32-year old righty swinging 1B/2B/3B Ty Wigginton will be making his first appearance of his career in the All-Star Game. Wigginton has played in 75 games for the Orioles so far this season and he was 67 of 267 (.251 avg, .790 OPS) with 30 runs scored, 14 homers and 42 RBIs. Wigginton is kind of lucky that every team gets at least one player on the All-Star Team because the Orioles don’t really deserve to have one. Wigginton has been the best player on the O’s so he deserves to go.

Cal Ripken Jr. is most associated with going to work everyday. He has the all-time record for most consecutive games played in major league history with 2,632. Ripken was voted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2007. He bursted onto the scene for the Orioles in 1982 when he played in 160 games in which he was 158 of 598 (.264 avg, .792 OPS) with 90 runs scored, 28 homers and 93 RBIs winning the Rookie of the Year Award in the A.L. He followed up his outstanding 1982 season by winning the A.L. MVP Award in 1983. In 1983, Ripken played in 162 games and he was 211 of 663 (.318 avg, .888 OPS) with 121 runs scored, 27 homers and 102 RBIs. Ripken would have to wait another 8 years before winning his second and last MVP Award. Ripken played in 162 games in 1991 and he was 210 of 650 (.323 avg, .940 OPS) with 99 runs scored, 34 homers and 114 RBIs. In Ripken’s 23 years with the O’s, he played in 3,001 games in which he was 3,184 of 11,551 (.276 avg, .788 OPS) with 1,647 runs scored, 431 homers and 1,695 RBIs. Ripken is the Orioles all-time leader in games played (3,001), runs scored (1,647), hits (3,184), doubles (603), homers (431), RBIs (1,695) and walks (1,129). When his career was over Ripken played in 19 All-Star Games, he won 8 Silver Slugger Awards and he won 2 Gold Gloves. Now you see that Ripken was a great player and he did so much more than playing everyday.