Speaking of Ripken, if you are a fan of Ripken and are driving north on I-83 through Hunt Valley, MD (home of McCormick and Fila), you can hop off and drive right past his home in about 5 minutes.  Head west on Shawan Rd to the light, then go straight at the light where the road will change names to Tufton.  Two minutes later you'll make a hard left on a curve, then a hard right where Dover Rd comes in.  The big gates and house on your left are his, all along the left side of Dover Rd.  The unnamed "road" you see at this link is his driveway.  If you switch to map view you'll see his house and... a baseball diamond. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=hunt+valley,+md&aq=&sll=38.893596,-77.014576&sspn=0.313173,0.441513&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hunt+Valley,+Cockeysville,+Baltimore,+Maryland&ll=39.492856,-76.738343&spn=0.004852,0.006899&t=m&z=17

My wife and I grew up not following any sports.  I vaguely kept track of the Orioles, going to an occasional game with my Grandmother who was an avid fan and had good seats near home plate... until the big strike in the 90's.  My wife and I continued going to a game or two a year when we started dating.  I first told her I loved her at the game where Ripken tied the record at 2130 games.  While the 2131 game was sold out and made all the press, I felt the 2130 game was the real news so spur of the moment we decided to go - believe it or not that game had a lot of empty seats.  So while we weren't huge fans that game was pretty big for both of us for several reasons.

I swore I wouldn't follow football after the NFL basically forced out the CFL Stallions, which had tried to fill the void left by the Colts.  I didn't follow them but I thought the CFL was good competition for the NFL.  So probably the only Ravens game I watched was the 2000 championship.  Then for reasons I can't explain about 5 years ago my wife and I suddenly became avid fans in less than a season.  We started hosting game day get-togethers soon after and usually have 1-2 other families over every Sunday.  We had about 25 people packed in for this last Super Bowl.

Since I didn't grow up with football in my blood I'm still learning all the nuances of the game.  I'm on both sides of the fence on the concussion issue.  Figures I finally get into the game and now there's a moral argument for giving it up.  Five years ago that would have been an easy decision.