Ripken (dog)

Ripken

Ripken working a Wolfpack football game
Breed	Labrador Retriever
Sex	Male
Born	(2016-08-01) August 1, 2016 Boise, Idaho
Occupation	Retrieval dog
Employer	Sit Means Sit
Years active	2019–present
Successor	"Champ"
Owner	Michael O'Donnell
Parent(s)	"Cowboy Kohl" (father)
Weight	70 lb (32 kg)
Named after	Cal Ripken Jr.
ripkenthebatdog.com

Ripken, also referred to as "Ripken the Bat Dog" or "Ripken the Tee Dog", is a black Labrador Retriever who serves as the official bat dog for the amateur baseball team Holly Springs Salamanders, the Minor League Baseball team the Durham Bulls, and the college football team the NC State Wolfpack football. In baseball, Ripken has the job of retrieving the Bull's thrown bats after hits, and in football retrieving the kicking tee at the after a kickoff.

Ripken was born on August 1, 2016, and was named after Cal Ripken Jr., the baseball hall of fame player for the Baltimore Orioles. After going to Sit Means Sit dog training school, baseball enthusiast and former coach Michael O'Donnell and his wife Melissa acquired Ripken. To bring his two interests together, Ripken was taught how to retrieve bats starting at ten weeks old. Ripken first debut for a team was for Holly Springs Salamanders in 2019, where he proved he could successfully retrieve the bat without leaving saliva or bite marks. Ripken's success was later noticed by the Durham Bulls, who recruited him in 2020, and Wolfpack football who recruited him in 2021. While working his jobs, Ripken has a GoPro camera attached to his back, which captures his retrieval from a first person view. These videos helped Ripken to become popular in the news and on social media, which helped him to featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2022, and drop the ceremonial first puck for a Carolina Hurricanes game in 2023. Approaching about ten years of age, another black Labrador named "Champ" is being trained alongside Ripken to one day take over his jobs.

Biography

Ripken was born on August 1, 2016 in Boise, Idaho. He was named after Cal Ripken Jr., the baseball hall of fame player for the Baltimore Orioles. His father "Cowboy Kohl" served as the kicking tee retriever for the Boise State Broncos football. He was last weighed as 70 lb (32 kg). When not working, Ripken enjoys plays T-ball with his family, hikes, belly rubs, and running to the fridge when he hears the ice dispenser.

Career

Early life

Ripken was acquired by the founder and owner of the Sit Means Sit dog training franchise in Apex, Michael O'Donnell, from a friend and dog breeder of his in Boise, Idaho, when Ripken was about eight weeks old. O'Donnell had been pursuing a career in sales and worked only part time at the Sit Means Sit franchise in Raleigh, but three years into his career, O'Donnell left sales and attended a dog training school headed by the founder of Sit Means Sit, Fred Hassen. The schooling allowed him and his wife Melissa to open the Apex franchise of Sit Means Sit in January 2016. O'Donnell, who had previously played baseball at Radford University and coached it in North Carolina, became inspired to train a dog to retrieve baseball bats to combine his two interests. At ten weeks old, Ripken was taught how to retrieve small novelty bats and glass bottles, which slowly increased to full sized bats and metal bats as he grew older. When Ripken was considered ready, he started appearing in O'Donnell's Sit Means Sit commercials as the Apex franchise's "spokesdog".

Main career

For the 2019 season, Ripken acquired his first job fetching bats at home games for the amateur baseball team Holly Springs Salamanders, where he preformed well by retrieving the bat with no slobber or bite marks, or losing focus of his job and roaming around. O'Donnell's main goal was to have Ripken play for the Minor League Baseball team the Durham Bulls, being not only a step up from amateur baseball, but personally special to O'Donnell who brought his later-wife to a Bull's game for their first date, and later proposed to her on the pitcher's mound. During the 2019–2020 off-season, Ripken was noticed by the Durham Bulls and asked to join, being announced as part of their team on February 27, 2020, but was prevented doing any jobs that season as the Covid-19 pandemic largely halted sports in 2020.

