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Sunday, June 24, 2001

On Monday, the Worldwatch Institute reported that the Eyak language was one dying breath from extinction.

On Tuesday, Cal Ripken reminded us that his species, too, has space reserved next to the T-Rex, the New Kids On The Block and the GMC Pacer by announcing that this would be his final year in the employ of the Baltimore Orioles.

No offense to the 83-year-old woman along Alaska's Prince William Sound who has no one to talk to, but you should not need to question which The Guy In The Stands finds more sad.

It has little to do with the World Series ring Ripken won in 1983 or his two American League MVP awards or his 400 home runs or his 3,000 hits or even his immortal string of 2,632 consecutive games played.

It does, however, have everything to do with this not-so-simple feat: For 21 years, Ripken played for the same team. The team with which he broke in. His hometown team. The team of Cal Sr., his father.

One man. One team. One city. One special bond spun over a generation, not the length of a four-year free-agent contract. Comfortable and dependable as the arrival of every summer.

The way it used to be. At least the way we'd like to remember.

"I can't tell you when the Orioles weren't really, really important to me, because I can't remember that far back," Ripken said Tuesday. "As far back as my memory allows me, the Orioles were it."

Free agency, failing loyalties, economics and impatient general managers have all played a part in shrinking this species of player to an endangered few. That number will drop by still one more when a hobbled Tony Gwynn gives in to the inevitable and announces his retirement sometime later this season.

That will leave only nine active players out of about 700 -- Cincinnati's Barry Larkin, the White Sox' Frank Thomas, Atlanta's Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, Houston's Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, St. Louis' Ray Lankford, Cleveland's Charles Nagy and Seattle's Edgar Martinez -- who have spent at least 10 seasons with the team with which they broke in.

Ripken was senior among them.

"The last of the stud breed," lamented one Orioles fan.

Even if you can strip away the corrosive economic factors of the past 30 years, Ripken's one-team career can only be viewed in the rarest light.

While the 1990s saw the retirements of a relative rush of one-team men (see list that follows), just as many franchises have not had one in decades. It's a have-not list that might surprise you ... and at the same time offer the truest appreciation for that intangible that will be chipped away just a little bit more when Ripken plays his last 14 Sundays from today in Yankee Stadium.

The Indians have been around since the American League's inception in 1901, yet haven't had a player spend his entire career in Cleveland (10 years minimum) since Bob Lemon retired in 1958. The Chicago Cubs, a team with a tradition as strongly rooted as the Wrigley ivy, haven't had one since Ernie Banks hung up his first basemen's mitt in 1971. And the Pirates? No one since Willie Stargell retired nearly two decades ago.

As Ripken said Tuesday, "The reality is that players can't play forever."

But for years, in a game that relied on tradition and continuity, there was a belief that someone would come along to take his place. And if not belief, at least hope.

Call The Guy old, but it is not that way anymore. As Michael Oleskar wrote in the Baltimore Sun Thursday, "[Ripken] arrived imagining himself part of a continuing history and lingered long enough to discover he was its last remaining legacy."

That makes almost understandable the buyer on eBay this week who paid $552 for four upper reserved tickets to the Iron Man's final home game at Camden Yards Sept. 23. Four tickets with a combined face value of $52.

Even in Eyak, that is almost understandable.

The list

The most recent player for each team who spent his entire career with that franchise (minimum of 10 years), not counting the four expansion teams since 1993:

A Tibetan save

On Friday morning, the Red Sox owned a four-game lead on the New York Yankees in the AL East Division-- the Red Sox' largest lead in the AL East since the final day of 1995. Now, maybe Pedro Martinez or Manny Ramirez had something to do with that. But then again, who's to say Paul Giorgio doesn't deserve some credit, too.

In the never-ending pursuit by Red Sox faithful to exorcise the Curse of the Bambino, Giorgio, 37, a real estate investor and avid mountain climber, laid a Red Sox cap on the top of Mount Everest May 23. He then burned a Yankees cap.

"At base camp, every team gets its gear blessed by the lama," Giorgio told the Boston Globe. "So I brought out the hats and asked the lama how I might break [the curse]."

Let us pause here for a minute and imagine in our minds this conversation in which Giorgio attempts to explain to a man of god halfway around the world how the life of a gluttonous, bow-legged man named Babe, dead 53 years, could be of such monumental importance.

But "the lama smiled and seemed to nod, as if he understood. ... Although who knows?"

His spiritual advice: Carry the Red Sox cap to the summit and plant it. Then, at a duly blessed altar, burn the Yankees cap to reverse the curse. Giorgio said that it didn't catch fire at first. "Fortunately, I found some kerosene."

