Cal Ripken Jr. spent the latter stages of his career playing against Derek Jeter, who retired after the 2014 season following two illustrious decades with the New York Yankees.
Though Jeter admitted earlier this month he needs to "get away" from baseball for a while, Ripken said adjusting to life away from the diamond won't be so easy for the newly retired shortstop.
"For your whole life, this is all you've done," Ripken told Dan Martin of the New York Post. “It’s going to be a new experience for him and no matter what he does with himself, it’s going to be difficult at times."
Jeter has no shortage of post-baseball ambitions - the 40-year-old intends to start a publishing company and recently launched a website - but Ripken suggested that adjusting to an abundance of free time can be challenging.
"No matter how much you say you’re ready to move on - and I have no doubt Derek was ready to move on - you’re still not totally prepared for dealing with this time of year," Ripken said. "There's spring training and then Opening Day and that's all you've known, so you're definitely going to have that pull to be around for that, but it's not the same."
