You really don’t get to say much. There was a mob about him; nobody was pushing but they wanted to--they wanted to be polite, I was so sure. When Dennis Quaid arrived the meat on a stick was abandoned and a typically American herd line was formed.

     “He’s made over 40 movies,” someone said as they stood in Dennis Quaid’s presence eyeing him and patiently waiting for an autograph. I waited with them looking for a chance to say “hello” or something memorable.

     Mr. Quaid was very gracious. He was promoting his new Disney film “The Rookie” here in Atlanta. My wife and I were very happy to be two of the fortunate few to attend the special screening. I took along a digital camera but it was frowned upon when I broke it out, back away it went.

     Mr. Quaid stood for longer than a half hour steadily signing his name and a little more onto various items--baseballs, name tags, notebooks, he signed my business card as I asked him if he would ever reunite with the great Walter Hill. “You never know,” he said and flashed that famous smile. He signed “God Bless” on the back of my business card together with the correct spelling of my first name which ends in “an;” I uttered something about the “G” rating and he looked at me funny and moved on.

     He took time to converse with a young boy that couldn’t have been older than six. He asked the boy whether he played baseball.  It was nice.

     Prior to the screening, a delegate from the new mayor’s office presented Mr. Quaid with a document that named February 28th, 2002, “Dennis Quaid, The Rookie” day. The delegate was articulate and competent and painless, I swear, when he got Mr. Quaid’s father’s name wrong--the document received the blame.

     “The Rookie” clearly is a film that Dennis Quaid is proud of and he has a reason to be. He is very good in what has to be the first “G” rated film I have seen in the theater in 20 years. Our readers already know that I avoid the animated features that bear the “G” rating. My review of “The Rookie” will likely make the page later this month when the film opens. Our box office gurus will need to take note that this film is rated “G” because it is really “all about baseball” to quote Mr. Quaid’s introduction before the film started rolling.

     Regardless whether a batter storms the mound, or something is thrown onto the field by a drunken fan, baseball, the game, without all the other stuff, can be watched and enjoyed by even a six year old. After seeing him in action, Dennis Quaid knows that and maybe America will notice it as well.