Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008

'Ray-hawk' kid meets his idols on the field

The stars were all out. David Ortiz and Carlos Peña.

Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.

The members of the rock band Staind.

All mixing near home plate at Tropicana Field on Saturday, two hours before the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox played Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

And the stars of song and baseball were upstaged by a 12-year-old with a funky haircut that has gained national attention during the past week.

Zachary Sharples, meet Jonny Gomes.

"Awesome!"

Zachary, meet Gabe Gross.

"Nice to meet you, Gabe."

Hey, Zach, you wanna meet Peña?

"Carlos Peña! Wow!"

Sharples, who became a celebrity for serving an in-school suspension after showing up for classes Monday at Lincoln Middle School sporting a Mohawk, the haircut made popular by the Rays during their playoff drive, was a pregame guest of Gomes.

The Rays outfielder presented Sharples with one of his bats - a red and tan Max Bat, model JG 31s - autographed by the Rays.

"Oh my god," Sharples said. "I feel very, very, very good. I was so surprised. My dad told me we were going on the field. I said, 'I'm going on the field? What the heck?' "

Gomes, one of the first Rays to wear a Mohawk, learned of Sharples' troubles Friday and asked Rays manager of communication Carmen Molina to contact Sharples on Saturday. It just so happened Sharples and his dad, Kevin Pennington, were headed to the Trop. Long-time season ticket holders, they had tickets for Saturday's game.

"The kid got punished for being a Rays fan. What's wrong with that?" Gomes said. "I took it upon myself to show him how much we appreciated it."

Sharples wore a blue Rays T-shirt and a blue-and-white Rays visor that covered up some, but not all, of his blond Mohawk. He posed for pictures with Gomes, shook hands with every Rays player who walked by and did a TV interview with TBS, which carried the game.

"Well, man, we appreciate it. Keep the 'hawk," Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine said as the two fist-bumped near the Rays dugout.

Pennington, meanwhile, did his best to capture everything with his video camera.

"I never thought the story would get this big," he said.

Pitcher James Shields finished a TV interview then shook hands with Sharples.

Matt Garza stopped signing autographs long enough to run his hands through Sharples' Mohawk.

Rays manager Joe Maddon couldn't leave the field without meeting the littlest star on the star-studded field.

"My god," Sharples yelled when he turned and saw Maddon waiting to shake his hand.

"He's a young Jonny Gomes," Maddon said.

Gomes, who wanted it known he was acting on his own and not on behalf of the Rays organization, admitted he was no stranger to the principal's office while growing up in Petaluma, Ca.

"Yeah, but I never got in trouble for wearing a Mohawk," Gomes said. "That would have been one of the better things I did."

Sharples told and retold his story to almost every Ray player who asked, and most did.

His dad got a Mohawk, so he got one, too.

Lincoln Middle has a policy prohibiting students from wearing Mohawks. He served his in-school suspension, sitting in a classroom with other students.

"I was the only one with a Mohawk," Sharples said. "Other kids were there for fighting."

Sharples and his family moved Saturday from Ellenton to their new home in St. Petersburg. Sharples will begin school Monday at Tyrone Middle School.

He will arrive for class wearing the Mohawk he vowed he won't shave until the Rays win the World Series.

"If you need someone to write a note," Peña said, "let me know."