Kevin Spacey & Cal Ripken held joint fundraiser @arenastage tonight for their foundations @WTOP @WTOPEnt @WTOPSports pic.twitter.com/YDUBqUSrMP
— Michelle Basch (@mbaschWTOP) September 29, 2015
WASHINGTON — A superstar from sports and another from screen and stage joined forces in D.C. Monday night to raise money for their foundations.
Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey and Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. teamed up for a night of fun at Arena Stage with Ripken telling ballpark stories, and Spacey doing impressions of people like Johnny Carson, Al Pacino and Donald Trump.
“I think more people should team up,” Spacey said after the event. “Obviously he’s a longtime Baltimorean. We shoot House of Cards in Baltimore.”
Spacey wanted to do something to help kids in Baltimore, so last year the Kevin Spacey Foundation joined with the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation for a project called “Home Grown.”
“That’s led us to really sort of say ‘hey, let’s do more.’ And we decided to join forces this year in terms of this as a fundraising opportunity,” Spacey said.
Ripken says getting together with Spacey makes sense, because the goals of their foundations are very similar.
“We’re just getting in front of kids and getting their interest, whether it’s through the arts or whether it’s through baseball. We get their attention and then we match caring adults with them and we give them a chance.”
Monday’s event raised more than $1.25 million, which will be split by the two foundations.
Asked to comment on Sunday’s dugout fight between Nationals players Jonathan Papelbon and Bryce Harper, Ripken told WTOP it wasn’t that big of a deal.
“This is not something that’s rare. It happens periodically and tempers flare and people get over it,” Ripken said.
Ripken doesn’t think the story will stick around long either.
“It seems like … they handled it internally, the Nationals have handled it in their way, so I think it’s an incident that will be gone in a day or two.”
