Aberdeen IronBirds to honor Ripken family with rebrand

The short-season Class A Aberdeen IronBirds are named in honor of their team owner, the Iron Man Cal Ripken Jr., as well as their parent club, the Baltimore Orioles, who are often called the Birds by fans. But for one game, the team will triple down on that homage, paying tribute to three members of the royal Oriole family, Cal Ripken Jr., Cal Ripken Sr., and Billy Ripken by rebranding as the Aberdeen Legacy.

The temporary brand contains a number of tributes to the Ripkens, including one sleeve patch with Cal Jr., Cal Sr., and Bill’s uniform numbers, 8, 7, and 3, respectively, and another sleeve patch with Cal Jr. and Bill’s silhouettes. The Legacy’s caps feature the likeness of Cal Jr.’s swing on the front, and on the side, the number 2632 honors Cal Jr.’s consecutive game streak.

I’ve been scouring press releases and social media, but I’ve yet to find any indication that Billy Ripken will be writing any sort of special messages on the IronBirds’ bat handles.

The IronBirds will play as the Legacy on August 3—or 8/3, which just happen to be Cal Jr. and Billy’s uniform numbers.