The Orioles obtained a court order last night blocking the sale of a lineup card and other items from the game in which Cal Ripken broke baseball's consecutive-games record, claiming the memorabilia -- worth more than $30,000 -- belongs to the team.

Former Orioles manager Phil Regan, who wrote Ripken's name into the lineup on Sept. 6, 1995, when he surpassed Lou Gehrig's durability record, kept the card and the ceremonial pen with which he filled it out. He said that he gave the items to his daughter and that she recently decided to put them up for sale.

Regan arranged the sale through North Shore Sports, a Chicago-based telephone auction service. Bidding began last week and was to conclude late last night or early this morning. But at about 5 p.m., an attorney for the Orioles went before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Albert Green in Chicago and won a temporary restraining order blocking the sale.

"We view it as the property of the Orioles and that is in accordance with property law and baseball tradition," said H. Russell Smouse, general counsel of the team.

Team owner Peter Angelos said he wants the memorabilia to be displayed at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore.

"They are part of the baseball history of the franchise and they should be located here," he said.

He said the team assumed Ripken had the card, not Regan, who left the Orioles after the 1995 season. That is why the Orioles never sought its return from Regan or his daughter, he said.

Angelos said he spoke with Ripken yesterday about the card. A spokesman for Ripken, Ira Rainess, declined to comment.

Further legal proceedings would have to be held to determine ownership of the items. A hearing is scheduled before Judge Green on Dec. 21.

Steve Ryan, president of North Shore Sports, said a team may make a technical claim of ownership over the card but the tradition of the sport is otherwise.

"Managers always keep the cards. That's what has happened over the course of hundreds of years," Ryan said.

He said he would continue taking bids for the items but not transfer ownership until the matter was settled in court. Bidding for the card and pen was up to $27,000 at 7 p.m. yesterday and would likely go higher, Ryan said.

"I am confident he [Regan] will retain ownership when this is over," Ryan said. "The judge just doesn't understand this business."

Neither Regan or his daughter responded to a telephone message left last night at the family's home in Byron Center, Mich.

The lineup card Regan used in Ripken's previous game, in which he tied Gehrig's record of 2,130 straight games, also was up for sale, and bidding had topped $3,000. However, that card also was subject to the court order.

"That stuff should be in a museum," said Mike Gibbons, executive director of the Babe Ruth Museum. "If we were able to get this stuff, we would use some of it and loan some of it to the Ripken Museum."

There is a museum dedicated to Ripken in his hometown of Aberdeen.

Angelos contacted Gibbons on Monday when he learned of the sale and offered to retrieve the card, buying it at auction if necessary. The museum prepared for a bidding war by registering with the auctioneer.

Regan made five carbon copies of the lineup card on Sept. 6, keeping the original for himself and giving the others to Ripken, the plate umpire, the opposing team's manager, the Babe Ruth Museum and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The Babe Ruth Museum sought the pen that Regan had used shortly after the game, but he said then that he had given it to his daughter.

Angelos has been a major backer of the museum, now housed in a rowhouse near Camden Yards. Angelos pledged $1 million to the museum to help with its eventual move to Camden Station, adjacent to Oriole Park.

Larry Barnett, the plate umpire for the 2,131st game, donated his copy of the lineup card and related items to Bowling Green State University in Ohio last year. The college is seeking $1 million and will use the proceeds of any sale to help its athletic program.

Regan was fired by the Orioles in October 1995, after a disappointing '71-73 season. He spent last two seasons as pitching coach of the Chicago Cubs. Next season, he will be pitching coach of the Cleveland Indians.

Pub Date: 12/09/98