OK Billy, your secret is finally out and I'm guessing you feel as though an enormous weight has been lifted from your back. It's probably been tough to keep up this charade for almost 20 years, but talk about locking it up in the vault. Very impressive. I'd feel safe making a mob hit with you riding shotgun because I know you wouldn't squeal until I was long gone.

For those not familiar with the story of the now infamous Billy Ripken "error" card, it goes something like this. Ripken's 1989 Fleer baseball card made its public debut that year with Ripken posed holding his bat, with the photo taken during pre-game warm-ups at Fenway Park. When the 1989 Fleer set hit the public, collectors quickly noticed that the knob on Ripken's bat displayed the words "F*@k Face" and many angry fans and collectors wanted to know why Ripken would be so disgraceful.

Feeling the heat and public backlash (remember this was 1989) Ripken denied any knowledge of the his new signature phrase, explaining that he must have been the victim of a prank by one of his teammates. Fleer reps put their best spin on the situation as well, saying because of time restraints, the image had slipped past its editors and into production with the phrase going undetected. While most within the hobby had little faith in Fleer's explanation (especially when the media got a hold of the story and it created quite a stir not to mention soaring values for the card) most of us did believe Ripken's original version of the story. Until now that is.

Although times were much different 20 years ago and few would bat an eyelash if the story leaked out today, it's hard for me to understand why it took this long for Ripken to come clean. Sure, what he wrote affended a few people and likely taught some youngsters a new word to add to their vocabulary, but isn't it just a funny story vs. being something to feel ashamed of? I guess Billy must have been out in the back yard when Cal senior was giving the "honesty is the best policy" lesson to his brother. Either that, or Billy is just a really slow learner. Either way, thanks for giving us something to chuckle about for the last 20 years.  

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