NEW YORK -- During a live Town Hall chat with MLB.com and fans Friday to promote his brand-new Web site at GetGreat.com, Cal Ripken Jr. not only offered plenty of advice to parents and young athletes, but also to today's Major Leaguer who might want to sit out occasional games this season with aches and pains.

"You get nicked up all the time with getting hit by pitches on the hands and those sort of things," Ripken said at Chelsea Market in Manhattan. "I always thought sometimes an injury would make you stay within yourself a little more. A lot of times good things happen with an injury, then you're always searching within yourself. A lot of times people are fearful of going out on the field not 100 percent, but I can tell you there are only about 10 days in a given year you are 100 percent, so I would try to go out there and play if you can.

"I thought I was playing baseball for a living. Your responsibility is to go out and play. The managers who put me in and my consistencies after that created this thing called a streak. Once you proved you could play 162 once, then you're not worried about the result. It was a byproduct of an approach I think all players should have. Put personal stats aside, come to the ballpark ready to play, and if the manager chooses you, you play. I think that's what coming to the ballpark is all about."

Ripken played in a record 2,632 consecutive games, and when he talks eight years after retirement, people listen. It is why one of the fans in attendance said he drove with his child from Nebraska to Cooperstown to attend that unforgettable July 2007 day when Ripken and Tony Gwynn were inducted into the Hall of Fame. It is why TBS has retained Ripken again for '09 as an MLB studio analyst. It is why Ripken Digital Media and Major League Baseball Advanced Media teamed to create the new site, to teach what he and others have to impart for the next generation in the national pastime.

GetGreat.com is a one-of-a-kind instructional baseball site that melds informative lessons and drill work with in-depth analysis of Major League ballplayers in action. Featuring more than 200 videos accompanied by in-depth text lessons, GetGreat.com provides a comprehensive curriculum for players of all ages. The site is broken into six easily navigated categories -- Hitting, Pitching, Defense, Playing Your Position, Playing as a Team and Extra Innings -- that are each organized by skill level and degree of complexity. Customers can purchase all six of these sections with the $29.95 GetGreat All-Access Pass, or subscribe to any of the individual categories with the $9.95 GetGreat Single-Category Pass. With either package, players, parents and coaches will be met with an experience in youth baseball unlike any other online.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for one, and it puts Ripken Baseball in the big time," Ripken said. "We have great content that we have been trying to distribute in the form of books, DVDs. This is a chance to get to kids and parents of kids through a partnership with MLB.com. It creates the encyclopedia of baseball that we used to call 'Dad.' The 200 lessons we start with today is just the tip of the iceberg."

Ripken answered many of the e-mails that fans provided the past few days on MLB.com, and also replied to questions from the Town Hall audience. Here were two examples of the kind of impact Ripken's site will have:

• A fan named Aurelio asked: "As an infield instructor, what do you think is the best approach to make the kids believe in themselves, and make them understand that once they believe and know they can make any play on the field, they will bring their game to a whole different level?"

Ripken's reply will hit home with most anyone who had nightmares about bad hops while taking infield grounders.

"One of the things you find when you're teaching infield play to someone 8 or 10 [years old], there's a healthy fear of the ball bouncing up," Ripken said. "You want to put them in the right position, give them confidence. Many times the quality of the field is not the best place to start. I would start on a gym floor, a tennis court, and roll a softer ball and get them in proper fielding position. Give them tools to take to the field. I see parents and coaches make the mistake of taking them out to the field, where they hit fungoes, without a lot of control of the bat, and the ball hits them here [raising his hand to his chest], then you've defeated them, they've lost confidence. Arm them with tools, so when they do go on the field, they build success. It's easier when they start on a smooth surface instead of a rough field for the first time."

• Michael Phelps wrote in his recent autobiography about how important it was to him as a youth to play other sports like baseball to stay busy, especially given an attention-deficit disorder that was diagnosed early. He was advised by his swimming coach to focus on just swimming during high school, though, to avoid risk of injury. Ripken said young athletes should play multiple sports if they can.

"I'm a big advocate of kids playing other sports," Ripken said. "You're going to burn out mentally if you play one sport. As you're a kid developing your physical skills, you're developing your athleticism through the other sports. There's the explosiveness of basketball. Soccer can train you, you have to use your feet, there's a balance that takes place. There's a value in playing other sports. After a time, that becomes known. You will have gained so much in shaping your athleticism even more. I would deter the 8-12 year olds from saying, 'This is my only sport, and I'm going to play it 12 months out of the year.'"

