By Joe Kay
The Associated Press

SARASOTA, Fla. - Forty-five minutes after the final out, Sean Casey is still working his way down the right-field stands, signing autographs in his sweat-drenched uniform. A hundred or so Reds fans have stuck around, waiting for the affable first baseman to make eye contact, say hello and write his name on every scorecard, ball, bat and hat that's handed over the red-painted railing.

That's Casey. Several times every spring, he plays and then stays until the last fan has a smile and an autograph.

He does it because he's a nice guy and an autograph collector himself. He remembers asking for autographs as a youth and knows what it's like to be rejected as well as rewarded.

To Casey, an autograph is a precious thing.

"Some guys don't want to be bothered with it," he said Tuesday. "That's fine. The bottom line is, it might put a smile on somebody's face. That's the point: It makes somebody happy.

"I get stories back from people about how you took two seconds out of your day to sign an autograph and it makes their day. It's neat to know you can have that kind of impact."

With that attitude, Casey is one of the most accessible players in baseball. He welcomes autograph seekers when he's out in public, feeling no sense of inconvenience.

"I don't mind at all if people ask me, because I've done the same thing," he said.

He even knows that queasy feeling of approaching a star and wondering how they'll react when their name is requested. He did it just last fall.

Casey showed up for a celebrity softball game to close Cinergy Field, toting a bat, ball and other items into the clubhouse for Pete Rose to sign. He'd never met Rose and wasn't sure how he'd react.

"You do get nervous at times," Casey said. "Pete Rose made me a little nervous. You get the big-time, Hall of Fame-type guys, they make you nervous, until you find out they're good guys."

As he walked into the star-filled clubhouse that day, Casey's eyes grew wide, his mouth dropped open and he told reporters he felt like he was in heaven.

"It was cool," Casey said Tuesday. "I acted like a little kid."

His first autographs as a youth - Joe Girardi and Jerome Walton. One of his earliest was Ken Griffey Jr., when the outfielder was still an up-and-coming minor leaguer. Casey's collection includes luminaries such as Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt and members of the Big Red Machine.

Most of his autographed memorabilia is stored away.

"I'll display it in my house someday," he said. "I'll build a house when I'm done playing and have a nice room for memorabilia."

One autograph he doesn't have - former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd. As a minor league player, Casey was on the same flight with Lloyd and privately tried to get his autograph for a friend who was a Steelers fan.

Lloyd turned him down.

"A few years later, he came into Three Rivers Stadium to get Griffey's autograph," Casey said. "I looked at him in a different way. I thought he should have taken one second and signed when it was just me and him."