Cal Ripken Jr. was a master at defensive positioning. Al Tielemans/SI

Sports Illustrated Associate Editor Richard Deitsch interviewed Cal Ripken Jr. for the magazine's Q&A this week. Here are some excerpts from their conversation:

SI: How badly has baseball been hurt by the BALCO trial and all the preseason talk involving steroids?

Ripken: At first glance you would think, 'This is horrible. This is the worst thing that would happen to the sport.' You would think we could just keep just the focus on what happens between the white lines. But if you take a step back, and if you realize if there is an issue -- and it sounds like there is an issue and in other sports as well -- the fact that it's out in the open now and took a moment like this for it to get it out, maybe you can find some positives in the fact that now it has to be dealt with. They see it as a problem and they are working to clean it up.

SI: You've said since near the end of your playing career that you would be interested in running a major league organization. Are you interested in aligning yourself with whomever buys the Washington Nationals?

Ripken: I've said before that a lot of jobs in baseball interest me. When I retired from baseball I had my whole life in baseball and I had a schedule. The last three years it's been very important for me to be flexible and to be available to my kids. The smartest people I know said that your kids will be gone from your house in a heartbeat, so I want to be flexible enough where I can be with them for school events, athletic events and things like that. Having said that, you keep your ears and eyes open and you watch the landscape and see what's happening. So if there is an opportunity or someone sees that there is value for me, I don't think I'm the smartest person in the world by any means but I'm start enough to listen, find out what the value proposition is, and analyze it then. I'm not someone who speculates and tries to find out what an opportunity might be. I'd rather hear what it is and try to analyze it.

SI: Would working in the day-to-day operations of a major-league team excite you?

Ripken: I think it's a matter of timing and a matter of what the opportunity would be. If it were a manager type of opportunity, the work doesn't bother me so much but it doesn't work as far as schedule and me being home. If you have an opportunity to shape the whole organization, which is looking in the minor leagues and impacting the day-to-day baseball operations but you are not traveling with the club, that's an opportunity that I would have to evaluate. A coaching job I always thought would be cool and a manager job I thought would be cool but that doesn't fit into my immediate needs to be home more times than not.

SI: You are very involved in baseball, from Ripken Youth Camps and clinics to the Minor League Ironbirds to Cal Ripken Baseball (www.ripkenbaseball.com). Why have you never lost your zeal as the 'Pied Piper' of the sport?

Ripken: I don't consider myself the Pied Piper (laughs). There were really two things I liked from the attention baseball gave me. One was being able to stand in front of everyone and say how great the game of baseball is. I don't know if I want to be considered the ambassador of baseball but I like to be in a position to tell everyone how good the game is. The other one is to have a good influence with kids.

SI: You played against the Red Sox for 21 seasons. Did what happened to them last year stun you like the rest of us?

Ripken: Yeah, I think the fact that anybody coming back from a 3-0 deficit is amazing. The fact that it has never really happened before in that situation was amazing. Last year I thought the Red Sox had a good chance to match up against the Yankees by having Curt Schilling. When you get to the playoffs and the short series, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez and those type of pitchers can really have a big impact like Curt and Randy Johnson did against the Yankees in 2001. Right when you think the Yankees are vulnerable, they jump out to a 3-0 lead and you think it's over. There was a lot of grit and determination and the Red Sox played really well. I was in as much in disbelief as anybody else who saw it unfold. But by the time you got to the seventh game, you just had this feeling that they would come back and do it.

SI: Where do you find athletic challenges now?

Ripken: Basketball is an outlet for me. I don't work out the same way that I worked out when I played baseball because I had specific things that I had to accomplish. I always played basketball to stay in shape and to use that as part of my program in the offseason. Now I guess that's my only exercise that I look forward to. We create games at my house that are very competitive. After it's over, we sit around in a clubhouse sort of environment -- I have a little locker room next to my gym -- and relive the game and laugh just the same way I did for all those years in baseball. I guess I get my belonging or my competitive fix through basketball. We have a lot of guys who play from different ages. You try to get the best basketball talent around and the word kind of spreads. I really don't have to go out and recruit. We have good players.

SI: Who's the most interesting player your facing these days?

Ripken: Gheorghe Muresan. He's come up a couple of Sundays in a row. He still can shoot really well and having a 7-foot-7 guy on the floor means when you make an initial move to the paint, you realize you have no chance. I've had the misfortune of trying to guard him and trying to double and front him. I tend not to work on my postgame if we end up matching up.

