Fans Out to Field Autographs : All-Star workout: Mass of fans maneuvers outside stadium, trying to get autographs or glimpses of baseball’s greatest players.

Greg Katsapis kept his eyes open around San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. When he saw the white Mercedes, he started running.

“You’ve got to have some money to have a Mercedes like that,” he said, taking off in search of a baseball hero with his sons, 10-year-old Charles and 8-year-old Michael, in tow.

The fans began arriving at the stadium as early as 8 a.m. Monday for the All-Star workout and Old Timers’ game, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite players, score an autograph or just spend a day at the ball field for as little as $5--a pittance compared to today’s pricey tickets.

The workout was first opened to fans in 1978--when San Diego last hosted the All-Star Game--at the suggestion of Elton Schiller, former Padres vice president of business operations. Stadium officials anticipated a crowd of 50,000.

“Here comes a cab. A cab’s always a good sign,” said one fan. The mob gathered around the authorized parking entrance worked together as the morning wore on--flowing like an amoeba toward the slightest sign of an approaching celebrity.

“We’re seeing the greatest players in baseball,” said Kim Martin, whose boss gave her the day off to come to the workout. “But it’s hard to recognize them when they’re not in uniform.”

Mark Benjamin and his 8-year-old son, Branden, were decked out in matching Oakland A’s shirts and green Day-Glo baseball caps. “We’re all pumped up,” said Benjamin, who has been coaching his son’s Little League team--apparently with great success. “Everyone says I run faster than (Chicago Cubs second baseman) Ryne Sandberg,” Branden said.

Fans swarmed around anyone who looked like a player, but not everyone had their baseball trivia down.

“Who’s that?” asked one fan lined up for retired Padres player Steve Garvey’s autograph.

“If you don’t know his name, you don’t need one,” a stadium official answered.

Not many players were so accessible. Most were driven through the gates with their car windows rolled up tight, but the low speeds still allowed for a healthy number of bad snapshots.

The crowd seemed satisfied with the fleeting glances. “It’s Lou Brock,” they yelled. “No, it’s not. It’s (Hall-of-Famer) Ernie Banks,” they decided, squinting through the tinted glass of a creeping automobile.

“Hey, Ted! Hey, Ted!” they yelled through Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams’ car window. Ted waved. “Ernie Banks and Ted Williams. Big-time, baby!” hooted one fan.

Despite their fame, quite a few celebrities lacked the high clearance credentials needed to pass through the gates by car, and they had no choice but to face the crowd on foot. The complication led to some testiness.

Old-Timer Darrell Evans made his way through a mob of waist-high fans holding out their baseballs for signing, but he looked harried.

“Can you smile, please?” requested one little fan with a camera.

“C’mon, Mr. Gant. Be nice!” one fan pleaded with Atlanta Braves outfielder Ron Gant. Gant was dropped off behind the chain-link fence, to fans’ disappointment.

Dozens of fans waited for their hometown favorite, Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn. But when Gwynn arrived in a dark suit and sunglasses, he was in a big hurry.

“At least he moved me out of the way,” said one fan. “I actually took the ball out of its plastic bag for that man,” added Anthony Anderson, who brought his 5-year-old son to the workout to gather autographs on the baseballs they bought.

One fan said the players’ behavior was “pretty lousy.”

“It’s the fans that got them here,” said Paula Perkins. Perkins, like many of the families at the ballpark Monday, brought her 10-year-old son, Justin, to the workout because the All-Star Game prices were too high for seats “way up in nose-bleed heaven.”

But other fans were more understanding about the players’ apparent callousness.

“That’s typical,” said San Diego native Dan Castillo, after hooting to Willie Mays through the chain-link fence. “They don’t have time for that. It (bothered me) at spring training, but now I’m used to it.”

“If they spent all their lives signing autographs, they’d have no lives of their own,” Greg Katsapis explained to his sons as Tony Gwynn disappeared beneath the stadium.

Security guards had no choice but to bend the rules for a few of the big names, credential or no credential.

“Willie (Mays) ‘bout ran over my feet,” said one yellow-jacketed security man who strictly obeyed instructions to keep all unauthorized vehicles out--up to a point. “Finally, he says, ‘I’m Willie Mays, dammit, and I’m going to the clubhouse.’ ”

“What are you going to say to a man like that?” said a security muck-a-muck, who broke the parking rule for only one other man--National League umpire Doug Harvey.

“If I lose my job, you’ll have to put me to work, Doug,” he warned as he waved Harvey through on the day Harvey announced his retirement.

Monday’s events, which included an Old-Timers’ game, and American and National League workouts, were a boon for those who couldn’t afford the high prices or lottery ordeals required of fans set on a seat for today’s game.

Among them were the “Estrellas del Futuro,” kids in matching T-shirts from Tijuana and San Diego County’s “more disadvantaged areas,” said Capt. Perry Peake, one of several off-duty San Diego firefighters who volunteered to take the groups to Monday’s workout.

The kids were fed outside the stadium and each received a small parcel of baseball paraphernalia, Peake said.

Admiration for Old-Timer baseball greats, however, was largely reserved for people like 71-year-old Art Kummer, who works for FanFest. “I just generally like all the players from yesteryear, because I’m no kid anymore,” he said.

Though Kummer said he would have loved to go to today’s game, he couldn’t get a ticket and won’t pay the high prices of scalped ones.

Others are luckier. Season ticket holders like Florence Leikett were looking forward to their prime seats behind home plate for today’s game. Their biggest struggle: mustering the moral strength to turn down the large sums of cash they were offered for their tickets.

“We were offered $800 a seat,” said Leikett, a religious baseball fan who kept her two grandchildren out of school for the All-Star extravaganza. “I thought, ‘Well, I could pay off my whole Visa bill with that.’ ” But she wasn’t swayed.

“I love baseball,” said Leikett, who refers to her life here in terms of a baseball calender. “I’ve lived here, oh, since Steve Garvey hit that home run in the ninth inning,” she said of the 1984 National League playoff game that convinced her to move permanently from Michigan.

Bud and Carole Telle, who also have season seats behind home plate, sustained a mild threat on their lives. “My son said he was thinking of coming over and poisoning our food with Ex-Lax,” Carole Telle said. Her son, 33, gave up his season tickets a few years back, she said.

There was only a small dose of disappointment amid Monday’s festivities: Lemon Grove’s Boy Scout Troop 21 had their dreams of quick cash dampened by the stadium staff.

“They just ran us off,” said 13-year-old Garret Earley, who came out with four fellow troop members to sell chocolate bars. “They said we couldn’t solicit here.”

Despite the financial loss, the boys maintained good spirits, keeping their eyes open for their favorites: Padres players Tony Gwynn and Fred McGriff.

FANFEST is the start of a marketing trend. Page D2A. OLD-TIMERS GAME, today’s lineups and more in Sports. C1,C4,C5A and C5B.