# Ripken (dog)

Ripken (August 1, 2016 – January 1, 2025), also known as Ripken the Bat Dog or Ripken the Tee Dog, was a black Labrador Retriever in North Carolina, who worked as a retrieval dog for the amateur baseball team Holly Springs Salamanders, the Minor League Baseball team Durham Bulls, and the North Carolina State Wolfpack college football team. In baseball, Ripken retrieved bats thrown after hits, and in football, retrieved the kicking tee after a kickoff.
Ripken was named after Cal Ripken Jr., the Baseball Hall of Fame player for the Baltimore Orioles. After learning at Sit Means Sit dog training school, former baseball coach Michael O'Donnell and his wife Melissa acquired the dog, who was ten weeks old when he began training to retrieve baseball bats. In 2019, Ripken debuted with the Holly Springs Salamanders, where he retrieved bats and returned them free of saliva or bite marks. These traits helped Ripken to get noticed by the Durham Bulls, who recruited him in 2020. In 2021, Ripken began working for the Wolfpack by collecting kickoff tees. While working, Ripken wore a GoPro camera on his back which recorded his retrieval from a first-person perspective. These videos were posted to social media where some became popular nationally, culminating in Ripken being featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2022. In 2023, Ripken dropped the ceremonial first puck at a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. As Ripken approached ten years of age, fellow black Labrador "Champ" trained alongside Ripken to eventually serve as Ripken's replacement. Ripken died not long after in 2025 from an undiagnosed medical condition.

## Early life

Ripken was born in Boise, Idaho, on August 1, 2016. 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 team. Ripken was recorded as weighing 70 lb (32 kg) on his minor league baseball profile.
Ripken was acquired at eight weeks old by Michael O'Donnell, the founder and owner of the Sit Means Sit dog training franchise in Apex, North Carolina, from a friend and dog breeder in Boise, Idaho. O'Donnell, a former salesperson and college baseball player at Radford University, acquired the Apex franchise of Sit Means Sit in January 2016. He sought to train a dog to retrieve baseball bats, which would 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. Ripken eventually began appearing in O'Donnell's Sit Means Sit commercials as the Apex franchise's "spokesdog".

## Career

For the 2019 season, Ripken debuted for the amateur baseball team Holly Springs Salamanders, where he retrieved bats at home games without leaving slobber or bite marks on the bat, or losing focus and roaming around. O'Donnell sought to have Ripken work for the Durham Bulls, a Minor League Baseball team that was closer to professional status, which he also had a personal attachment to as he proposed to his wife on the pitcher's mound at one of their games. 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 from working due to the COVID-19 pandemic largely halting live sports.
For the 2021 season, Ripken debuted for the Durham Bulls to retrieve thrown bats after hits in the first three to four innings, before meeting fans and giving paw autographs. Ripken soon became popular with players, but was especially popular with children in increasing their attention spans of the game. When running out to the field to do his job, Ripken had a GoPro camera attached to his back to capture his retrieval from a first-person view to later be posted on social media platforms. Ripken also wore a golden gem-studded necklace of his initial "R" wearing a crown while on the field.
The larger venue helped bring more attention to the Apex franchise of Sit Means Sit and likewise to Ripken. These combined led Ripken to work for the NC State Wolfpack college football program starting their 2021 season, who approved after O'Donnell submitted a video from a Durham Bulls game. His job for the Wolfpack the first season was to retrieve the kicking tee at the first kickoff of the first or second half of the game. Ripken was given more duties for the 2022 season, where he became responsible for retrieving all kicking tees for the first half. He went viral on the social media platform TikTok in 2022, with a video of him retrieving a tee at a game between NC State and Texas Tech reaching nearly five million views. On November 10, 2022, Ripken was featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
The increased attention from social media led to Ripken being invited by the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League for an on-ice appearance. On February 18, 2023, Ripken dropped the ceremonial first puck at the Hurricanes game against the Washington Capitals, becoming the third sport Ripken had worked. 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, Ripken made an appearance at the Park Expo and Conference Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the aim of fetching tees for the state's National Football League team, the Carolina Panthers. On December 28, Ripken worked at the first-ever Pop-Tarts Bowl between NC State and Kansas State in Orlando, Florida. During the 2024 Durham Bulls season, Ripken worked 14 games, or about one in every five home games. For the 2024 Wolfpack season in September, Ripken worked at the Duke's Mayo Classic between NC State and Tennessee.

## Death and legacy

Ripken died unexpectedly on January 1, 2025, at the age of 8, following complications from an undiagnosed medical condition. His death was announced by O'Donnell two days later on January 3 on social media. His last job was on December 22, 2024, where he retrieved the kicking tees for the Carolina Panthers against the Arizona Cardinals at their last home game. Official condolences were released by the Durham Bulls, Wolfpack athletics, and Carolina Hurricanes, alongside many on social media. At the time of his death, Ripken's had about 431,500 followers on social media, with about 274,000 of which coming from TikTok, and another 149,000 from Instagram.
In his lifetime, Ripken featured as the grand marshal at the annual Christmas parade in Fuquay-Varina, on Topps baseball cards, stuffed plushies by the Durham Bulls, and T-shirts sold 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 enjoyable. Days after his death, a statue of Ripken was requested to be built on NC State's campus as a memorial.

## Associate dogs

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 baseball bats and football tees with the intention to one day replace Ripken as he aged. Rivers appeared on the sideline at his first Wolfpack football game in November 2022. During the game, however, Rivers showed a slight temperament and did not like people in hats, which was often the majority of people in a baseball stadium. Due to these issues, a decision was made in early 2023 by O'Donnell to acquire another descendant of Cowboy Kohl from Boise, Idaho, named Champ. Champ began working in rotation with Ripken at Holly Springs Salamanders games and at one NC State rugby game 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 according to O'Donnell. This anxiety was reportedly treated each game. At one-and-a-half years old, Champ began to replace Ripken in his former jobs after his unexpected death in January 2025. On March 28, 2025, Champ was set to take over as the new 'Official bat dog' of the Durham Bulls. The end goal for Champ was to have him work professional league games in baseball, football, or golf.

## List of occupations

List of official jobs held by Ripken :
| Team | Year start | Year end | Sport | Job |
| NC State Wolfpack | 2021 | 2025 | College football | Official kicking tee retriever |
| Durham Bulls | 2020 | 2025 | Minor league baseball | Official bat dog |
| Holly Springs Salamanders | 2019 | 2025 | Amateur baseball | Official bat dog |
| Sit Means Sit (Apex) | 2016 | 2025 | Dog training | Spokesdog |