david: this is my kitchen table, and it's also my filing system. over much of the past three decades, i've been an investor. [applause] the highest calling of mankind, i've often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. i watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviewing. [laughter] i've learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. jeff: i asked him how much he wanted. he said 250. i said, fine. i didn't negotiate with him, and i did no due diligence. david: i have something i would like to sell. [laughter] and how they stay there. you don't feel inadequate now, because being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right? [laughter] one of the greatest baseball players ever is cal ripken. he set a record for playing in 2632 consecutive games over 17 years. he was an all-star 19 times. a member of the hall of fame, twice most valuable player in the american league, and also, once, a world series champion. i had a chance to sit down with cal ripken recently to talk about his current life working for and with the baltimore

orioles, a team that he made very famous. so, it was said in baseball that the unbreakable record was lou gehrig's record of playing in 2130 games consecutively. nobody thought that could ever be broken. you broke it. you played in 2632 games consecutively over 17 years. why did you do that? [applause] i mean, did you ever think of maybe taking a day off would be a good thing? cal: so, you're not going to ask me what my secret was, right? david: well, i will get to that. cal: i don't know if i have one. i love the game a lot. your everyday player was defined in those years as playing every game, and it was an honor to be thought of and counted on each and every day by your teammates. so, i had my dad, who was also a coach. when i first came in, probably for the first 11 or 12 years of my career. and i think the real reason that i played is i couldn't come into a ballpark and say, you have

turf toe, where you stubbed your toe and say that i need to miss a game or two. i couldn't face my dad, let alone the manager of the team. david: i've been working for many years, and i have not done 17 years consecutively going in every day. you know, you have a headache someday, you don't feel good. you never had a headache, a cold? nothing happened? cal: yes. all of those things. david: you played through it. cal: you learn to play through different things, and you find out quickly that i can still compete and i still can play, even though i might be less than 100%. david: baseball was called the national pastime for the longest time, but obviously other sports have taken attention away from baseball. basketball and football, for example. do you still feel that americans have a certain passion for baseball that is similar to what they had 20, 30, 40 years ago? or do you think it has really changed a lot? cal: i think there is a deep love for baseball still in the country.

i see it at the -- ripken baseball was a kids business that we developed. it is experiential, when you play tournaments. we teach and those sorts of things. you can witness it right in front of you, that the kids feel the same way about baseball that we did. i think what has happened in sports overall is there is specialization that happens earlier in the sport. so, you're not playing baseball, basketball, and football. you are specializing early on. there's a lot less kids i think that are playing baseball, but the ones that are playing are actually playing more of it, because they play spring, summer, and fall. david: speaking of that, lots of pitchers these days have elbow problems. they get a surgery called tommy john surgery, and players have to take a year and a half before they can play again. why are there so many pitchers that seem to have this problem now? they didn't seem to have those problems when you were playing. is it because they are playing so young and throwing so many different kind of pitches that really hurt the elbow and the arm? cal: well, i think some of that is true, because tommy john surgery has come down to high school and sometimes kids

younger than that. and i think some parents feel like, we will just keep throwing, and if it breaks, we can always fix it, and you will come back throwing harder than you did before. i think that is the wrong way to look at it. but i think in the big leagues, with all of the analytics that go around, i think pitchers are chasing velocity more. and so there is more training to get your arm stronger to throw the ball harder. but they are chasing movement. so there is two things that happen. you throw a fastball, you get behind the baseball, but then when you try to make it move with the same power, you are torquing your elbow or your wrist right at the end to try to make it move. and then all of this pressure goes right here. i think a lot of chasing speed and chasing movement, the combination of those two, is causing it. david: when a golfer is lining up a putt on a tournament, everybody has to be quiet. nobody is throwing anything at his head.

why does he need to have so much quiet, but you are not allowed allowed to talk or say anything when you are putting for five inches? but if somebody is throwing a ball at your head 100 miles an hour, they can scream and yell? doesn't that seem ass backwards? cal: yes. [laughter] yes. it is interesting, though. when you play in front of a packed house, it's just noise. you don't hear the individual things. i mean, here in new york, i think the fans felt like they were part of the game. so they were trying to get inside your head, they were screaming things at you, trying to play a little mind game. if you beat them and you did really well, they would say, all right, cal, i'll see you tomorrow. that was part of it. the boston fans were a little different. they were more personal. that if you beat them or whatever else, they would hold it against you for your whole life. david: you can challenge a call now, and they go to new york and they watch it on video and make a decision there. do you think that is good or bad? cal: i like it. because one play can turn the whole outcome of the game. and they have the technology to do it now. and i think what you are going to see in the next couple of

years is some form of the robotic strike zone. you know, whether they are testing it in the minor leagues. on a challenge system, or every third game they just have something in the ear of the umpire, and the robot or whatever calls the game based on the results of the play, and just tells the guy what to do. they are testing those things out. i think the challenge system might be good, because a key pitch in the eighth inning with the bases loaded, and it's called a ball or a strike, a ball turns it in the favor of the team that has the bases loaded, a strike gets them out of it. david: professional athletes are idolized. it's hard to believe this, but they are liked more than politicians. [laughter] athletes are really well-liked and admired and so forth. but then when you finish your career, you have a whole different life. so, you retired at what age, 41? cal: 41, yeah. david: you played 22 years -- cal: 21. david: 21 years in the major leagues, and you retired at an age that, you know, is old for a professional athlete, but young for someone in private equity or something like that.