SI: Do you allow yourself to think about the Hall of Fame in 2007?

Ripken: I try not to think about those things. If that will happen, it will happen and things will take care of themselves. I don't sit around counting down the days or figuring out when I'm eligible or not eligible.

SI: Does it bother you that the American League East has become a two-team race between the Red Sox and Yankees and that the O's, for the moment, have been left behind?

Ripken: I think over time things can change. It's all about your baseball model and being competitive. Things can change. Boston has come back and put together a really strong team on the field and the Yankees have been strong for awhile. But I remember in the '80s the Yankees were in a total rebuilding situation and they weren't part of it. And it's not necessarily because they have the most money. It's because they have made really good decisions. Sure, if you have money sometimes it can erase some of the bad decisions that you make and the teams with less money have to be better in those decisions just to be competitive. But the Yankees are the Yankees because they have made good baseball decisions and built a good baseball model. It doesn't bother me, but it gives an opportunity for everybody else in the division to shoot for them.

SI: Because you played in the American League for your whole career, do you follow the AL closer than the NL?

Ripken: I think for the most part when you are an American Leaguer and you competed against those cities, you know those cities better and your interest naturally goes there. But when interleague play was brought in I thought it was fabulous for baseball that you had a glimpse into the other league for a short period of time. I watch certain players -- ones that I played against -- and if they move to the other league, I'll follow them. Jim Thome, I enjoy watching him swing a bat and immediately went he went over to the Phillies, I became more of a Phillies fan. I tend to watch players that I played against. Generally speaking, I think I pay attention to the American League and the American League East.

SI: So you don't think interleague play has hurt the uniqueness of the World Series?

Ripken: I don't think so, no. I like the local rivalries that come out of interleague play. The fact that the Mets and the Yankees play each other and the Cubs and the White Sox play each other, that creates a World Series excitement regardless of how either of those teams are doing in the course of the year. It brings a playoff atmosphere to those cities. Both fan bases go to the opposing ballparks and it creates interest. I like the idea of playing the same teams locally every single year and maybe you have a team that by random you play just to get exposure. I like the local rivalries and I think it's good for those areas to create interest in both teams.

SI: There's been a lot of player movement this offseason. What baseball story are you looking forward to this year?

Ripken: I have no doubt that Randy Johnson, having faced him over the years and watching his stuff, will be able to succeed in New York. The Mets will be interesting to watch. Pedro Martinez is over there and Carlos Beltran as well. They seem to be in a mode of change. It'll be interesting to see a pitcher the caliber of Pedro go back to the National League and see what kind of impact he'll have on that staff. He'll make everybody else around him better.

SI: Away from sports, in the business world, who is someone you really admire?

Ripken: I guess I'm still reaching out for that. One of the great things about being in the business world and transitioning on is that I have a lot of good advisors and mentors, and I have a chance to lean on those resources pretty good. I don't know if if have a favorite person in the business world yet.

SI: How did Nike's new Cal Ripken Jr. baseball equipment line come about?

Ripken: Our mission is pretty broad and high. We want to grow baseball worldwide and in order to positively impact on the grassroots of baseball and get more kids playing baseball, you have to have partners that feel the same way and Nike right from the very beginning was very interested. We worked out a good partnership where we can help promote baseball and grow the game of baseball. They are coming into baseball heavy from an equipment standpoint. They make a very good quality product and I think we recognized how we could help each other very quickly.

SI: Is there a baseball record that you think will never be broken?

Ripken: The 56-game hitting streak to me is a marvel. I think my longest hitting streak may have been 16 games and the pressure you start to feel knowing that it's been two weeks since you started the streak is immense. You can a hit ball hard two or three times, they make defensive plays, and you get a little unlucky. You have to be very consistent in order to get a hit in 56 straight games and nowadays with everything being on TV, the scrutiny and everybody asking questions, I think that starts to create a pressure that will make it almost impossible for people to perform under.

SI: Will your streak of 2,632 consecutive games played ever be broken?

Ripken: From where I sit, if I could do it, somebody else could do it. I wasn't Superman. I had a great passion for the game and certain things have to come together. You have to be deserving to start and play every single day. You have to have a little luck and you have to be durable. But I think the biggest thing is you have to have a sense of purpose and a passion for what you do.