Ripken the Tee Dog merchandise at a North Carolina Wolfpack football game

For the 2021 season, Ripken debuted for the Durham Bulls, with the job of fetching the Bull's thrown bats after hits in the first three to four innings, and then going around the stadium to meet fans and give paw autographs for an inning and a half. If another player tries to pick up one of these thrown bats themself, Ripken waits until they notice him and drop the bat so he can complete his task, with fans on occasion booing players who absentmindedly try to take Ripken's job. Ripken became popular with players, with some petting him before batting as a 'good luck charm', but was especially popular with children attending Bull's games in increasing their attention spans of the game. When running out to the field to do his job, Ripken has a GoPro camera attached to his back, capturing his retrieval from a first person view to later be posted on social media. Ripken also wears a gem-studded necklace of his initial "R" wearing a crown while on the field. The larger venue helped bring more business to the Apex franchise of Sit Means Sit, and more attention Ripken, so that when O'Donnell submitted a video of Ripken working a Durham Bulls game in 2021 to North Carolina State University, he was accepted to work for the NC State Wolfpack football team for the 2022 season. His job for the Wolfpack for the first season was to fetch the kicking tee at the first kickoff of the first or second half game. Ripken was given more responsibility for the 2022 season, where he became responsible for retrieving all kicking tees for the first half. At his second sport, Ripken also helped in moral for the Wolfpack team, with one of the coaches, Joey Carnes, repeatedly yelling to "Get amped like Ripken!" during games. In this year, Ripken became especially popular on the social media platform TikTok, with a video of Ripken retrieving the tee at a Texas Tech vs. NC State game reaching nearly five million views. On November 10, 2022, Ripken was featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Recent jobs

The increased attention from social media led Ripken to be noticed by the state's National Hockey League team the Carolina Hurricanes. On February 18, 2023, Ripken dropped the ceremonial first puck at the Hurricanes game against the Washington Capitals, becoming the third sport Ripken had played for. O'Donnell, who had trained Ripken on the puck drop in the weeks leading up, remarked the event was the "pinnacle of his career so far, I think". On February 25, 2023, Ripken made an appearance at the Park Expo and Conference Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the aim of getting the attention of the state's National Football League team the Carolina Panthers, and getting to fetch tees for them for a game. On December 28, 2023, Ripken worked the first ever Pop-Tarts Bowl for the college football game between NC State and Kansas State in Orlando, Florida. During the 2024 Durham Bulls season, Ripken worked 14 games, equating to about one in every five home games. For the 2024 Wolfpack season, in September, Ripken worked at the NC State vs. Tennessee game for the Duke's Mayo Classic marking his new largest venue.

Ripken has since gathered a line of merchandise, featured on Topps baseball cards, stuffed plushies by the Durham Bulls, and T-shirts of his picture by both the Durham Bulls and Wolfpack. The monthly golf magazine Golf Digest remarked in 2021 that bat retrieval dogs playing in Minor League Baseball like Ripken were what was needed in Major League Baseball to make the sport more watchable.

Associate dogs

When Ripken started working for the Wolfpack in 2021, it was important he was to be distinguished and did not overshadow NC State's main dog mascot Tuffy III. Ripken reportedly helped calm Tuffy III on the sidelines of his first game, which helped solidify the two's bond. One NC State student, however, went as far as to say that "we cheer louder for him than anything else in the game" referring to Ripken.

As of the end of the 2022 season, Ripken had a "younger cousin" or "nephew" associate dog named Rivers, named after NC State football player Philip Rivers. Rivers, a younger Labrador retriever, trained alongside Ripken in retrieving football tees and baseball bats with the intention to one day replace Ripken when he gets too old. Rivers went as far as attending his first Wolfpack football game in November 2022, where he observed Ripken from the sideline. While Rivers did well at the job, he had a slight temperament Ripken did not, and did not like people in hats, which was often the majority of people in a baseball stadium. In light of this, a decision was made in early 2023 by O'Donnell to acquire another descendent of Cowboy Kohl from Boise, Idaho, named Champ. Champ began working in rotation with Ripken at Salamanders games in the following 2024 season, with the intention to move up to working at Bulls and later Wolfpack games. Champ did not have a mentioned temperament, but did get anxiety in larger stadiums, a condition Ripken did not have, and actually appeared to thrive in, according to O'Donnell. This anxiety was being treated each game. The end goal for Champ was to have him work professional league games for the MLB, NFL, or PGA.

List of occupations

List of official jobs held by Ripken

Team	Year start	Year end	Sport	Job	Ref(s).
NC State Wolfpack football	2021	Ongoing	College football	Official kicking tee retriever
Durham Bulls	2020	Ongoing	Minor league baseball	Official bat dog
Holly Springs Salamanders	2019	Ongoing	Amateur baseball	Official bat dog
Sit Means Sit (Apex)	2016	Ongoing	Dog training	Spokesdog

See also

• Chase (dog)
• List of individual dogs