Del. Rosenberg, you're All-Mettle:
Gold Glove for Iron Man catcher


May 16, 2005

By Peter Schmuck
I went to the Ripken Minor League Experience expecting to see the Iron Man, and I ended up seeing two of them.

Cal Ripken was there, of course. He needs no introduction. But if somebody had told me that diminutive Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat from Baltimore, would catch five games in four days, well, I might have thought twice about showing up with my sorry work ethic.

Rosenberg, 54, is something of a fantasy camp junkie, enough so that he unabashedly appeared in a skit at the Legislative Follies in Annapolis last month in his Orioles jersey, so I wasn't surprised to see him on the bus to Staten Island on Wednesday night.

I was surprised to see him - or anyone - in catcher's gear every day of the trip, especially after I started the opener behind the plate, got dizzy in the sixth inning and finished with a painful Achilles' strain. No wonder they don't have slots at Maryland racetracks. Those pesky Democrats are tougher than they look.

For his efforts, Rosenberg received the Gold Glove Award from Cal and Bill Ripken and described it - quite sincerely - as one of the greatest thrills of his athletic life. Whether he'll have any cartilage left in his knees when he wakes up today is another story.

Manager Jeff Reboulet watched Rosenberg put on the gear one more time during yesterday's all-star game at Ripken Stadium and shook his head.

"They don't call them the tools of ignorance for nothing," he said.

  • The inaugural Ripken floating minor league camp brought out baseball nuts and Ripken aficionados from all over the country, including former minor league pitcher Rob Nelson, who is better known as the inventor of Big League Chew.

    Nelson thought up the concept of replicating chewing tobacco with shredded bubble gum in the late 1970s and partnered with former major league pitcher Jim Bouton to bring the highly successful product to market. Now, he's working on a new board game, but baseball remains such a passion that he has become a fixture at the Ripken camps, and he pitched Ben McDonald's team to the first RMLE title yesterday.

  • Larry Bosley came all the way from Campbellsville, Ky., to meet his sports idol, and it became evident early on that he just might be the biggest Cal Ripken fan of all time.

    Maybe it was the reverent way he talked about the Iron Man for four straight days. Maybe it was the fact that he had Cal's name tattooed on his back.

    He met Cal for the first time at a reception on Thursday night in New York and showed him the epidermal artwork.

    "I don't know whether to be flattered," Cal said, "or ask for a restraining order."

  • David Lowery of Dover, Del., has turned much of his home into a Ripken shrine and showed up for an autograph session with a 4-foot-tall Cal bobblehead doll. Coincidentally, I have a life-size Dan Snyder bobblehead that is about the same height.
  • This whole thing started with Bill Ripken challenging me to show up at the camp and put my baseball skills on public display, so I wasn't surprised when I first entered the locker room and saw a sign above my locker that said "SCHMUCK HEAD."

    Turns out, the guy lockering next to me was personal trainer Steven Head from Arlington, Va. Steve was a nice guy who looked me up and down and offered his professional services to help me get into better physical shape.

    Unfortunately, I can't afford a personal trainer. I can't even afford an impersonal trainer.

  • There were several legitimate athletes in the camp. Robert Baxter, who lists his hometown as Millersville (though I've never seen him around the neighborhood), was the only player to clear the fences at any of the stadiums - hitting a ball off the foul pole at Ripken Stadium yesterday in batting practice.

    We had a guy on our team named Steve Klein. If we also had someone named Mike DeJean, I would have gone home Wednesday, but Steve turned out to be an outstanding catcher, which would have been nice to know before I made a complete fool of myself behind the plate Thursday.

  • There also was another major league name-alike, Steve Stone, who pitched a few innings, but registered his most important save when the tape machine malfunctioned at the start of yesterday's national anthem.

    Stone, a Jersey guy, stepped out in front of home plate and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" a cappella, and did a very professional job of it. The only thing better would have been if former Oriole Ken Gerhart had offered to sing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the seventh-inning stretch.

  • Final thought: If you're waiting for me to tell you whether I proved I could still "rake," all I can say is that modesty prevents me from revealing my .500-plus batting average or league-leading RBI total. Enough said.

    Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun