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Cal shows every sign of a legend

By JOHN ROMANO

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 24, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- The stampede is on a tight schedule. It begins at 5:15 p.m. and should be over by 5:16 p.m., give or take 30 seconds. If you're stuck behind the elderly woman with the cane, you haven't a prayer.

Within minutes of the gates opening at Tropicana Field on Thursday evening, the autograph line stretched from the corner of the visiting dugout, up 30 rows of bleachers, down the leftfield line, around the foul pole and beyond the point of all hope.

This is the legacy Cal Ripken leaves behind. If nothing else, baseball's Iron Man has taught us the value of arriving early and working hard.

It is Ripken's last go-around as an active player and the last chance for fans to claim they watched a legend wave goodbye.

So they showed up early and they waited patiently. There were fans outside the stadium gates, baking in the sun. And there were players inside the stadium's doors, looking inconspicuous in the halls.

And everyone, it seemed, had a story to tell of a Ripken autograph.

Wilson Alvarez, in the midst of a two-year rehab with the Rays, is waiting for Ripken outside the visiting clubhouse. He holds a box of balls he wants Ripken to sign for a charity auction Alvarez runs in Venezuela.

Ironically, it is nearly 10 years to the day that Alvarez first faced Ripken. It was Alvarez's second major-league game. Ripken was in the midst of winning his second MVP award.

Alvarez pitched a no-hitter against the Orioles that day and a Ripken dribbler in the front of the plate was the closest Baltimore came to a hit.

"It was like facing a god," Alvarez said.

As he waits in the hall, and he will wait more than two hours, Alvarez recalls that he asked Ripken to sign a ball for a keepsake two years ago.

"A lot of players just write, "Best wishes,' or something like that," Alvarez said. "He wrote, "I'll always remember your no-hitter.' That's how he is. He's just a good man."

Meanwhile, outside Gate 4, Michelle Taylor waits for the stadium doors to open. For the third day in a row.

A retired lieutenant with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, Taylor said she was never much of a sports fan. She had heard Ripken's name but knew little about him. Working security at RFK Stadium during an Orioles exhibition game in the early 1990s, Taylor ran into Ripken in the stadium tunnels and got his autograph on a whim.

She's been hooked ever since.

"For all that he has going for him, all the money and the fame, he still acts like a real person," said Taylor, who is visiting the area from Silver Springs, Md. "When you're getting his autograph or talking to him, he looks you in the eye. He makes you feel special, even if it's only a few seconds."

The gates have opened and the line has formed near the dugout. The seventh autograph seeker is a Diamondbacks scout. The eighth is Josh Hamilton, the No. 1 pick in the 1999 draft. As he waits in line for Ripken's autograph, Hamilton signs autographs for nearby fans.

When he reaches the front of the line, Hamilton explains to Ripken that he wants an autograph for the 3-year-old son of a friend. Ripken asks the boy's name and personalizes the poster.

"To Drake: A big hello in my final season, Cal Ripken Jr."

When he's finished, he blows on the poster to keep the ink from smudging.

Ripken has lived this routine nightly since announcing in June this season will be his last. Game after game, city after city, he has signed autographs. For up to an hour before games, skipping batting practice to fit it in his schedule, Ripken has signed.

The requests come from every direction. Bucs fullback Mike Alstott has asked for two autographed balls and sent his own autographed jersey over in exchange. Rays rookie Bobby Seay has gotten a personalized autograph after striking Ripken out on Wednesday night. Ripken signed his first pro contract on June 13, 1978, one week before Seay was born.

By now, the game has ended and the hour is late. The Orioles are moving quickly in the clubhouse to catch a charter flight to Toronto.

Ripken is not there.

He has returned to the field and is jogging up and down the leftfield line to sign as many autographs as possible. Eventually, security guards warn him that he is running out of time and he sprints back to the clubhouse.

Ripken literally signed thousands of autographs during his three days in Tampa Bay.

And, for those who missed out, he has left his signature on the game.

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