Ripken Lineup Card May Be Sold
Former Orioles manager Phil Regan gave his daughter a prized piece of baseball history -- the original lineup card from Cal Ripken Jr.'s record-breaking game in 1995 -- and she decided to sell it at auction.
Now the Orioles say the card, which is valued at $35,000, belongs to them, and they have gone to court to prevent the sale.
The team obtained a temporary court order blocking Regan's daughter from selling the lineup card and a pen used in filling it out from the night Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played.
"The team's position is that the lineup card and the pen are the property of the Orioles," team general counsel Russell Smouse said Wednesday. "They should be enjoyed by everyone in a museum."
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Usually, managers fill out one original and three carbon copies of a lineup card for a major league game.
When Ripken played in his 2,131st game on Sept. 6, 1995, eclipsing Gehrig's record, there was an original and four or five carbons, American League senior vice president Phyllis Merhige said Wednesday.
"We had the additional carbons because we knew there was going to be the demand," Merhige said. "We had them specially made."
Plate umpire Larry Barnett donated his copy three months later to Bowling Green University, which said it intended to sell it. One copy is at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore and another is at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The status of the copy taken by Marcel Lachemann, the Angels' manager at the time, was not known, team spokesman Larry Babcock said. It also was unclear if Ripken got a copy.
Regan kept the original, Orioles spokesman John Maroon said, along with the pen. His daughter decided to sell them through North Shore Sports, an auction agency near Chicago.
A Baltimore man had the highest bid of $35,000 on Tuesday, but the company won't transfer possession of the card until after the court resolves the ownership dispue, North Shore Sports president Steve Ryan said.
The Orioles, who argue the team owns the card as they do any piece of equipment, won a court order in Illinois on Tuesday to prevent the sale until a full hearing is held. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Albert Green scheduled a hearing for Dec. 21.
Orioles owner Peter Angelos has said he would like the original displayed at the Babe Ruth Museum. Major league baseball is on the team's side.
"Baseball's contention is it belongs to the club," said Rich Levin, the spokesman for commissioner Bud Selig.
Ripken ended his streak in September at 2,632.
Baseball memorabilia has been increasingly in the news following this season's historic home run chase by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
A New York auction house, Guernsey's, will sell four of McGwire's home run balls, including record the 70th, on Jan. 12. A lawyer representing three collectors already offered $1 million for the McGwire record-setter. Two of Sosa's, including his final 66th, will also be sold.
The ball Babe Ruth hit in 1923 for the first home run in Yankee Stadium sold in November for $126,500. Two years ago, the ball Eddie Murray hit as with the Orioles for his 500th home run was sold for what one day could be $500,000, depending on the value of an annuity paid for it.
But while possession of a home run ball caught by a fan is undisputed, the ownership of the lineup card is less clear.
Ryan said he understood the argument that historic artifacts belong in museums, but he said even famous paintings are held privately. He also disputed the club's ownership of the card, saying managers historically could keep the cards they filled out.
"It's like the Cardinals saying they want the 70th home run back because they owned it," Ryan said. "The Orioles knew he owned the card for a long time and they never asked for it back."
Ryan said interest in the card peaked after Tony La Russa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, recently sold the lineup card for the game in which McGwire hit his record-setting 70th home run of the season.
"If history is accurate, when notable events occur, whether in sports or any type of event, interest in obtaining things related to that is keen," said Arlen Ettinger, president of Guernsey's. "Everything seems to be popular."
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