the pomp and circumstance that goes into the first part of the big league season,” he said. “I’ve always thought it brings a certain excitement, so the celebrations here bring attention to the fact that the whole thing is getting started is really exciting. We are trying to provide it.”
With players for the weekend’s opening tournament assembled on the field, Ripken said he wanted each of them to have an experience similar to what he, his father, Cal Ripken Sr., and his brother, Billy Ripken, were able to have. enjoy.
“You’re going to do a lot of the things that big leaguers do and you’re going to bring the quality of the experience,” he told the players gathered on the field. “So I hope you like it.”
Naming some of his Hall of Fame friends, including Ozzie Smith and Eddie Murray, Ripken said those MLB stars are coming as ambassadors for players and coaches as part of the tournament.
“It’s a learning experience and we hope to continue to build on it,” he said.
Janna Clark, executive director of the Elizabethtown Tourism and Convention Bureau, said the inaugural event has been “such a long time coming.”
“Months and months of work to see this opening day here for the Ripken Experience,” she said. “Besides the first performance in 2012, this is the biggest day for the park.”
It was Ripken’s second trip to Elizabethtown, the first in October when he announced his partnership with the Elizabethtown Sports Park, now the fourth stadium in the nation to experience and the first not built by Ripken.
“I think we knew when we opened the sports park it was something special,” she said. “We’ve been really fortunate along the way to see him just grow and align with some of the best event owners in the business. It really culminates, especially on the baseball side, with the Ripken Experience and this phenomenal brand in the youth sports industry.”
The youth baseball and softball tournament series will take over the sports park, which opened a decade ago, for most of the summer, with tournaments starting Friday and running through mid-October.
While the city honors current contracts with other tournaments, Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said landing the Ripken Experience is a “perfect partnership.”
“We’re really proud to partner with them because we think they’re going to bring a little bit higher level of baseball and higher name recognition to our ballpark,” he said in an interview before Friday’s ceremony.
While looking for a youth sports tournament company to own exclusive rights to the baseball and softball sports park, Gregory said, “they liked our style as much as we liked theirs.”
“When we were researching them and some others that were interested in locating here in Elizabethtown for sports park exclusivity, we looked at some of the different effects (Ripken) had on those communities and they were all extremely positive and what we were looking for here in Elizabethtown — he said. “We’re really excited for them to come and provide the level of tournaments, the level of baseball for these young men to compete in and experience a major league tournament like the Ripken Experience offers.”
It’s these effects that Clarke said set the experience apart from other youth tournaments.
“We are so impressed with the level of professionalism, the brand they represent,” she said. “They call it the ‘Ripken Way’ and it fits in very well with the Elizabethtown Sports Park way and also aligns with the Elizabethtown Tourism way.”
Clark said Ripken and tourism are collaborating so players and their families feel like “major league visitors when they’re at the park and big league visitors when they’re in our community.”
“We’re all about someone’s experience when they come to our destination,” she said. “Ripken is all about one’s experience when playing in one of their events, and that goes for the things that happen on the field and the things that happen off the lines.”
Landing the experience isn’t just a feather in Elizabethtown’s cap, but Gregory said the partnership with Ripkens validates many of the public and private quality-of-life amenities being developed in the city.
“I think that was one of the things that got us to the Ripken Experience,” he said. “They saw different things that we were providing, different amenities that we were coming to Elizabethtown and how we were continuing to try to grow and develop and improve.”