so, when you retired at that age, did you say, what am i my going to do with the rest of my life? and what did you decide to do for the remaining 10 or next 20 years? what did you do? cal: if you save your money pretty well, then you have choices. you can decide to learn how to play golf, like a lot of people do, and retire early. david: are you a golfer? cal: i play a little bit, but, no. [laughter] i could be pretty good. david: you should try miniature golf, that's what i do. [laughter] cal: so, i looked at it as, you get kind of bored. how can you do that? i looked at it as a second chance for a career opportunity. and so i wanted to learn business. we bought minor league teams. it was a comfortable business model that you can kind of learn business that way. and that was kind of fun. at first it felt like i spotted everybody else 20 years ahead of me. i'm 41, but i seem like i'm 21, you know, in the business world.

you come out and then you learn that a lot of things you learned along the way in baseball can apply to your -- i mean, your work ethic, how you go about doing things, your preparation, all of that kind of stuff. that all applies to what you are doing now. david: now that you are an owner of the baltimore orioles, how do you feel about these high-priced contracts that players are getting? it used to be a player probably wanted higher-priced contracts. now you are an owner. how do you look at that? differently? [laughter] cal: slightly. i try to think of, what are the other intangible values that you can offer a player besides the bottom line dollars? because the bottom line dollars are so big now that you can make a case for saying, how much? but it's about ego and breaking the bank and agents wanting to continue to make it go up for other people that come through. my situation was, i wanted to play in one place, i wanted to have control over playing in one place. so i think if we get to a point where we are trying to convince one of our players to stay, you want to try and tell him all of

the values associated with derek jeter playing his whole career in a pinstripe uniform, me playing my whole career in the orioles. and what does that mean for you in the bigger picture? and hopefully they will value some of that, but it is going to be a competitive landscape where we are going to have to stay competitive. david: baltimore is a smaller city compared to some of the new york teams or los angeles. is that a problem that you are in a smaller city for major league baseball? cal: i think overall, i never liked the idea because you were a small market team you couldn't compete. because i think competition is in your knowledge. you know, you are drafting. you get to draft, you get to sign players, you get to develop players. you know, it is not all free agency that is happening. but if you are a big market team, and you make a mistake in judgment on a player, you can throw more money at your mistakes. when you are a smaller market team, you have to be better at your baseball decisions. i looked at myself as a sportsman. you know, maybe the value of the

entertainment was in the collective, where you are playing well as a team and you win, and that's cool. then all of a sudden it seemed to step over to, i think a lot of players might think that they are entertainers now. ♪

david: during his 21-year career, spent entirely with the baltimore orioles, cal ripken jr. broke nearly every team record. he's the orioles franchise leader in hits, runs, rbi's, homeruns, and games played. however, the record that earned him the name iron man isn't just an orioles record, but the all-time consecutive games played record in mlb history. but just how unbreakable is this record? the record was held unbroken for over 40 years before ripken even joined the major leagues in 1981. the man who held it, new york yankees legend lou geh ♪ lou gehrig joined the new york yankees in 1923 at age 19. he didn't gain a permanent foothold on the team until 1925, when his streak began.

over the course of the next 14 seasons, gehrig would help the yankees win six world series titles alongside other yankees legends, including babe ruth and, later, joe dimaggio. in august 1933, during the course of this historic yankees run, gehrig broke the previous consecutive games record of 1307, held by former yankee teammate everett scott. gehrig would go on to shatter this record, playing every game until he was forced to end his streak due to health concerns on may 2, 1939, at a staggering 2130 games. a few weeks later, gehrig was diagnosed with als and was honored at yankee stadium on july 14, 1939, where he officially retired from baseball. lou: today i consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. [applause] david: for the next 42 years, no player came close to challenging gehrig's record. but then, in 1981, cal ripken jr. joined the baltimore orioles and began his campaign to break the unbreakable record.

