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League Inducts Four New Hall of Famers
2025 Hall of Fame inductee Alex Thompson poses with league officials. Photo by Maya Brichacek.
Written by Jack Stashower
The Cal Ripken Sr. League inducted four new members into the league Hall of Fame on Sunday at Shirley Povich Field, the fifth class in league history.
The inductees for the class of 2025 are former Bethesda Big Train pitcher and current Houston Astro Hunter Brown, former Gaithersburg Giant infielder and current Baltimore Oriole Jordan Westburg, founding member of the Alexandria Aces Donald Dinan, and the first-ever executive director of the Cal Ripken Sr. League Alex Thompson.
Hunter Brown pitched for the Big Train in 2018, posting a 1.27 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched. During the ceremony, Big Train Head Coach Sal Colangelo sung his praises for Brown, describing him as a “blue-collar guy from Michigan” who worked hard everyday to improve his game. His work ethic paid off as during the summer season his fastball velocity improved from 87-88 to 94-95 miles per hour.
Brown’s success continued on into the pros. In 2019, Brown, who pitched at Wayne State, was selected in the fifth round of the MLB draft by the Houston Astros. He was promoted to the Major League roster on September 1, 2022. He made his MLB debut five days later, throwing six shutout innings against the Texas Rangers and earning his first career win. His success continued that season with 3+ shutout innings in the 2022 postseason for the eventual World Series champions.
“I had Sal tell me, ‘Hey, you’re gonna have to watch this kid, he’s gonna be special,’ and then next year you’re watching his spring games thinking wow, he is pretty special,” Commissioner Jason Woodward said about Brown.
Along with being named a top 100 MLB player by Baseball America, Brown added another accolade this month, earning American League All-Star honors for the first time in his career.
Jordan Westburg is the first member of the Gaithersburg Giants to be inducted to the league Hall of Fame. Westburg came to Gaithersburg in 2017 as an incoming freshman at Mississippi State University. That summer, Westburg hit an impressive .271 at the plate with 29 hits and 12 RBIs.
While at Mississippi State, Westburg excelled on the field, helping lead his team to the college world series. He became the sixth player in College World Series history to drive in seven runs in a single game, with a grand slam in the second inning and a bases-clearing double in the eighth inning against North Carolina.
Westburg was taken with the 30th overall pick by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2020 MLB draft. In June 2023, Westburg was promoted to the 40-man roster, making his debut against the Cincinnati Reds at Camden Yards. A year later, Westburg became the first player in Gaithersburg Giants history to play in the MLB All-Star Game.
“Through all his success, Jordan has never changed,” former Giants Head Coach Jeff Rabberman said during Westburg’s induction. “He’s a great baseball player but he’s an even better person.”
Along with Brown, Westburg was named a top 100 MLB player by Baseball America before the 2025 season.
To put it simply, there would be no Alexandria Aces without the leadership and dedication of co-founder Don Dinan. Throughout his entire life, Dinan lived and breathed everything baseball. Those who came to represent Dinan at the ceremony reminisced about his knowledge of the game.
“You could ask him a question about the 1965 World Series and he’d say ‘What game?’” Aces co-founder Patrick Malone said. “It was such a pleasure to have different conversations with him, he could engage anybody with anything.”
In his time at the helm, Dinan emphasized that Alexandria would be a place “where legends began,” a phrase that is now marked on his plaque at Shirley Povich Field. And in 2022, the Aces finished a legendary run, winning the Cal Ripken League playoffs for the first time in team history.
While Dinan was absent for the team’s lifting of the trophy in 2022, Malone recalls texting him nonstop during the game.
“I was keeping him posted the entire game, and as the game went on it was just such a shock. A pleasant shock, because doing something like this takes a lot of work to do,” Malone said.
While Dinan couldn’t be at the finals in person, his impact was still felt on that night. The community he had helped start in 2008 had grown exponentially to where the entire first base side was filled with passionate Aces fans away from home in Bethesda.
Dinan was equally passionate about the government as he was about baseball. He worked with every D.C. Mayor from Walter Washington to Muriel Bowser during his time as General Counsel to the D.C. Democratic State Committee and President of the Ward 6 Democrats.
While his presence was greatly missed during the ceremony, Malone said his business partner would be nothing but humble.
“He would say he could not have been nominated if it wasn’t for everybody who worked with him,” Malone said.
Lastly, there would be no Cal Ripken Sr. League if it wasn’t for Alex Thompson. In January 2001, Big Train President Bruce Adams received a letter from Thompson in which he showed interest in volunteering for the team. Three years later, Thompson was the team’s General Manager.
While at the Big Train, Alex created the first High School Leadership Council, an achievement Alex recalls being one of his favorite memories in the last 25 years. The program sought to provide valuable experience for students interested in sports management.
“We wanted to elevate a handful of what were volunteers into leadership/internship positions,” Thompson said. “I’m really proud of what the leadership committee was because it spawned a lot of the internship programs that are still in operation.”
From there, Thompson was named the league’s first executive director in the league’s inaugural 2005 season before serving as league commissioner in 2013. Since then, Thompson has assisted league operations behind the scenes. Whether it’s compiling statistics for the league website, teaching future staff how to use Pointstreak, or advising the board on expansions and partnerships, Thompson has been an integral part to the league’s success.
And in turn, the league has been an integral part of Thompson’s life. While working for the Big Train, Alex met his future wife Emily Adams, a full circle moment to when he first wrote that letter to Bruce 24 years ago.
“When things were the most stressful here at the Big Train, there was always one thing that kept me going, and that was the thought that maybe Emily would be there,” Thompson said during his induction speech.
And even though Thompson has stepped back on his role with the league in recent years, his impact is still felt across the league today.
“As I reflect on tonight, what I’m most proud of about going into the Hall of Fame for the Ripken League is that the Ripken League has a Hall of Fame," Thompson said. “It’s a sign that we’ve come a long way.”
View each inductee's Hall of Fame plaque here.
