Orioles Rookie Gets Blessing From Cal Ripken Jr

There was a bit of a question in the air because the newest Orioles rookie to take Major League Baseball wishes to wear Cal Ripken Sr's number, seven. Jackson Holliday is the son of Major League Baseball veteran Matt Holliday. Jackson was recently promoted to the majors to play second base for the Baltimore Orioles.

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His dad, Matt, wore number seven throughout his long baseball career. He played for the Colorado Rockies and the St, Louis Cardinals with brief stints with the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees.

Jackson Holliday was the number one overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft and has been a highly touted prospect in the Baltimore Orioles system. He finally got his chance to play Major League Baseball with his debut on Wednesday, April 10th at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox.

Here's the only hold up, number seven was worn by the late Cal Ripken Sr. who, you guessed it, is the father of the Hall of Fame player Cal Ripken Jr. He also was a former major leaguer himself and manager of the Orioles. Recently, the MLB X (formerly Twitter) account posted that "The Iron Man is pumped to watch Jackson Holliday put on his dad's Orioles jersey No. 7!"

He confirmed retweeting the above tweet saying "it's true" so we know it happened. Plus he even added this on Twitter.

The reason Jackson is wearing number seven is to honor his dad and continue the tradition. His father wore number seven, it's only fitting for him to do so. And now, if there's a group of people who can understand the relationship between baseball dad's and son's, it would have to be the Ripken family.

So it comes as no surprise to me that Cal Jr. is all in for this switch. According to SportsIllustrated, "The No. 7 has been unofficially retired by the Orioles in honor of Cal Ripken Sr., who spent 36 years in the organization as a manager and coach building up 'The Oriole Way.'"

Congrats to Jackson Holliday for making his debut. In his first game, he didn't end up recording a hit but he did get an RBI! Check out the video here of his entire MLB debut.

Big congrats to Jackson. Here's to the start of what is hopefully a long major league career!

This time of the year is the most magical. Phillies Spring Training hats are flying off the shelf and it's understandable why. They have a new hat every single year that is branded specifically for that Spring Training season.

They did a pretty awesome video mash-up of all of the players wearing it. The preview shows starting pitcher Ranger Suarez rocking the new look. If you watch the video, you will see a lot of players including Aaron Nola, Alec Bohm, and manager Rob Thomson rocking the new look. Here's what it looks like this season.

You can check out the Phillies team store if you are interested in buying any of their hats or gear.

If you have been on social media, you know that there has been quite the fiasco with the new jerseys taking the MLB by storm. Each and every player is wearing a new uniform from a new provider this year and, well it doesn't look quite right. We will let you be the judge of that. See below.

https://925xtu.com/galleries/phillies-wearing-controversial-mlb-jerseys-in-media-photoshoot/

Also you might have heard of the leaking of the possible City Connect jersey, find out what it looks like by clicking here.

So, you saw the generic hat, so to speak. The staple. This year's money-maker in Clearwater. But I decided to dive a bit deeper and find different Spring Training hats that people will either love or hate.

In fact, I sent all seven of these photos to my wife, Emily, without any context and she called me immediately. She said none of those are good for my head or face. I had them to explain to her that I was putting together something very special. That special thing is this article of the most questionable great or not so great hats that you can get surrounding Phillies Spring Training.

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Jeff Kurkjian 

Jeff Kurkjian grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland and now is proud to call Philadelphia, home. He and his wife, Emily, just welcomed their baby girl, McKinley to the world. In his spare time, he loves to binge watch the latest shows and work on his own podcast called “Do What You Love.”

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