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Sunday, August 05, 2001

The first Sunday in August is made for remembering. Says so right there on the calendar. Hall of Fame Induction Sunday. Maz and the rest of the Class of 2001 will be presented on the lawns of the Clark Sports Center shortly after 1:30 this afternoon. As if reminders are needed.

So it is in the spirit of the moment that The Guy In The Stands looks to the future and wonders: Is it possible to get sentimental over a day that will not occur for another six years? Six years exactly, in fact.

On Aug. 5, 2007, Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn -- first-ballot Hall of Fame locks barring tabloid revelations that crack cocaine was the secret behind Ripken's consecutive games streak or that Gwynn has a penchant for dressing up like Oprah -- will walk through that final Cooperstown gateway to baseball immortality. And who's to say Rickey Henderson, 42, won't retire at season's end and be eligible to join them?

Cooperstown, for all its scrapbook days, might not be prepared for such a weekend. Jeff Arnett, Hall of Fame director of communications and information, says that bed & breakfasts around Cooperstown -- a quaint measuring stick in this day of high-tech surveys -- have never had so many reservation requests from fans for a Hall of Fame weekend as they have for that first weekend of August 2007.

"When you have people calling six years in advance, that shows the strength of the class," Arnett said.

He could have been talking about the entire group of players who will be eligible in 2007. Ripken and Gwynn are only bronze-bust poster boys for a veteran group of players that will call (or are likely to call) 2001 their final season. Gone already are Dwight Gooden, Albert Belle, Wally Joyner and Rico Brogna. Planning to go are Eric Davis and Stan Javier. Likely to go are Henderson, Paul O'Neill, Bret Saberhagen, Harold Baines, Tim Raines, Mike Morgan and Jesse Orosco.

"End of an era" is overused. Yet there is no more apt description for the sum of this summer's loss. Should everyone mentioned take the gold watch, the void will be profound. Consider: Of all players on 2001 opening day rosters, Morgan owns the earliest major-league appearance. He appeared in three games with Oakland in 1978. On opening day 2002, that honor would fast-forward to Mets reliever John Franco, who debuted April 24, 1984 -- nearly a six-year gap.

In business, they call that loss of institutional memory.

Because of the mix of timing, talent and circumstance, we might never see an exodus from the game like this again. By the numbers, they take with them: One home run championship. Three MVP awards. Three Cy Youngs. Three RBI titles. Ten batting titles. Sixteen World Series rings. Seventy-five All-Star appearances.

Into history go: Two members of the 3,000 hit club. Ripken's Streak. Gwynn's .339 career average, best since Ted Williams. The all-time leader in walks, stolen bases and, before the season is out, runs scored. The all-time single-season stolen base leader. The all-time leader in games pitched. The all-time hits leader among designated hitters. And, if you're into trivia, the player (Morgan) who has appeared in more major-league uniforms (12) than anyone in the history of pro sport.

They won't all get to Cooperstown, of course. Not in 2007 nor in any year. It should not discount the chapter in history that will turn over when the lights go out Sept. 30. Baseball has always replenished itself. Yet never in quite the same way.

Where once Maz spit tobacco juice, Derek Jeter now spits sunflower seeds. Where Frank Robinson wore his pants at his knees, Kevin Young wears his at his toes. Where once Ripken had a full head of brown hair, there now are only stubs of gray.

They are emotional triggers that make us sentimental for another time. For this group, this is that time. Their last go-round. With foresight in hand, with Cooperstown today and Cooperstown six years from today on our minds, maybe it will help us appreciate more these last two months of 2001. Beginning this week. Orosco and the Dodgers will be at PNC Park beginning Tuesday. Gwynn and the Padres follow them in Friday.

Hall-owed notes

The complete Hall of Fame Class of 2001: Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield, Bill Mazeroski, Hilton Smith, Ross Newhan (J.G. Taylor Spink Award) and Felo Ramirez (Ford Frick Award). ... Former Pirates star Al Oliver, now a church deacon, will deliver the invocation. ... ESPN Classic will show the ceremonies live.

Babe times two

Can you picture William Bendix as Jose Canseco in "The Jose Canseco Story"? No? Well, he didn't make much of a Babe Ruth, either. But so what? Wednesday, in a scene reminiscent of "The Babe Ruth Story" in which Bendix promised to hit a home run for an ailing boy, Canseco told four young cancer patients visiting Comiskey Park on Cancer Survivors Night that he'd hit homer for them vs. Kansas City. Then darned if he didn't do it. And in not only his first at-bat, but his second, too. "Whether it was coincidental, whether it was luck or not, who knows?" said Canseco, who moved past Carl Yastrzemski into 22nd place on the all-time home run list with 454. Maybe Drew Carey's available.

