Rhetorical Analysis Of The Speech Of Cal Ripken Jr.

The speech I chose was Cal Ripken Jr.’s it was given at the Orioles home ball park, Camden Yards at his last home game before retiring. It is a special occasion speech and was given in front of over 48,000 fans. He used a tried and true opening sentence that although a little altered had a very familiar ring. He opened with “As a kid, I had this dream” a very loose but familiar take on MLK’s “I have a dream”. This was a great attention getter and probably had people on their feet immediately. This audience was already motivate to hear his speech so that was not an issue. Most of the fans were there for the purpose of hearing his retirement speech. He did not preview his points in the introduction he addressed those in the body of his speech one at a time. He did not try to establish credibility as he was speaking about himself so who knows more about him than himself.

He went straight into his theme for the speech which was a thank you to all parties that had a part in making his dream come true.

He listed them one by one starting with his parents, then moving to the organization, then wife and children, team mates and last fans. Telling what each of them had given him over his career and thanking them for their support. He did not speak long on each one literally just one sentence on each. This was a little concerning as he should have been more thankful to those who gave him such a great and long career. It was almost like his speech only had an introduction and then a conclusion as the body was so

short.
The best part of his speech was the conclusion. He signal the closure by repeating a word he had used in the introduction, “But I have other dreams”. Not only did is signify the closing of the speech but also the closing of this chapter in his life he was ready to move on to the next phase. He kept the audience’s attention, even though everyone knew the speech was closing, by joking about his grey but also lack of hair. At this point in speech instead of repeating his points of his speech which was thanking all parties involved he moved onto telling the audience what he hoped the next stage of his life would be. Wanting to stay in baseball and share his knowledge of the game to others hoping that he could make others smile by sharing the game he loved. In closing he left audience with a very good remark that most of the audience will remember, “How do I want to be remembered? My answer is simple: to be remembered at all is pretty special”. There was another line at the end of his speech I though was not necessary and the speech would have been better if he had just closed with the quote above.
Overall the speech was effective however, it could have been better. The arrangement was good as he had an attention getting phrase at the beginning and closed with a memorable statement. The body of the speech was weak, organized but lacked in content, it was superficial not leaving you with a feeling he was truly thankful. His style and delivery suffered because of the venue it was being given in and having to pause constantly because of the applause and noise from the crowd. The voice, considering the occasion, was not very emotional in any way it was monotone and lacked enthusiasm. He did look up from speech and acknowledge the audience but spent a fair amount of time reading from index card. He did not use any fillers, I printed copy of speech to look and see if I had missed him using one, but he had not. Even though his voice lacked enthusiasm his face did not he repeatedly showed excitement in his face and raised hands to acknowledge crowd. The only visual was his uniform and it did not distract from speech it was very appropriate.