Ripken: "I Had Dinner With Mr. Angelos Last Night."

With all the hubbub given to the original Ken Rosenthal story about Cal Ripken and Peter Angelos earlier this week, people have paid much less attention to the denial by Angelos and the statement released by Ripken.

Anyway, Cal addressed the issue again yesterday on Ripken Baseball, his weekly radio show that he and brother Billy host every Friday on XM's MLB Network Radio. Below is the transcript of what Cal said about the controversy. I thought some of it was interesting and the Rosenthal story (the meat of it anyway) looks more and more like weak sauce.

(This reads a little stilted in text form but I was trying to be as accurate with the transcript as possible.)

Billy Ripken: ...I just figured I'd give you some airtime here and talk about the O's...and you. Because that was a story and, uh, that was out there and I know that some stuff kind of happened and I saw your statement that was issued. It's nice that I read your statements instead of just ask you about it 'cause I know it's going to come out sooner or later. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, you played in Baltimore your entire career, you have a relationship with Peter Angelos, you're in the same city now that Andy MacPhail resides in and works in...you guys are bound to have conversations from time to time.

Cal Ripken, Jr.: (laughs) Well, we've made it a point to meet pretty regularly. I value his opinion on many different things and many times we've disagreed and we've said things, you know, and almost to make each other mad I think. But, you know, I was on a college visit with my son and I got up early in the morning and my Blackberry started blowing up with people telling me that there's this stuff out there. And I honestly didn't really want to deal with it then, it was the time to actually visit the school and really not take your attention away from what you're really supposed to. So then I had to come back and deal with that.

And my experience, and I said it in the statement, is when things go bad, when they go really bad, then this is when these stories have the biggest legs. And certainly there were some elements of the story that were true, certainly I've talked to Andy MacPhail specifically about a role with the organization and I've talked to Peter Angelos about that. And as I've said, you know, the talks are ongoing and they're continuing, you know, with no direct timetable but it's an interest. I know that I'd like to get back into the game, I think, but on my timetable, it is when my last kid, in this case, Ryan, goes off to school, I'm looking at that sort of timetable. So it's not really this urgent thing.

And I wondered if the Orioles got off to an 11-1 start, would there have been any legs to the story at all?

BR: No.

CR: You know, would it have even been thought of or brought up? But it seems like the intention of the story is to create some sort of rift and I think that the fact of the matter is that it was never said that Mr. Angelos didn't want to do anything for fear of giving me credit for a turnaround. That just wasn't said. That just wasn't true. But there were some elements of truth to it...was that we actually have talked and are talking about, you know, things that deal with the Orioles at the big league level so...that's all it is, nothing more than that and I don't have anything more to report. Matter of fact, I had dinner with Mr. Angelos last night.

BR: Uh-oh! Breaking news! Right here! Today! (chuckling)

CR: (chuckling) And then leaving there, one of the persons in the restaurant said "Have you guys cut a deal?" And we both kind of laughed and said "Not yet."

BR: Well, I'm glad you gave me that insider information because I'm going to be up here on the desk tonight up here in New Jersey at the network. I'm going there. "Junior had dinner with Peter Angelos last night." It's out there.

CR: Details to follow.

BR: Perfect!