1922 ALL--STAR GAME : Stars’ Search : As a Wizard Revisits the Scene Where His Legend Was Born, He Faces an Uncertain Future

There are several possible variations to this classified ad. Such as:

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SITUATION WANTED: Aging--but not old!--shortstop seeks happy home. Lots of experience, good field, good hit, mature, charismatic, acrobatic, snappy dresser, clever nickname. Needs sizable contract (prob. $2M-plus a year), lots of love.

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Once, back in the days before the million-dollar baseball player, when Ozzie Smith was a rising star in San Diego, the shortstop’s agent took out a classified ad.

It was when the Kroc family owned the Padres, and Smith’s agent wanted to underscore the point that his client was underpaid. Joan Kroc replied by suggesting that Smith could make some extra money as her gardener.

That was a decade ago, on the other side of a career.

Smith stood on the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium grass last week, in the same park where he started his incredible major league career, and looked off toward Tuesday’s All-Star game--and beyond toward . . . what?

Yes, he had learned earlier in the day that baseball fans had voted him a starting position on the All-Star team for an National League-record 10th consecutive season. No question, he has a champagne glove and a Hall of Fame future.

And it will be quite a thrill for him to return to the place where it all started for his 12th All-Star game.

But there was something else. Ozzie Smith is 37 and in his 15th major league season--already?--and for the first time, The Wizard is thinking of waving his wand and back-flipping out of St. Louis.

You see, some people in the Cardinal organization are, you know, thinking that, shhh , don’t say anything to anybody, but, maybe that Smith has . . .

Outlived His Usefulness to The Cardinals.

Period. End of era.

They talked contract last winter, Smith and the Cardinals. It was a short conversation. Smith, who can become a free agent after this season, was told that the Cardinals would decide his St. Louis fate sometime after August.

Thanks for the memories. Don’t stumble on the Arch on your way out of town.

Ozzie Smith? Nearly done?

“You will never find out who says it because when you ask them point blank, they deny it,” Smith said firmly, face taut, eyes flashing.

He continued.

“They say they want to wait until August or September to make a decision. After 10 or 11 years in a place, if they want to wait until August or September to determine whether they want to re-sign me, why should I have any special feelings?

“Why?”

It was more a demand than a question.

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me. Ignored Cardinal will fly elsewhere. What you want, baby, I got it, for just a little respect. And a lot of money.

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Even in this day, when it seems as if baseball players arrive in town, play a few games and then end up somewhere else for more money before you’ve even finished your morning coffee, the vision of Smith in another city is difficult to handle. Smith is St. Louis.

Recently, in the midst of this Cardinal Cold War, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch took a poll. Of 2,240 readers who responded, 96.5% said the Cardinals should re-sign Smith, and 93.5% said it should be to a long-term contract.

And 11% said Smith, who makes $2 million a year, should make $4 million or more.

“Money is not an issue,” Smith said. “It’s the principle. I’m going to listen to anybody (this winter).

“People have said, ‘He wants to become rich.’ Well, I have a lot of money. The only thing Ozzie Smith can ask is to be respected--for who you are and what you’ve done.

“When you don’t have that, you don’t have nothing. Don’t respect me for what I haven’t done. Respect me for what I have done.”

Outside of a few bean counters in the Cardinal front office, it seems, there is no problem with respect. Cardinal Manager Joe Torre, Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn, Baltimore shortstop Cal Ripken . . . some of the best in the business look up to this 5-foot-10 wizard.

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I * DEFENSE: Holder of several NL records will come to your city and turn fans on with dazzling, diving, unbelievable plays. Will also do back flips at big events for free. Call me.

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“He’s the best shortstop who has ever played the game defensively, as far as I’m concerned,” Torre said. “And I felt that way before I managed him. After managing him, it proved that I was right--not that I was the only one who was right.

“His arm isn’t as strong as it once was, but he knows how to compensate. He circles balls in the hole now. He knows how and when to use the carpet. And he’s so sure-handed--his hands take the bad hop out of everything . . .

“I don’t think we’re going to see someone at that level again in our generation.”

When Smith is the subject in conversation, it is as if a faucet has been turned on. The praise pours forth.

“In spring training,” said Cardinal coach Don Baylor, “I was talking with Ripken and Ozzie, and even Ripken made a statement: “How do you play left-handed hitters and right-handed hitters in the same place?’

“Here’s an all-time great asking questions and saying, ‘I wish I could do that.’ ”

Said Gwynn: “Any time you play the Cardinals, you know on a ball hit to the left side, your chances of reaching base are slim and none.”

To most people, Smith is just as graceful off the field as on. In 1989, when you needed an ice pick to get to the bottom of the feud between Gwynn and Jack Clark, Gwynn sought out Smith--a former teammate of Clark’s.

“I asked to talk with him at an All-Star game,” Gwynn said. “He told me some things that helped me get through what at the time, for me, was a difficult situation.

“He’s become a good friend. When you need him, he’s there.”

Three winters ago, Gwynn was the first guest when Smith started a television show from his St. Louis restaurant, Ozzie’s.

“I was honored,” Gwynn said. “When the Wizard calls and asks you to be on his show, you go.”

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HAVE BAT, WILL TRAVEL: Quick, pesky infielder available; hitting nearly .300 now, and wait until next year! Contact hitter, good eye, doesn’t strike out much. Have most of own bats. Ignore early stats, was young and impressionable then.

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No way Smith wanted to be stuck with the good-field, no-hit tag. Once, he had a lifetime batting average of .238. But he worked on his offense and had hit .270 in 10 years in St. Louis entering this season.

And he provided Cardinal fans with a few thrills at the plate, such as his ninth inning homer off of the Dodgers’ Tom Niedenfuer to give St. Louis a 3-2 victory in Game 5 of the 1985 NL Championship Series.

Smith’s offense is another thing that Gwynn admires.

“People just take for granted that he will win a Gold Glove every year and they don’t give him enough credit for other things,” Gwynn said. “Offensively, he’s a force. It’s much like me, only in reverse--people expect me to win batting titles but don’t give me any credit defensively.

“With his Gold Gloves, nobody gives him credit offensively.”

But when you watch a symphony, why should you concentrate on the conductor?

Smith has won a record 12 consecutive Gold Glove awards. Last season, he committed only eight errors in 150 games--an NL record for fewest errors in a season by a shortstop. His .987 fielding percentage last season gave him his seventh fielding championship--another NL record.

“I’ve worked very hard at my craft,” Smith said. “I try to be as well-rounded as I can be. I’ve spent a lot of time in my career proving I’m different, and I think I’ve done that.”

And now, as he has done each year since 1981, Smith will make another trip to the All-Star Game. Only this time, with not much left to prove, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Smith.

“Coming back here where it all started will be special,” he said. “There’s a feeling of awe, playing with the best that the game has to offer. That’s what the game is all about.”

Respect? When Smith walks into the NL clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon, you will be able to scoop up the reverence toward him with a ladle.

It is only too bad that, after a solid gold decade, Smith doesn’t feel anything from the Cardinal organization.

“And not because they didn’t sign me,” he said. “That’s got nothing to do with it. It’s a culmination of things. The way they’ve gone about it, period.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bitching and moaning, like sour grapes.

“I just want to be judged on what I do. That’s all you can be judged on--on what the hell you do.”

For a man who has done quite a bit, he spit the words out hard.