Immortality is on the run in baseball, especially in the All-Star Game, as shown by both the absence of Kirby Puckett and the presence of the soon-to-retire Ozzie Smith, who brought tears to grown men, including himself, when he batted for the final time as an All-Star Tuesday night.
Equally disconcerting was the broken nose suffered just hours before the game by the player thought to be the game's most indestructible, Cal Ripken Jr.Such injuries and the passing of time can jolt a sport. The salve, though, is the young faces that never stop feeding a game's star system, as was highly evident with the 20 first-timers appearing on All-Star teams as the National and American Leagues faced off at a jam-packed Veterans Stadium Tuesday night.
"It's very, very awesome to be in this situation, just because you don't know how many more years Cal is going to go on, and this is it for Ozzie," said Alex Rodriguez, the 20-year-old Seattle shortstop who is one of the All-Star rookies. "It's a combination of talking to the future, players you are going to be playing with, like Chipper Jones, guys who have been around forever, like Cal and Barry and Ozzie."
Well, not forever in the past any more than on into eternity, Ripken assures. "I'm sure it's inevitable that the time comes when you can't come to the All-Star Game, when you can't play anymore," said Ripken, not knowing then that flirtation with disaster would come just a short time later. In something as innocent as a photo shoot.
Ripken's nose was broken before the game by the flailing forearm of Roberto Hernandez just before the American League batting practice. It seems the reliever from the Chicago White Sox stumbled when a platform upon which the AL All-Stars had stood for a team picture started to tilt as the players descended.
But not to fear. There was no threat to Ripken's Ironman streak of 2,239 consecutive regular-season games, which should continue Thursday in Baltimore against the New York Yankees.
"The first thing I had in mind was to keep it a secret from you guys," Ripken said, laughing during an impromptu news conference. "I didn't want to go down in history as the only injury in this All-Star Game sustained during the team picture."
Ripken was fine, for Tuesday night and likely a whole lot of tomorrows. Others, like Puckett, are not. The 10-time All-Star was not here, dealing with complications from glaucoma.
"He's one of those special guys," said Frank Thomas, the White Sox first baseman whose sore toe kept him from his spot as a starter. "It's not the same without him."
"It's sad about Kirby, and we miss him and all the guys who are here most of the time," agreed Barry Larkin of the Cincinnati Reds. "But to have the new guys here, the up-and-comers, that keeps it kind of fresh."
Rodriguez is 15 years younger than his hero, Ripken, whom he replaced in the seventh inning.
"He's a terrific player," Ripken said of the youngster who batted .336 in the first half and matched Ripken with 17 home runs and 65 runs batted in. "No one was smart enough to project the kind of numbers he is putting up now, the kind of maturity he is showing already in his career."
That a player who turns 21 later this month would admire him so is "very flattering," said Ripken. "It's kind of weird, to me, but I've had a long enough career that some people who are coming in feel that way towards me. But I can assure them they shouldn't be in awe. I'm exactly the way they are, and they're going to be in this position one day. They're going to know what I'm talking about."
Larkin already knows, but he can't quite figure out how he got to the veteran leadership role so quickly since it seems like yesterday that he was the starry-eyed All-Star. Like Ripken, Larkin can only wonder when there will be more yesterdays than tomorrows for him. Smith, who will retire at season's end, already knows.
Before the game, the player known as the Wizard for his defensive prowess called his finale a celebration. The 62,670 fans agreed, giving Smith a long standing ovation before his one at-bat in the seventh inning.
The applause, the impromptu chants of "Oz-zie, Oz-zie, Oz-zie," the standing ovation given by players in both dugouts, moved the 41-year-old Smith to tears. "I am very fortunate to have been a part of this for 15 years," a still visibly emotional Smith said after the National League's 6-0 victory. "Things have been so great for me, they were probably more tears of joy than sadness. And for people to show their appreciation, it gives you butterflies."
Larkin, a firm believer in Smith's determination, can't help but wonder if this particular torch really was being passed.
"I wouldn't put it past Ozzie to come back, though," said Larkin of the "backup" who replaced him in the sixth inning Tuesday night. "That's just the competitor in me interpreting what I see in him."
Alex Rodriguez will drink in all that he sees, too, and probably wonder if he's ready to even consider taking the place of any of baseball's longest-lasting stars.
"They still have some time to do even better things," Rodriguez said. "And I need to improve before I even face the possibility of replacing them."