Cal Ripken:
Modern-Day Lindbergh or Media Myth?
Abstract
At a time when major league baseball had devolved from the
modern era of free agency to the postmodern debacle of a labor
dispute between millionaire players and billionaire owners, the
media elevated Cal Ripken Jr. as a throwback to baseball's
romantic past. As with Charles Lindbergh 66 years earlier, the
media portrayed Ripken as a symbol of all that is good and right
about America. But lurking beneath the surface of this apple-
pie-in-the-sky picture is an undercurrent of hegemony, sexism and
racism.
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