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Tampa Bay gives in a pregame ceremony honoring Cal Ripken, then gives again in its 7-4 loss to Baltimore.
By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 24, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- The evening was themed to honor a legend, and the Rays did a nice job of that with a classy pregame production that lauded Cal Ripken.
The rest of the night didn't go nearly as well.
The Rays were sloppy early and careless late in a 7-4 loss to Baltimore that gave the 29,108 fans -- who booed managing general partner Vince Naimoli during the ceremony -- little to cheer about later.
During the tribute, the Rays presented Ripken with an oversized good-luck card, a painting, a $5,000 check for his charitable foundation and a year's supply of stone crabs.
Then they kept on giving, contributing to the Orioles' success with three errors, a passed ball, a hit batter and some lackluster relief work.
"It was just one of those nights when we didn't play well," Rays manager Hal McRae said. "I don't think there was any reason for it. We just didn't play a good game."
Having staged a tremendous comeback Wednesday from deficits of 7-1 and 10-5 to win 11-10, the Rays tried to repeat the feat Thursday, scrapping back from a 3-0 deficit to tie in the seventh. "I thought we'd win the game once we pulled even," McRae said.
But reliever Victor Zambrano gave up two runs in the eighth, giving him his first loss since June 26, and Travis Phelps allowed two more in the ninth.
"We came back and they came back right at us and put more runs on the boards and that was it," said Randy Winn, who had three hits and drove in three runs.
The loss halted the Rays' winning streak at three and kept them from evening their post-All-Star break record, which is 19-21.
Ripken, making the final Tampa Bay appearance of his illustrious career, was greeted with a loud ovation when he ran out of the dugout for pregame infield practice, when he climbed into the stands to sign autographs, through each at-bat, and again when he starting signing after the game.
"It's been fun," said Ripken, who turns 41 today. "It was a super-charged atmosphere. You can't allow yourself to get too wired or try too hard, but it doesn't get any better than that. It was a great atmosphere. I try to give as much as I can. The crowd out there was a little frenzied at the end of the game."
Ripken went 1-for-5 with a run-scoring single and made a diving catch to rob Toby Hall of a hit, but the Rays did snap his streak of homering in each farewell appearance since the All-Star break. He'd gone deep at Atlanta, Florida, Texas, Anaheim and Kansas City.
"I feared that; he'd done it every place he's been of late," McRae said. "To pay tribute to his contributions to the game is one thing. To lose because we have him jacked up is another.
"I even thought about that if we got in a situation late in the ballgame, the way this guy's been playing, maybe we should walk him. It didn't happen, and he didn't hit a home run. I thought the fans turned out and the fans got their money's worth and we're just happy that he came through. And we had more people at the ballpark than we usually have."
Even though they were on the other side of the field, the Rays players seemed to enjoy being part of Ripken's farewell tour.
"He's nothing special as far as you're not in awe of him or anything, but you definitely respect what he's done in baseball and it's a privilege to play against him," 23-year-old rookie starter Nick Bierbrodt said. "I grew up watching him play, and I can tell my grandkids that I added to his 3,000-plus hits."
Ripken's single extended the Baltimore lead to 3-0 ("He hit a good pitch," Bierbrodt said.) in the fifth, but the Rays, held to one hit by Josh Towers through 42/3 innings, scratched back. They got one in the fifth when Jared Sandberg doubled high off the leftfield wall, scoring Winn.
They tied it in the seventh when Ben Grieve walked, Steve Cox marked his return from the disabled list with a single, and Winn ripped a two-run triple to right, his team-high fifth of the season.
But Zambrano allowed back-to-back base hits to open the eighth, and the Orioles went back ahead to stay.
"We've been playing well," McRae said. "Hopefully we can regroup and come back and win a ballgame (today)."