This is Cal Ripken, Jr.’s hat, batting gloves and cleats he wore when he hit his 400th career home run. When one thinks of Cal Ripken, Jr., his unbeatable record of 2,632 consecutive games played comes instantly to mind. The magnitude of the streak is such that it is hard to remember what a powerful slugger the Iron Man was as well. In fact, it is Cal who holds the record for most career home runs as an Oriole with 431, 88 more than Eddie Murray and 128 more than Boog Powell, the next two O’s on the list. Cal never won a home run championship, but his steady average of 23 round trippers a year added up to over 400 career blasts, quite a heady total for a guy who’s best known for his consecutive game record and superior defensive skills.

On September 2, 1999, Cal became one of the few ballplayers to reach the milestone of 400 home runs. The Devil Rays were in Camden Yards and Cal came to bat in the bottom of the third to face Rolando Arrojo. The game was tied 2-2 and the Birds had two runners on. Cal worked the count 1 ball and 1 strike. On Arrojo’s third pitch, Cal came around and hit a long fly to deep left – a tie-breaking home run for career number 400. This is the uniform set Cal wore while making his entre to the 400 Career Home Club.

The first item in this lot is Ripken’s New Era wool cap. This all-black cap has the Orioles’ bird logo embroidered on the front in orange, black and white stitching. The gray underside brim has Ripken’s number “8” handwritten in black marker. The white inner sweatband has the Authentic Diamond Collection, New Era and Size 7 3/8 tags sewn on. The back of the cap has the MLB logo embroidered in Orioles’ colors. The cap shows outstanding game use with dirt stains and Ripken has signed his name in silver marker on the brim inscribing “400th HR” below. The next set of items are a pair of black and orange Franklin batting gloves. The fingers and palms are black with padding on each of the thumbs. The back of the hands are orange with a white label and “Franklin” in black. The Velcro wrist strap is black with “RIP-8” in white and the wrist ends have black and white stripes. These gloves have an Authentic Diamond Collection tag and show outstanding game use. Ripken has signed his name in silver marker on the palms of each glove and inscribed on both “400th Home Run”. The items in this lot are a pair of Nike size 11 ½ cleats. These all-black cleats have the Nike swoosh in orange on the outside and inside insteps. “NIKE” is embroidered in black on the orange heel tops and “C.R.” is embroidered in orange on the lower black heels. There are black tongue flaps with “8” embroidered and “MADE IN TAIWAN” in white on the inside. There are six metal spikes on each shoe and these displays moderate to heavy game use with dirt stains on the bottoms. Ripken has signed each outside heels in silver marker and inscribed “400th Home Run”. An incredible lot of history and these come with a signed LOA from Cal Ripken, Jr.

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