NEW YORK (AP) - Spring training has sprung, but Cal Ripken Jr. acknowledges he's feeling a bit blue.

Baseball's Ironman, who played in a record 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, was in town Thursday promoting a contest that celebrates the same determination he was known for over his two decades in the game.

But Ripken, who retired in 2001, also talked with The Associated Press about how he misses spring training, the World Baseball Classic, and whether he thinks about being voted into the Hall of Fame next year, the first time he's eligible.

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AP: With players reporting to training camps, do you miss baseball more these days?

Ripken: I didn't really miss baseball a whole lot when I retired because I felt fulfilled. I did everything I wanted to do. It was time to actually not look back, move forward. I never really looked up to say, "OK, they're going to spring training and they're leaving without me.'' But spring training was the time I really liked, I really loved and looked forward to it. Because you miss baseball all winter, you're out with your teammates and all of a sudden you're back with the people you want to be with. You went from cold weather to warm weather, no pressures and the fans were close. So this is the only time that kind of makes me sad a little bit.

AP: And now this World Baseball Classic is happening smack in the middle of it. Is that a good thing, or a distraction?

Ripken: Conceptually, I love it, because I like the idea of promoting baseball in a worldwide sort of tournament. It's like an Olympic competition or a World Cup in soccer. The challenge would be, when do you do it? ... Before (the season) concerns me a little bit because everybody's not up to speed at the same level that they might be. I would consider it an honor if I was asked, when I played, to actually play for it, but I would have to take some bigger precautions. Maybe even go to winter ball, do something where I felt like I was really ready.

AP: How much do you watch baseball now?

Ripken: I haven't gone to too many games. But I tend to watch it on TV quite a bit.

AP: Can you watch it like a normal fan or do you know too much?

Ripken: I'll never watch it purely from a recreational standpoint - I mean, you get drawn into how you were trained. You look at pitch selection, you look at where they're playing, what they're trying to do, who's hot or who's not, who impresses you or who doesn't. So you sort of look at it from a scouting perspective. I always enjoy the game. The one thing is, the longer you're out, the more you feel that you're an outsider looking in. You used to feel like you were on the inside - you knew everything that was going on because you were there every day. Now, the more you're removed from it, you have to live vicariously through somebody else. So you have to call Alex (Rodriguez) up or you talk to someone else and you say, "OK, give me the scoop.''

AP: How much do you think about the Hall of Fame?

Ripken: Only when I'm asked.

AP: Which is by every reporter who ever talks to you.

Ripken: The Hall of Fame - I think everybody secretly who plays the game wants to make their mark in some positive way, and the Hall of Fame is the ultimate mark that you've left individually on the game. And so I am eligible for voting this year and I try not to think about it - I try to let the process take care of itself - but I guess secretly you keep your fingers crossed and you hope.

AP: You and Tony Gwynn are both eligible for the Hall (ballot) this year and you both played for the same teams your entire careers. That is such a rare feat these days - why is that?

Ripken: I don't think it's fair to say that free agency has killed that and that's the reason to blame because there's a lot of instability in organizations who change their general manager, their managers, their staff, and they change out whole rosters a lot of times. I think a lot of the movement occurs not because of free agency necessarily, but, you know - trades, releasing, trying somebody else for the position. And I think if you ask every player in the big leagues if they had a chance to play in a certain place, would they want to play in one place for their whole careers, and I think the answer would be yes.

AP: Also eligible this year is Mark McGwire. What's going to happen there, do you think?

Ripken: The voting for the Hall of Fame is very subjective and everybody is going to weigh in and think about things in their own way. I was asked, "If you had a vote, what would you vote?'' And I say, well, if I had a vote, I would have to really get more information and research it and really feel I've gathered all the information I can for a sense of making a vote. I don't know how people are going to see that collectively. I imagine the shadow of suspicion of steroids, I don't know how the world's going to treat that. I honestly feel that the facts will ultimately come out.

AP: You have a new book coming out, "Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way.'' There is so much more structure and pressure in sports now than when I was a kid, when you were a kid. Do you think it's possible to just go out in the street and play baseball for fun anymore?

Ripken: I think the days of the pickup games are kind of gone as far as baseball goes. I think we live in a society where we're a little more safety-conscious, security-conscious, and maybe the two parents working in the household doesn't allow for that sort of supervision. So I think we tend let them play inside games or we put them in organized sports a little bit more. But that's not bad. I think the philosophy, in my opinion, is that you should return the game to the kids.