cal took the mlb by storm, winning rookie of the year in 1982, when his iron maiden streak began, and following up the next season by winning american league m.v.p. and the 1983 world series. over the course of his career, ripken would rack up 19 all-star appearances, two golden gloves, and a second american league m.v.p. in 1991. he had already established himself as one of the greatest baseball players in major league history, as he continued to extend his streak. then, on september 5, 1995, the world watched as lou gehrig's record, that had stood for 56 years, was broken by cal ripken jr. ripken would go on to extend his streak for another three years, finally capping the all-time record at 2632 games in a row. over 500 games more than lou gehrig's previous mark. ripken retired after the 2001 season and was elected into the baseball hall of fame in 2007.

it has been 26 years since ripken ended his streak, and no player has come close to challenging him. so, i played the little league all-star, shortstop, when i was eight and nine. i didn't know whether i was going to get to the major leagues or not. when did you realize you were going to be better than someone like me? did you realize it when you were a little leaguer? [laughter] when you were a little leaguer, did you realize you are going to be good enough to play in the major leagues? cal: i knew pretty quickly. i grew up in and around baseball. my dad was the manager of the minor leagues for the orioles in the first 14 years of my life. i went to work with my dad as early as eight or nine. he put me in a uniform. i was the bat boy. i shagged in the outfield. i had a chance to ask all the players, you know, how they caught the fly ball, how they swung the bat. so i had all these teachers in front of me, but i had the skill, you know, that was pretty obvious early on. david: you played in high

school, and i assume you did pretty well in high school? cal: yes. david: so, you get drafted by the orioles. at what point when you were in the minor leagues, you realized you weren't just going to be an average player, you were really going to be a super player, or did you not realize that in the beginning? cal: i was 17, a second round draft pick by the orioles. i turned 18 at the end of the summer. so, my birthday is august 24, so i was playing a couple of months before my 18th birthday. and when i first went away to play pro ball, you are a pretty big fish in a small pond in high school. you thought you were pretty good. and then you go and all of a sudden you are part of a team, and you look around and no longer, you are not the big fish anymore. there was one shortstop by the name of bob bonner who came out of texas a&m. he was, like, a sixth round pick for us that year. i was taking ground balls and doing stuff with him, and he clearly was light years ahead of me. he had a better arm, he could field the ball better, he was quicker on the transfer. he could field the ball better. i kept looking at him saying i'm never going to play.

this guy is too good. i'm not that good. they moved him immediately to aa, which opened up the spot for me. and then i got my feet on the ground and started playing pretty well and started hitting a couple homeruns in my next year, and then i got to aa and then i had a breakout season. and in two years, i caught bob bonner and passed him to the big leagues. so, he stayed the same and i got better. david: what year did he get into the hall of fame? [laughter] cal: i think he is a minister in africa right now. david: so, speaking of the hall of fame, you were elected with 98.5% of the vote. have you ever figured out who that person was that didn't vote for you? [laughter] i mean, who was this person waiting for? cal: i have hunted all five of them down. i think in my particular year, i think mariano rivera just went in with 100% of the vote. david: the only one. cal: in my particular year, there was a protest vote where five people did not turn in a

ballot in that particular year, as a protest to the steroid era. so, they counted against you. david: did anybody ever come to you and say, look, you are good, but you could be better if you take some of these drugs? cal: no. looking back on it, you could probably see signs in hindsight, that players who might have used. when you are playing, if you are not in that secret society, you don't know. and i didn't know. david: so, some players, they were, like, 180 pounds, and then later they are 250 pounds. you didn't suspect maybe they were doing something unusual? cal: yes. [laughter] david: you are 6'4". and traditionally shortstops were more my height. and when you came along, people didn't want people like me to be shortstops anymore. so, did you change the game of baseball by saying, shortstops should be big and better hitters? or is everybody going back to the old mode of, big, fast, and good baseball stealers, and not good hitters? cal: a lot of the shortstops --

derek jeter being one of them -- gave me credit for my success at the position as a bigger shortstop that gave them opportunities that maybe otherwise they wouldn't have had. i think derek would have carved out his own path. i did move from third to short. i was 6'2", 180 when i came out of high school. and then i had a late growth spurt. i almost grew three inches. i put on five to eight pounds a year. by the time i got to the big leagues, i was almost 6'5", 220, and they put me at third base, but then earl weaver had this vision that i could play shortstop, and we would be a better team if i went over to shortstop. he one day just put me there. my success at the position as a bigger guy, maybe is like -- i'm a basketball fan. i wish i could have been a basketball player.

but i remember magic johnson changing the thought of a point guard at 6'9". he is 6'9", all of a sudden the advantages he had in his size, i think people started to understand that a bigger guy could play shortstop or second base, and today they are some of the more celebrated positions. david: your contract, i think your highest compensation level was $6 million a year? $6 million a year. that's a good compensation level, in those days, for sure. today, for the average person, that is great income. but today there are some players making $200 million, $300 million, $400 million. one is making $700 million. do you ever think you should have waited longer to play in the major leagues? [laughter] do you ever regret that some people are making $700 million, and they are not likely to be as good as you? cal: every day, i think that. yes. [laughter] no, it is really interesting. i had a really good job. you know, i was a baseball player, and you got paid for it. i was one of the early ones who broke $1 million per year. then i got to $2 million a year. towards the end, you know, i was at $6 million, but then it started going crazy.

