Ryan Ripken

But you're kind of committing to that path, that growth in life, and realizing you're going to get smacked in the face and knocked down, and you're going to

um get back up or you're gonna have to have to get back up because life is not easy so in baseball though it's like a two-fold um baseball is a beautiful game but it is a game that pisses you off tests you to no boundary and you are constantly not just playing a game against somebody else you're playing the game against yourself and so for me growing up

I started to have the game of baseball.

I'm going against some of the best.

And then I'm fighting myself.

And on top of it, I'm fighting this expectation that I have to live up to a family name that's had a lot of success.

And I didn't handle that as well as I could.

And I'll be honest about that.

But because of that, Rob, I felt like I was struggling at times to find my identity.

You know, who am I?

Because you mentioned the baseball player.

All I have done, the most constant thing in my life from when I was six years old until when I retired in 2022, the most constant thing of that was me playing baseball.

And then I committed to being a professional baseball player, and I spent eight years playing where I focused and gave my all to that.

And then in an instant...

When you realize you're going to make a change, it's not like I'm taking the baseball skills physically.

If I can hit 95, I can't take that into the world.

And that's scary as hell.

And I was trying to figure out who am I going to be?

Who is Ryan Ripken going to be?

And I think that's where it was a really big challenge.