Ripken in the Minors.com

Welcome to Ripkenintheminors.com, where Cal is always in the Minors! This site was developed in an effort to provide Ripken fans and collectors with information on Cal's baseball cards produced while in the Minor Leagues. From Bluefield to Rochester, this is your minor league home for all things Cal Ripken, Jr. On this site you will find information about the 4 minor league sets that produced a card of Cal Ripken, Jr.:

1) 1980 WBTV Charlotte Orioles Team Issue (Blue)

2) 1980 Charlotte Orioles Police Issue (Orange)

3) 1981 TCMA Rochester Red Wings

4) 1981 WTF Rochester Red Wings

Information can be very tough to find on these team sets. With that being said, this site was developed in an effort to provide information received from other Ripken collectors and from personal experiences and research. It is our hope that visitors to this site will also pass on any information they have to be shared with fellow collectors.

In addition to information about Cal's minor league cards, you will receive information on how to differentiate between an authentic and counterfeit 1980 WBTV Charlotte O's Ripken and 1981 WTF Rochester Ripken. You will also find information on past sales of minor league memorabilia related to Cal's stops in Bluefield, Miami, Charlotte and Rochester.

January 21, 2008

In a hobby that tends to have more questions than answers, PSA pledged today to do its part in clearing the air on 1980 Charlotte O’s minor league trading cards.

Up until today, the PSA flips contained two inaccuracies, one on each of the WBTV and Charlotte Police slabs. The inaccuracy involving the 1980 WBTV blue bordered set involved the slab posting card numbers. In all reality, there is no official checklist. We know this for two reasons: First, seven cards in the set do not have a number on the back of the card (O's Logo Header, Team Card, The Pepper Girls, Marshall Hester, Doc Cole, Minnie Mendoza and Jimmy Williams). Second, there are three cards in the 28 card set that have numbers higher than 28 (#30 Don Welchel, #31 Will George, & #32 Edwin Neal).

The inaccuracy on the Charlotte Police slabs could be found in the words, TEAM ISSUE. According to an insert from the 1980 Charlotte O’s program, "every child 14 & under who enters with a paying adult gets a free set of cards" on the night of May 30, 1980. This insert also confirms that the set given out that night was the WBTV set. The 1980 Charlotte Police set is a parallel of the WBTV team issued set that was given away at the park in the summer of 1980 with a couple of exceptions: First, the orange set contained 3 fewer cards than the blue set (28-25). Second, and most significant, was how the orange set was distributed. While the blue WBTV set would be given away as a complete set at Crockett Park, the orange set, which was produced in much smaller quantities, would be given out one or two cards at a time by officers of the Charlotte Police Department. It is worth noting that sources inside the Charlotte O’s organization have gone on record as saying that the Charlotte Police cards were never distributed inside Crockett Park.

Instrumental in the changes taking place was Susan Blanco of the PSA Research Department, who was given the assignment from PSA President Joe Orlando. In a message that contained the new labels for the 1980 Charlotte issues, Susan reiterated that PSA "understands the importance of this" and that PSA wants "to give you the best service that we can provide". The attention to detail will be welcomed. With this change, PSA will be the only third party grading service of the "big three" (SGC, BGS) that currently contains accurate information on the slabs of both 1980 issues.

The new year has started on a great note here at RITM! Bill Haelig, the "Iron Man" of Ripken collectors and friend to the site, has graciously offered scans from some of his memorabilia to share here on the site! The scans include an Aberdeen High School Class of 1978 photo, a picture of Cal returning to Charlotte after winning the 1980 Southern League Championship, a pair of pictures of Cal in Rochester, and a signed program from Bluefield in 1978!

In addition to these great images, Bill has provided a rare picture of Cal Sr. & Jr. from 1969. In the picture, an 8 year old Cal is getting a drink from the fountain with an assist from his father, who was managing the Rochester Red Wings at the time. The only other time the picture has been seen publicly was on the ESPN Sports Century feature on Cal Ripken, Jr. A very special thank you to Bill for his generosity. A larger scan of the program as well as the other images mentioned can be found in the Image Gallery.

It was an association started in the 1978 and 1980 minor league seasons, an association that was frozen in time on a 1982 Topps trading card. You know the name of Ripken, but can you name the other 2 players on card #21 from the 1982 Topps baseball trading card set? Fans that have chronicled the history of the Baltimore Orioles can probably tell you a little bit about Bobby Bonner and Jeff Schneider. Now collectors around the world will have the opportunity to learn about the future stars that surround Cal on the famous rookie card.

An infielder that had Cal Ripken, Jr. in awe of his natural ability, Bobby Bonner was the future of the Baltimore Orioles at Shortstop. After winning a World Series with the Orioles in 1983, Bobby would eventually leave the United States to pursue missionary work with his family in Zambia. He has been instrumental in starting over 100 churches and is credited with starting the NorthStar Bible Institute of Zambia.

Cal's roommate in Puerto Rico during the 1980 Winter Ball season, Jeff Schneider was called up by the Baltimore Orioles with Cal during the 1981 season after the 50-day players strike. Before getting called up as a member of the Rochester Red Wings, Jeff was a part of the longest game against Pawtucket, throwing 5.1 innings, striking out 8, while only giving up 2 hits in an eventual 33 inning loss. Jeff now resides in Illinois.

RITM thanks Bobby and Jeff for their willingness to answer questions. Once the interviews are completed, they will be posted on the interviews page.

UPDATE: The interview with Bobby has been completed! You can read the interview with Bobby at the following link: http://www.ripkenintheminors.com/intbobbybonner.htm

Thank you for visiting our site! If you have any additional information, or if you have a question, please feel free to send an e-mail at any time to ripkenintheminors@hotmail.com. Have a great day!

 visitors since October 19, 2006