Oh, Rickey, not so fine

Those unwritten rules reared their shadowy head again last Sunday. And baseball sheriff Frank Robinson didn't need a vague umpire's interpretation of intent to know where Milwaukee Manager Davey Lopes stood on the subject of Rickey Henderson. With the Padres ahead, 12-5, in the seventh, Henderson -- on first -- went to steal second. The stunned Brewers didn't even make a throw. Official ruling: Defensive indifference. The Brewers, however, were anything but indifferent, and Lopes made sure Henderson knew it when he visited Ray King on the mound a pitch later.

"I know he's trying to obtain a record for most runs scored, but do it the right way," Lopes told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I just told him to stay in the game because he was going on his ass. We were going to drill him, flat out. ... But he chose not to stay in the game. I knew he wouldn't."

Post-partum impressions

Quips, quotes and quality notes from the trade deadline ... At 35, John Vander Wal was the second-oldest player on the Pirates. With the Giants, he's only the fourth-oldest outfielder. ... Observed pitcher Sterling Hitchcock on the anticipation and anxiety in most major-league clubhouses in the days leading up to July 31: "At this point, we're like puppies at the pet store." Apparently, the way he wagged his surgically repaired left arm was just the cutest, because the Yankees took him home. ... How backwards is this? The cash-strapped Expos not only dealt pitcher Ugueth Urbina to Boston, but also, according to the New York Times, $1 million to help pay his salary. ... The Guy is sure it will come out that struggling Reds second baseman Pokey Reese was 1) misquoted, 2) taken out of context, or 3) buying Christmas presents for his teammates when he reportedly said the following about not being moved. "This just ain't my year."

Phillie phanaticism

Impossible as it seems, the Phillies lost four games in the past eight days on game-ending home runs in the ninth inning. The most recent occurred Friday when San Francisco's Andres Galarraga hit a two-run homer off Turk Wendell for a 4-2 win. It was part of a stretch where they lost five of seven to fall two games behind Atlanta in the NL East. Manager Larry Bowa, an ulcer waiting to happen, wonders if his players' minds are where they should be.

"You don't have to throw anything, but you can sit at your locker and think about it," he said in the Philadelphia Inquirer at midweek. Instead, he says, they're more concerned about the postgame buffet. "We have people who attack the spread like it's their last supper."

Series of the week

Indians (61-48) at Twins (62-47 through Friday), Tuesday-Thursday. ... Does either team want to win the AL Central? The Twins went into last night a game up on Cleveland. But in the past two weeks, the teams have traded places atop the division four times, mostly because Indians are 5-9 in that span; the Twins are 4-8.

This 'n' that

Atlanta's Greg Maddux goes into his start Tuesday vs. Houston (7:35 p.m., TBS) needing to go four innings without issuing a walk to break the NL record of 68 consecutive walk-free innings. Christy Mathewson and Randy Jones share the record. ... Keep the beads. Give us bobbles. The Mariners drew 45,681 for Ichiro bobblehead doll day last Saturday. Sunday, the Brewers had 41,189 for Bob Uecker bobblehead day and the Dodgers 54,556 for a Fernando Valenzuela giveaway. ...

Maybe the legs aren't the first thing to go. Yankees outfielder Paul O'Neill, 38, likely to retire after the season, has 19 stolen bases -- one off the career high he set in 1989. ... Despite sustaining what appeared to be a horrific injury to his left leg when he lunged for first base and skidded off the top of the bag in Montreal last Sunday, Atlanta's Brian Jordan nevertheless was able to prove his upbringing. "I was really upset. I almost wanted to pick up the base and throw it at the home team dugout, but thank goodness I didn't because my mom would have got on me." ...

Major-league strikeout leader Randy Johnson (259) struck out eight Friday in beating the Mets, 7-0 -- only the seventh time in 24 starts he has failed to strike out at least 10. ... We all know announcers are full of hot air. Indians color man Rick Manning took that to new, uh, heights Wednesday. He did the first three innings of the game vs. the A's from the Goodyear blimp.

Shot and a jeer

Shot: Armando Rios for Jason Schmidt. Schmidt allows one hit in seven innings vs. his old teammates. In the same game, Rios blows out his ACL. Comfort yourself in this lead-pipe cinch of a fact, Pirates faithful: Had the deal not been made, Rios would have gone out Wednesday and hit three homers off Schmidt, and Schmidt would have subsequently blown out his elbow in the sixth inning.

Jeer: To Rickey Henderson. Records are made to be broken. Heads aren't ... but watch yours just in case. Davey Lopes is out there somewhere. And he's got friends.

Box score lines of the week:

Giants fans had to be thinking to themselves: "This is a career 49-53 pitcher? Maybe we should have asked for Cordova, too."

What? You expected him to mix in a cheap single somewhere? His last nine hits have been home runs -- a feat not accomplished in at least the past 25 years, reports the Elias Sports Bureau.

Anderson afterward on Coors Field: "I haven't figured it out." That was obvious. A gopher ball to Sal Fasano??!!