THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180490
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 75 lines
In Falls Church, Va., a guy named Michael Volpe has spent the winter as the ultimate Free Agent Fan, abandoning his lifelong allegiance to the San Francisco Giants and searching for a new team amid much media hoopla.
In Norfolk, the guy who had the idea first, Old Dominion English professor Chris Lamb, observes Volpe-mania with bemused, and mixed, feelings.
``I sort of admire the guy's energy,'' says Lamb, whose football free agency campaign, sparked by his beloved Cleveland Browns' move to Baltimore, drew mild attention last fall, including a self-penned essay in Sports Illustrated. ``When it comes to self-promotion, this guy makes Donald Trump look like J.D. Salinger.''
Incensed when the Giants traded their power hitting star Matt Williams to Cleveland for what he called ``three warm bodies'' - actually Jeff Kent, Jose Vizcaino and Julian Tavarez - Volpe ``divorced'' the team in a bitter ``Dear Giants'' letter and returned oodles of Giants paraphernalia he'd accumulated.
Then the 44-year-old marketing man wrote to every other major league team alerting them to his rooting availability and asking eight questions, including the presumptuous, ``What promises can you offer that your best players will not be traded or leave due to free agency?''
Since November, 20 of 29 major league teams, six minor league teams and the investors trying to bring major league baseball to Northern Virginia have responded. And Volpe, who latched onto the Giants as a child when they played in his native New York, says he's laid out $3,500 to visit the Mets, Phillies, Orioles and Marlins.
He's lunched with club executives, met players, done interviews, been invited by an unnamed club to throw out the season's first ball and gotten more payola - which he donated to his church's charity auction - than he can swing a fungo bat at.
He's appeared on network morning shows, been written up in the papers and opened special e-mail and post office boxes because of fan support that keeps pouring in.
In short, Volpe has become, and welcomes being, the flag-carrier for all fans who have ever felt trampled by Major League Baseball's perceived arrogance and indifference to them.
Mindful of its lagging public image, baseball is falling over itself to be nice to Volpe, whom acting commissioner Bud Selig wrote to say, ``I am delighted the clubs are being so sensitive in their response to you.''
Volpe, who is taking this very seriously, says he'll even have a press conference near the end of spring training if and when he decides on a new team.
``When I walked into (Camden Yards) it was like Madonna was there,'' says Volpe of the media horde that met him on his Baltimore trip. ``I used it as a forum not only for myself but for the fan out there who's upset with the way the game is being played. Baseball is losing sight of the fact that it is first and foremost a public trust.''
Geez.
Lamb has to chuckle. Though his hurt over the Browns was real, Lamb's free agency was more a lark than Volpe's holy mission. He got some interesting letters back, did a few interviews and had a regular morning-after-the-Lions- game phone gig with a Detroit radio station.
That's about it.
``Maybe if I had tenure I could've done more with it,'' Lamb says, laughing. ``I'm still sitting by the phone waiting for Dan Rather to call, but I think that bus has moved on. It was fun for a time, and now this guy is able to do a lot more with it. That's show business. More power to him.''
Lamb says he doesn't get the correlation between a franchise pulling up stakes from a fan's hometown and a player trade, even the trade of a player whom Volpe calls a ``legitimate sports hero.'' And while targeting a big league club's insensitivity to fans is a noble goal, Lamb says, ``I think my motivation was more sincere.
``But he's having fun with it. And throwing out the first ball, that's kind of neat, like Walter Mitty. Most of us just kind of go through life, but if he can become a part of it then that's kind of special.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
[Michael Volpe and Chris Lamb]