and, you know, i look at it, and i remember all the old players that said, i wish i would have played in that era. but i think the game evolves, the business of the -- it used to be, in baseball, i think, we -- at least i looked at myself as a sportsman, you know, maybe the value of the entertainment was in the collective, where you are playing well as a team and you win, and that's cool. then all of a sudden it seemed to step over to, a lot of players might think that they are entertainers now. so it is a little bit more than what you do on the field. it is commercials, things you do off the field. i think they see themselves differently. david: do you think it is good to have the games now two hours 30 minutes?

is that better for the fans, or are they saying, i want the game to last longer? cal: i think it is better. i think what they did is cut out the dead time. the young players will tell them what to do, and sometimes they would be in the on deck circle and they had not played the song yet. so they would wait like this until they played the song, and then they would make their entrance in the ballpark. the shot clock or the pitch clock that they have now allows the umpire to -- gives them an enforceable tool to shape behavior. it was always a rule that the pitcher had to throw it in 20 seconds of each pitch, but that went away from everybody. now it has shaped the behavior and the game moves. david: when you played, it is sometimes said players would put substances on the baseball. it is called a spitter. did you ever see that? cal: gaylord perry was the most famous of all spitballers. he actually wrote a book, "me and the spitter." the ball comes in and it sinks a

little bit. i hit a ground shortstop, i hit another out, and i'm thinking, if that is a spitter, that is nothing special. but then my third time up, he threw me three pitches that dropped about this far and struck me out, whatever else, and kind of walked off and shook his head at me like, that is a spitter. ♪

david: i have a grandson who is four years old. if he wanted to be a major league baseball player, what is the best advice you would give to a young person? he may be a little young for advice, maybe, but what is a six or 10-year-old who aspires to be a baseball player, what should they do? cal: i think the worst thing you can do is put too much pressure on your kid, you know, like, if you want it for him as opposed to him wanting it. david: your father did not put pressure on you? he was a professional coach. he didn't? cal: no. because my dad was in professional baseball, he only saw two of my games between the age of eight and 18, before i got drafted. parts of two, because he -- david: he did not give you tips or anything, or tell you to do this or that? cal: he was a great instructor. i witnessed him instructing people, so i learned through his instruction of everybody else. but he never stood over me and said, you have to do this.

david: when you are a professional baseball player or former professional baseball player, famous as you are, people come up. they want autographs, selfies, and they say, i hate to bother you, but can i bother you with a selfie or an autograph? what do you say, i am too busy or how do you deal with that? when you go to a hotel and you are a major-league baseball player, people have all of these kids, how do you do with all of that? cal: when you get old, they don't do it so much anymore. [laughter] no, i'm thankful. i still can't believe that i get recognized as readily as i do. and to me, always keep in mind, and sometimes someone approaching you, they are nervous, and they lose their mind and they say, you are my biggest fan, and i go, i am? they lose it, but then you have to keep in mind it is meaningful to them. so at that moment, by signing your name for a little kid, and their eyeballs get all -- and they run back to their mom or whatever else and say, look at

what i got, you helped that happen. so, if you remember what happens afterwards, you focus and you just manage it and get through it. david: what was it like, the day you broke the record of lou gehrig? there was enormous fan outpouring, everyone is calling you. you are on nationwide tv. and you are running around the stadium and so forth. was that the highlight of your life, professionally? cal: i would say there is two moments. i answer that question in two parts. the best feeling i ever had on the baseball field is catching the last out of the world series 42 years ago. 42 years ago? 41 years ago. 1983. a little hump-back line drive. when you catch it, part of the dream of being a baseball player is to win the world series. and then now, because i caught the last out, i won the world series. that's the best feeling. the second best feeling and probably the best personal moment was the lap around camden yards. i was embarrassed that the game was stopped, because the game

became official halfway through. and then everybody kept clapping, i kept saying, thank you. and then bobby bonilla and rafael palmeiro pushed me out, said, you have to take a lap or we will never get the game started. i thought it was a silly idea, but i went around and started shaking hands. the celebration went from 50,000 down to one on one. and it was kind of cool that way. by the time i got around to third base, i could care less if the game ever started again. ♪

let's go boys. the way that i approach work, post fatherhood, has really been trying to understand the generation that we're building devices for. here in the comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home wifi solution for millions of families, like my own. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪

>> young people are facing a serious debt problem. between 2022 and 023,me