Mrs Ripken kidnapped!

Cal (r) with father and brother

If there is anything close to a family that most everyone around here admires without a second thought, it would be the Ripkens, of nearby Aberdeen, MD.  You know Cal, the Iron Man of baseball, and how he became the great player he was under the tutelage of his father Cal, Sr.  And he has a brother Billy who was a pretty fair major-leaguer himself for a long time, and another brother, and a sister.

And a mom named Vi who has been the glue of the family for all these years.  At 74, she's still active with the Harford County Boys and Girls Club, and is a regular at Ripken Stadium, the complex of fields where kids from all over the world play ball, as does an Oriole minor league team.  The widow of "Senior" is a beloved figure in her town, her county, and the entire state of Maryland.

Cal and Vi

So when we awoke yesterday morning to hear that she was missing from her home, and then that she had turned up on her own street, it was shocking.  It seems that on Tuesday morning, she was abducted in her garage and led to her own car, in which this crook drove her around for almost a day.  When he stopped along Ebenezer Rd in Baltimore County, he told an inquiring motorist that he was seeking medical help for his mother, who was having seizures.  The other driver wisely deduced that something was amiss, since wrapping duct tape around a mother's mouth is not recommended first aid for seizures.  That person called police, and the hunt was on.  Eventually, Mrs Ripken found herself waking up Wednesday morning in her own car, still bound, and blew the horn for help.


Once this guy is found - and trust me - he will be found, we will know what his story is.  It might be very tough to find twelve citizens of this state who would give him a fair hearing, though.  That's how much we love our Ripkens.