The NY Times has an interesting article on what Cal Ripken has been up to. The gist of the story is that Cal has created a corporation to increase the popularity of baseball through minor league ownership and youth baseball programs. What’s very interesting is that the Ripkens seem to be giving Little League Baseball some competition:

His focus on encouraging young people has, of course, been welcomed by many influential people in the sport besides Mr. Vincent. But Mr. Ripken’s moves in the youth baseball world have not gone over universally well with Little League Baseball.
The tension began in 1999, when the nonprofit Babe Ruth League renamed its age 5 to 12 division the Cal Ripken Division of Babe Ruth League Baseball, and Mr. Ripken reciprocated by helping to negotiate a television contract with Fox Sports to broadcast its championship games, setting up a competition for viewers. (Little League Baseball, which runs the Little League World Series, is broadcast on ABC.) Babe Ruth baseball will hold the Cal Ripken World Series next August in Aberdeen at the same time the Little League Baseball games are held in Williamsport, Pa.
Mr. Ripken and officials of Little League Baseball denied that there was competition. But Mr. Ripken said he thought that his strategy of branding and “rejuvenating fun” were the prescription for addressing the game’s decline in popularity.

Nothing wrong with a little competition. If Ripken starts to succeed in drawing children away from LL, LL should respond with their own new ways of drawing children into the game. The hoped for result would be more young people getting interested in baseball, creating more life-long fans, and a healthier game.