SEATTLE — It was a sympathy vote. Cal Ripken Jr. started the All-Star Game for services rendered and auld lang syne. He opened the game as nostalgia. He ended it as news.

        Baltimore's retiring rock hit the first pitch he saw for a home run Tuesday night, summoning the strength and the dramatic flair that have been his twin trademarks and propelling the American League to a 4-1 All-Star victory.

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Cal Ripken hits a HR. (AP photos) 600 | 800 | 1024

        Derek Jeter and Magglio Ordonez also hit home runs for the American League, but neither could upstage Ripken on this spring-like midsummer evening at Safeco Field. He became the first American League player to earn a second All-Star Most Valuable
Player award.

        He is 40 years old, a part-time player on a mediocre team. Only a recent surge has raised Ripken's batting average to the relative respectability of .240.

        Yet while his decline is clear, so is his ability to create fresh, indelible memories. On the night he tied Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games, and again on the night he broke it, Ripken hit home runs that made grown men giddy at Camden Yards.

Adrenaline and A-Rod

        He may be made mainly of iron, but Ripken also seems to have an inordinate amount of adrenaline.

Ripken acknowledges tip of the cap from Yankees coach Willie Randolph after receiving. Historic Achievement Award. | ZOOM |

        “(It was) a shot of adrenaline or a long case of the goosebumps — I'm not sure what yet,” Ripken said of his home run. “But coming to the plate, I was excited. I was a little worried with the shadows and I went up there and said: "God, it's hard to see. Let me just keep things short and put the ball in play.'”

        Before he could settle in the batter's box to start the bottom of the third inning, Ripken was compelled to acknowledge an ovation from the crowd of 47,364. National League manager Bobby Valentine thought Ripken then would take a pitch to gather his emotions. But when Chan Ho Park's first pitch lingered perilously over the plate, Ripken smashed it on a line into the visitors bullpen in left field.

Ripken shows off the MVP trophy. | ZOOM |

        “Seeing it would be hard to believe it,” Valentine said. .”

        Ripken was elected to the All-Star team as a third baseman but spent the first inning at shortstop at the insistence of Alex Rodriguez.

        “A-Rod called me on Thursday night,” American League manager Joe Torre said. “... He came up with this idea and said, "What do you think?' And I said, "I think it's dynamite.' The only one we tried to keep out of it, obviously, was Cal. He wouldn't move. And A-Rod was saying, "He (Torre) wants you to move.'”

        Ripken had not played the position in nearly four years and returned to it hoping American League starter Roger Clemens would strike out the side and eliminate the risk of him revealing his rust. But as the inning progressed, Ripken found himself yearning for one more fielding chance at his old position. It would prove his only disappointment of the evening.

Two trophies

Ripken shares the moment with son Ryan. | ZOOM |

        Ripken returned to third base in the second inning and remained there until the sixth, when Troy Glaus trotted out to replace him and provoked another ovation. Then Bud Selig strode to a podium near the third-base line and presented Ripken and Tony Gwynn with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award.

        For Ripken, at least, it was an anticlimax. There was no way to top what he had already done.

        E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.

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