Air defense

If Barry Bonds is even remotely close to Mark McGwire's single-season record of 70 home runs going into the final two weeks of the season, consider the record as broken as a Pamela Anderson wedding vow. The Giants play the Padres six times in the final 10 days. After hitting his 38th homer of the season Wednesday night off Rodney Myers, Bonds is 14 for 37 (.378) with seven homers and 12 RBIs in 10 starts against San Diego this year.

Of course, few teams have been able to stop Bonds since the beginning of May.

"I've seen shortstops behind second base and third basemen behind short in left," teammate Benito Santiago told the San Diego Union-Tribune this week. "The only thing I haven't seen that might work is outfielders in balloons or circling out there in gliders."

Ho-hum, another 70

Incredible as Bonds has been, Arizona's Luis Gonzalez might be more noteworthy. He hit his 31st home run Thursday night in a 14-5 romp over the Rockies, equaling his career high set just last season. In case you hadn't noticed, it's only June 24. He, too, is on a pace for 70. Remember when that number would have quickened the heart? Now, it can't even get him voted into the starting outfield for the All-Star Game. At last look, Gonzalez, who also was tied for the National League lead in batting going into the weekend (.355), was fifth in voting.

One-two hammer

Statistics can be twisted around in any number of ways. But if you're looking for a reason Arizona had built a five-game lead on San Francisco and 5 1/2 on Los Angeles in the NL West going into the weekend, there's no better place to start than with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Including Johnson's 9-2 victory against L.A. Tuesday, Diamondbacks aces 1 and 1A are a combined 5-0 vs. the Dodgers with a 1.38 ERA, 48 strikeouts and just seven walks.

Biting commentary

There was a report out of a frustrated Cincinnati clubhouse via the Dayton Daily News this week that coaches Ron Oester and Tim Foli went at it over a bunt play in a 6-4 loss Monday to Milwaukee. Now, locker room scuffles are not uncommon on teams that have foundered like the Reds, who are an embarrassing 8-26 at home. But this one had a particularly tasty, uh, bite to it. Especially when you consider that these are two grown men -- Oester 45, Foli 50 -- and not kindergartners in the sandbox. Apparently, as Oester had him in a head lock, Foli opened wide and bit Oester on the leg.

Series of the week

Braves at Phillies: Tomorrow-Wednesday ... NL East-leading Phillies began a stretch Friday where they play Atlanta and Florida 14 times through July 5. Still, in a stunning turnaround, these two teams might be the ones butting heads to see who does battle with Florida (16-8 since Tony Perez took over) the second half.

This 'n' that

The Pirates finally won a third consecutive game a week ago and hosannas were sung down General Robinson Street. A reality check: The Seattle Mariners (54-17) have yet to lose three in a row. ... Bygones are not bygones where closer John Rocker is concerned. After saving two games for the Braves against the Yankees two weeks ago, Rocker waved off reporters at Yankee Stadium. "Guess what. It's payback time," Rocker said. "I'd rather mop the floor at a peep show than talk with you guys." ... Going into his start yesterday against Tampa Bay, Roger Clemens was 18-3 since coming off the disabled list July 2, 2000. This guy is 38? ...

AL All-Star Manager Joe Torre has invited his brother, Frank, to sit in uniform on the bench for the Midsummer Classic. ... How absurdly large is Seattle's lead in the AL West? It's only the last week of June and Manager Lou Piniella admitted that he's already thought about starting to rest his regulars to have them ready for the postseason. ... Two previously scheduled dates that grew in importance this week: The Class AAA Rochester Red Wings have Cal Ripken bobblehead night giveaways July 19 and Aug. 28. Ripken played for the Red Wings in 1981.

Shot and a jeer

Shot: Rumpled David Wells might be the midseason answer for the Yankees or Red Sox, but not for the Mariners. Says GM Pat Gillick, whose track record at judging talent is reflected in Seattle's start: "He's not a No. 1 starter in my opinion. He's probably a No. 3."

Jeer: In pro sports' quest to sell naming rights to everything under the sun (and, apparently, in the water), the Pirates Wednesday announced a deal with automobile dealer #1 Cochran in which any home run ball hit into the Allegheny River shall be known as a "#1 Cochran River Blast."

Box score lines of the week:

One of his homers was a grand slam, making him 5 for 8 with the bases loaded this year with an almost impossible 19 RBIs.

Junior Who? Before Thursday, he had only three major-league hits. Thursday, he had three hits in three innings off the highest-paid pitcher in baseball -- Mike Hampton. "Tonight was, to say the least, rather embarrassing," Rockies Manager Buddy Bell said.

Not only struck out four times, but went down looking each time.