MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 ??

[Elwood]

From Jayski.com :

NEWS/RUMORS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ripken Scheme? UPDATE 4: hearing #18-Bobby Labonte's car will have a special Cal Ripken Jr farewell paint job at Dover in September. Ripken Jr plays for the Baltimore Orioles and is retiring at the end of the 2001 baseball season(8-17-2001)

UPDATE: hearing that since Cal Ripken's last home game will be the evening of the race, at Camden Yards vs. the Yankees. To honor his achievements, MBNA will be renaming the race from the MBNA 400 to the Cal Ripken 400 (or something similar) and that Ripken will be present at the race as the Grand Marshal(8-20-2001)

UPDATE 2: also hearing that #18-Mike McLaughlin will drive the Cal Ripken car in the MNBA 200 BGN race and that a formal announcment will come in the next 7-10 days(8-23-2001)

UPDATE 3: NASCAR and Major League Baseball are expected to finalize an unprecedented agreement within the next 10 days that would celebrate Cal Ripken Jr.’s retirement in a most unique way. For starters, the MBNA 400 Winston Cup race scheduled for Sept. 23 at Dover Downs International Speedway in Dover, Del., will be renamed the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400. In addition, the Orioles third baseman will act as the grand marshal for the 1 p.m. race before flying back to Baltimore to play in the final home game of his career at Camden Yards that night. “We have been waiting for a couple of days for a sewn-up package,” said Carmine Tiso, a media relations specialist handling business matters for Major League Baseball. “Hopefully in the next week or 10 days it will be (finalized). There are a lot of parties involved including us, the Orioles, MBNA.” Tiso described the deal as “all but done.” Another source close to the deal said a joint announcement about the specifics could come as early as Thursday at Camden Yards. NASCAR has some other tributes planned for Ripken, as well. The Interstate Batteries/MBNA #18 car driven by defending Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte will be repainted for the Dover race to include a Cal Ripken logo. The Ripken logo will also be on Mike McLaughlin’s car during the MBNA 200 Busch Series race that Saturday at Dover Downs, Tiso confirmed. The tentative plan, according to the source close to the deal, is for Ripken to arrive in Dover — about 100 miles from Camden Yards — on Sunday around 9 a.m., sit in on the morning drivers’ meeting and conduct a short news conference with the motorsports media. Ripken will be part of the drivers’ introductions and will be driven in a convertible around the track before the race begins. Ripken will then wave the green flag to start the race before getting in a helicopter and flying back to Baltimore. The winner of the Winston Cup race will be invited to fly to Baltimore as Ripken’s guest for that night’s game.(York Daily Record) and another story at the Washington Post: Ripken Farewell Faces a Switch(8-24-2001)

UPDATE 4 - maybe? One major obstacle lies in the path of Dover Downs’ quest to rename the Sept. 23 MBNA 400 after one of major league baseball’s all-time greatest players. According to track publicist John Dunlap, if the New York Yankees agree to allow the Baltimore Orioles to push back the start of their game at Camden Yards from its currently scheduled 1:35 p.m. start to “somewhere between 5 and 7,” Cal Ripken Jr. will serve as grand marshal of the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway. Dunlap also said a press conference is “supposedly” scheduled for Thursday at Camden Yards regarding this announcement, but didn’t name a time.(NASCAR.com)(8-30-2001)

 

Personally I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I like it ok.  And I know enough about it to have alot of respect for what Ripken has done for the game.  I think it's pretty cool that they want to honor him, but I hope they don't get too carried away with this and start doing this stuff all the time.

What do you guys think about this????