Comedic legend Will Ferrell reignited an ancient conspiracy theory Monday that involved baseball star Cal Ripken Jr., actor Kevin Costner, an affair, and a power outage.
Legend has it that back in 1997, the Orioles caused an electrical issue at their home stadium in Camden Yards so Ripken Jr., could continue his consecutive game streak, according to an interview Ferrell did with the “My Momma Told Me” podcast. Deep within this very real event (the electrical issue) is an even crazier conspiracy that Ripken Jr. caught his wife in bed with Costner, and beat him up.
Ripken Jr.’s hand was allegedly badly hurt in the brawl, which would have stopped him from playing on the night of the electrical issue, the urban legend continues. Both Ripken Jr. and Costner have denied any truth to this conspiracy, but Ferrell has other feelings.
“There was a point in his streak where he was getting towards the end where the game was called due to the electricity going out in the Baltimore baseball stadium,” Ferrell told the podcast. “And they had to call the game. There was a power outage.” (RELATED: Kevin Costner Rumor That He Got Someone Pregnant On ‘Yellowstone’ Set Dismissed)
The game was delayed to another night. “And the story is that Cal Ripken came home to find his wife cheating with Kevin Costner,” he continued. “They had a fight, he hurt his hand, he’s like ‘I can’t play tonight.’ They’re like, ‘OK, what about the streak? I know, the power’s out. Cut the lights.’ And then they had a couple off days and it allowed the hand to heal up and the streak continued.”
Costner and Ripken Jr. did become friends following a meeting at the premiere of “Dances with Wolves” in 1990, according to the New York Post. Ripken told NPR in 2008 that he was “definitely” on the field during the night in question. But it doesn’t matter how hard both men deny the veracity of the claims, conspiracy theories are pretty hard to get rid of once they grow legs.