Sun coverage: Cal Ripken Jr. in China

Special coverage of Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr.'s 10-day baseball goodwill tour to China as a special envoy for the U.S. State Department in 2007.
Photos
Cal Ripken Jr. visits China

Cal Ripken Jr. visits China

Photos from Ripken's trip, including a visit to the Great Wall and several youth baseball clinics.

He's at the Wall

Cal Ripken Jr. has been to Yankee Stadium, built in 1923, renovated in 1976.

Baseball still trying to get to first base in China

Han Jichao is 12 years old, and he has been playing baseball for two years. He has already been spotted by Major League Baseball officials, who've taken note of his raw talent and tireless work ethic. Hard work and dedication, Han says, are what it will take for him to someday realize his dream and play in the majors.

Iron envoy takes the field in China

Diplomacy, apparently, has no dress code.

Long fly lands half a world away

Earlier, whisking nearly 600 mph thousands of feet above Siberia, an airline crew member recognized the flight's most famous passenger. He pulled Cal Ripken Jr. aside, into the service area of the plane and asked for an autograph.

Ripken to visit China as envoy

Cal Ripken Jr. has developed a lucrative, baseball-centered career that includes stints as a television analyst, co-owner of a minor league team and a long list of other business interests since retiring from the Baltimore Orioles in 2002. But when he boards a plane at Washington Dulles International Airport today for his latest venture, he'll be carrying a batch of newly printed business cards.

U.S. drafts Ripken as envoy of good will

Cal Ripken Jr., who usually avoids the political arena, was named a State Department sports envoy yesterday. He plans to remain politically neutral even as he joins forces with the Bush administration to try to bolster America's image overseas.

Ripken becomes U.S. special envoy

From Cooperstown to China. That's the road Cal Ripken Jr. is traveling.

Honoring the Iron Man

Cal Ripken: Hall of Fame special section
(Photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Take a trip through Ripken's career with photos from each of his 21 seasons with the Orioles and beyond