John Beale, Post-Gazette Fans line up for autographs from former Pirates manager Chuck Tanner and other baseball celebrities yesterday at the Major League Legends area in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, site of the All-Star FanFest. Click photo for larger image

John Beale, Post-Gazette Volunteer Rita Grimes helps Gary Barnett, of Cranberry, pose for a baseball card picture. Ms. Grimes, a Bostonian, has volunteered at FanFests for the last eight years. Click photo for larger image. MORE COVERAGE: Stories All-Star FanFest opens to enthusiastic reviews Oswalt, Ordonez added to All-Star rosters Carpenters re-create entrance to Forbes Field All-Star Game a dry run for $3 million security system City trash collectors OK pact More stories, background and fan resources Journals BaseBlog: Updates from reporters, columnists and photographers in the field. Hey Max!: An 11-year-old offers his perspectives and a place for other kids to share their All-Star experiences. Dan the Fan: Adventures of a FanFest volunteer Multimedia Video: Re-dedicating Forbes Field Video: Reporting from FanFest opening Photojournal: Images from the All-Star festivities Animation: Hitting one out of PNC Park Virtual Tour: Get a closer look at PNC Park.

Rita Grimes dresses smartly and has a good job. She doesn't laugh at inappropriate times, likes people and loves baseball.

But for one week every July for the past eight years, she has responded to a siren call few can hear, crisscrossing the country at her own expense for the chance to wear color-coordinated Polo shirts and caps, stand on her feet for five hours a day and smile, smile, smile at thousands of total strangers.

Ms. Grimes is a Festhead.

They are a different folk. Some are married, others single, but all are united by a love of "The Show," their name for Major League Baseball's All-Star FanFest, the venue that draws them each year like snowbirds to mild climes.

For yesterday's opening day at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, 38 Festheads fluttered for parts of 11 hours along with 1,400 other volunteers among more than 40 interactive exhibits scattered across two floors and 400,000 square feet.

Ms. Grimes was at the FanFest Baseball Trading Card exhibit, where participants get personalized baseball cards. Annually the most popular venue, yesterday there was no power for the first hour, and therefore, no cards.

As the line grew from two early arrivals to three dozen to more than 50, Ms. Grimes did what Festheads do: She smiled. But she did it as she placed duct tape strips so people would know where to stand for photos, distributed hats of nearly every major league team among the five photo stations and hung team jerseys on late-arriving coat racks.

"The best thing is just the excitement of being around a lot of people who have an interest in baseball," said Ms. Grimes, 49, of Boston, where she is a Red Sox fan and an employee of John Hancock. "I love baseball. This is what I do on my summer vacation every year."

A Festhead is someone who has followed FanFest as a volunteer for more than one year. Her reasons for doing so are simple. People are excited, families are together, everyone's smiling and all conversation is about baseball.

Her first time was 1999 in Boston. At the 2001 FanFest in Seattle, she met fellow Festhead Mary Jane Brennan Sangiolo, who not only lived in Boston, but worked at John Hancock. They have become Festheaders, people who maintain friendships beyond the single week they're together each summer.

There's no secret to becoming a Festhead. Each spring, Major League Baseball issues a request for new volunteers via e-mail, regular mail and newspapers. Applications are filled out, interviews done and volunteers chosen.

Once a volunteer, the next step is to re-up each summer at the end of FanFest. Those who do know the drill. As soon as the dates of the next season's FanFest are released -- next year's is in San Francisco -- they'll make plane and hotel reservations.

Since they're only required to work four to five hours a day and show up for three days out of the five-day-long FanFest, the rest of their time is free for sightseeing.

"We plan to do this for as long as we're healthy," said Toria Gifford, who, with her husband, Steve, are second-year Festheads from Detroit. "We're already making our plans for San Francisco."

Linda Barletto is a private contractor whose Norfolk, Va., company Academy Enterprises organizes the volunteers for not only baseball's All-Star weekend, but also for the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association. This is her 10th year coordinating FanFest's Festheads.

"We're expecting thousands and thousands of your closest friends," she exhorted the Festheads at 8 a.m. yesterday as they headed out to their venues. "Make someone's day today!"

Ms. Barletto, a Robinson native and 1975 graduate of Montour High School, said the essential Festhead is someone who helps without being asked, who loves travel and baseball, who not only recognizes confusion but knows how to cure it. Someone like Bob Schweitzer.

A finance professor at the University of Delaware who owns mini-season ticket plans for both the Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Phillies, he has worked 11 FanFests, and at nearly every one he's joined by his wife for a week of vacation.

"This is so different from being a professor," he said. "It's just a neat change of pace and fun."

FanFest is a celebration, said Dr. Schweitzer, 56, of Newark, Del. It's a show. He returns each year to talk baseball with strangers, to meet fans from around the world, to help people have "a grand time."

"One of the most important things as a volunteer is you're an ambassador for the city you're in," he said.

He wouldn't change a thing about it except ... the moniker Festhead.

"It's kind of a weird name," he said. "I don't think it's descriptive as a name for those of us who make the trip each year to The Show.

"I think 'returning volunteers' is better."