• What would you ask the Ironman if you had the chance? The first question asked of him by the live audience was whether there was one near-miss he remembers most during The Streak -- that moment when it all could have ended suddenly.

"Virtually every day," Ripken recalled with a smile.

Then he honed in on a 1993 incident during a Baltimore-Seattle game: "A knee injury from a brawl, of all things. [Mike] Mussina hit Bill Hasselman, he charged the mound, I went in to make sure Moose was OK, and I realized he was OK, then turned my attention to the whole Seattle Mariner dugout coming out, and I thought for a brief moment I could persuade everyone not to jump on the pile. It's not best to be on the bottom of a pile.

"I twisted my knee. The next day I woke up, put my foot on the floor, and couldn't put weight on it. I thought for sure I couldn't play. As time went on, I got some mobility and tested it out. The way baseball is, sure enough, the very first inning and the first hitter for the other team, I get tested. A ball is hit to my right. I have to plant, and I thought, 'Here goes. I might break or something.' I stick it in the ground, and you realize you're OK. By playing through those injuries, you're able to find a positive result."

Which goes back to his aforementioned lesson for today's Major Leaguers. Don't equate pain with an automatic day off or a trip to the disabled list. Don't appeal to the trainer to take time off until you feel just right. That's not the Ripken Way.

If you saw how many people attended that Hall of Fame induction ceremony a couple years ago, you understand why most fans in this era of DL-mania side with the Ripken Way. And if you were at the subsequent induction ceremony, then you would have seen the former player Ripken says he feared most as a hitter -- Goose Gossage.

"He was a closer, by definition, who closed three innings. He was the most intimidating guy when I first came up," Ripken said, when asked by a fan who was one guy you didn't want to see. "When I faced him the first time, it was shortly after he had beaned Ron Cey in the [1981] World Series, and I was left with that visual image. I couldn't even control the left side of my body. I was stepping in the bucket. He was the meanest-looking guy on earth -- had the 'stache, the hat pulled over his head. I know radar guns have gone through some changes, I know nobody hit 100 mph, but he did.

"One day, I heard Tim Stoddard, a teammate of mine, was very friendly with Gossage, and they were going to have dinner after a game. I found out where they were and showed up by accident but almost by design. I got to know Goose, and you break down that wall of intimidation, and find out he's a really nice guy. I think I got four hits in my next five at-bats against him. Goose was as tough as there was on any right-hander, because he threw the ball out here [Ripken stretched out his arm], like Randy Johnson is against lefties. If they get the ball out of tilt a little bit, the ball sails up here in the chin of a right-handed hitter, and that's real stuff. You don't want to be standing in the box when that happens."

Ripken's new site will emphasize what they call "Coachable Moments" -- something he said his late father and former Orioles manager used to focus on by marking notes in red during games and then instructing on it for a couple of minutes the next day. The question posed by that fan from Nebraska named Ron was whether Ripken's famous work ethic can be coached.

"You have to have the willingness to work at it," said Ripken. "We categorize that as work ethic, but enjoying practice, being the best that you can be. We all have different skills. At the highest level, you have to have talent, but you have to have the ability and responsibility to perfect that talent. Your goal shouldn't be to measure yourself against somebody over there, but always trying to improve. That's what dad always taught us: 'You're unique. You're not like them.' I'm not Ozzie Smith. I wish I had his talent, to do that back flip. I was a big shortstop and was able to approach that position differently. You approach it like what you can be, and not like somebody else."

Ripken has been a studio fixture for TBS for each of the last two postseasons plus other shows such as the All-Star Game Selection Show, and he returns for that role in 2009. He was asked by MLB.com how he has liked that gig so far.

"I found out that being an analyst is hard work," said Ripken, who knows the subject. "You have to pay attention all the time. It's not just about what you know, it's how you deliver it. Those little darned sound bites are so hard, because I've got all this going on in my head. Most of the time, I'm pretty boring, so you have to lift up the telecast to make it enjoyable to watch. Most who played at the level I played it, and have the background I had, you want to bring those things to light for them."