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Cal Ripken wants to bring Poochie to baseball, but there's a much easier solution

Cal Ripken Jr. is one of the best players ever to play baseball, rightfully enshrined in the Hall of Fame. That does not mean he has good ideas about how to make the game appeal to kids.

Ripken’s heart is in the right place. Baseball viewership has a high median age, and it’s good to be thinking about how to hook the next generation of fans to keep the sport healthy. That is something baseball should be doing.

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“We want to put out some ideas, and try some things,” Ripken, now a special advisor to commissioner Rob Manfred on youth programs and outreach, and namesake to a level of youth baseball, said in an interview with USA Today.