Legendary Baltimore Orioles star Cal Ripken Jr. has signed a three-book deal with Penguin, for two adult books at Gotham and a children's title at Philomel. First at bat will be a parenting guide in the star's trademark style, offering his sports philosophy and how it can be applied to teaching youngsters the game: Parenting Young Baseball Players the Ripken Way. The other two books will be motivational books about perseverance, one for adults, the other for kids; Ripken was celebrated above all for his utter reliability and perseverance through more than 2,600 games, and speaks in public often about those virtues through his Ripken Baseball operation. Gotham's Bill Shinker signed for world rights on all three books with Scott Waxman, with Brendan Cahill to edit the adult books, Philomel's Michael Green the children's.