GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM

By STEVE WULF/KANSAS CITY

The grass was lush and verdant enough, but it seemed even more so because for the previous 22 years, the field in Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) had been covered by that insult to both aesthetics and orthopedics, artificial turf. "We have nine different grasses at work here," George Toma, the Royals' ground-keeping consultant said last Wednesday, an hour before the first pitch of the season, in Kansas City. "Five bluegrass types-Princeton 104, Eclipse, Nassau, Glade and Suffolk-and four ryes-Derby, Gator, Regal and Top Hat. They act like a team. If one or two get sick, the others take over. Some are hardier than others; some are greener. That's why we have nine. Come to think of it, that's one grass for every position on the field."

A few minutes later, the 34-year-old shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles was taking ground balls off the new grass. "Look at him. He's as frisky as a kid," said Elrod Hendricks, the longtime bullpen coach for the Orioles. "You might think he's like that because it's Opening Day. But he's like that every day." Cal Ripken Jr. then bounded over to the stands to sign autographs.

Baseball may have quit on the fans, but Ripken never does. Before the season was so rudely interrupted last August, he had played in 2,009 straight games, 121 short of the record set by Lou Gehrig. A 12-time All-Star and two-time MVP, Ripken holds the records for most homers by a shortstop (302) and most consecutive games without an error (95). He is both the Princeton 104-the hardiest-and the Derby -- the most splendid -- of his kind. So what did he think of the new sod? "It's great," he said. "Softer under your feet, nicer to look at, the way a field should be. Smells like baseball."

Kansas City seemed the place to be for Opening Day, if only because the twin virtues of Ripken and real grass harken back to a time before the hideous words work stoppage entered sports parlance. Unfortunately for the Royals, only 24,170 fans felt that way, some 16,000 fewer than usually attend Opening Day. It was drizzly, to be sure, but the weather wasn't as off-putting as the baseball climate. The game lost many fans during the bitter "work stoppage," and there were similarly disappointing crowds elsewhere last week.

Perhaps the only consolation of the strike was that it gave the Royals a head start on replacing their artificial surface with real grass. One of the great ironies of our time-all right, a slight exaggeration-is that the 66-year-old Toma, a groundkeeper so renowned he has his own autographed rake, presided over a carpet all these years. "I count this as one of the greatest days of my life," he said before the game. Indeed it was Toma, arriving in a pink Cadillac and dressed in white tails, who threw out the first ball.

Because the Orioles went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first, leaving Ripken standing on deck, it wasn't until he had completed the bottom of the first in the field that Game No. 2,010 became official. Barring rain-outs, work stoppages or, heaven forbid, an injury, Ripken should surpass Gehrig with No. 2,131 on Sept. 6 in Baltimore. Andy Van Slyke, newly signed by the O's to play center field, is excited but slightly anxious about playing with Ripken: "What if we collide on a short fly ball? What if I knock him out of the lineup? I'll need more Secret Service men than Reagan, Bush and Clinton combined."

Ripken would forgive him. The truly heroic aspect of the streak is that he's not doing it for selfish glory; he's doing it for the team. If Ripken gets to No. 2,131, you can be sure he'll play in No. 2,132. And though the demands on his time are already ludicrous, he is willing to put up with them. Says Ripken: "I think the good feeling that is starting to generate about the streak comes from our love of baseball. It's not necessarily about me. It's about statistics and history and the game we all love."

The Opening Day game developed into a pitching duel between Kevin Appier of the Royals and Mike Mussina of the Orioles. Because of the shortened spring training, though, they were allowed to go only so far. As soon as Mussina left after the fifth, the Royals rallied for three runs.

Appier, meanwhile, carried a no-hitter into the seventh. But after he struck out Ripken for the second out, manager Bob Boone decided the rest of the season was more important than the rest of the game, and he brought in a reliever. All about the park, you could hear the debate rage over Boone's move. But then Harold Baines of the O's drove the ball deep to center, and everyone stopped to watch as Tom Goodwin made a sensational diving catch.

Alas, the no-hitter was lost in the eighth, but the fans still went home happy, albeit wet, after the Royals' 5-1 win. They were talking about Appier's stuff and Cal's streak and Goodwin's catch and the new grass. As Ripken says, smells like baseball.