A sports legend with a local connection will serve as grand marshall for the upcoming Heartland Homecoming Parade.
“We welcome everybody on August 26 to the Heartland Homecoming Parade, where we will have perennial Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and All-Star Cal Ripken Jr. representing the Ripken Experience, which is a partnership we have formed at the Elizabethtown Sports Park,” Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said. “We ask everybody to come out and welcome him to our great community.”
Cal Ripken Jr. is a World Series champion, member of the 3,000 hit club, and owns the Major LEague Baseball record for most consecutive games played. The former Baltimore Oriole shortstop’s organization Ripken Baseball opened the Ripken Experience Elizabethtown at the city’s Sports Park this summer, hosting youth baseball and softball tournaments, camps, and experiences at the complex.
Elizabethtown Events Program Manager Beth Pyes said the city wanted to recognize Ripken for the Ripken Experience’s success.
“I don’t think anybody in our community can deny the impact the Sports Park has had on our community as a whole, so we thought it would be a great honor to have him be the grand marshall,” Pyles said.
Pyles also says Ripken fits in well with this year’s parade theme: World of Sports.
“We’re thinking about the impact sports has not only on our community but in everyone’s life, whether they have a favorite college team, professional team, or they go cheer on their children or their grandchildren at their soccer game or football game or baseball game,” Pyles said. “Sports is a pretty important component of pretty much everybody’s life whether they participate or are just a fan.”
The 2023 Heartland Homecoming Parade will make its way from downtown Elizabethtown to St. John Road beginning at 10 a.m. on August 26.
