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Because rabid weasels ripped his flesh Beez. Eek



Mayhem ends, ball in hands of Mets fan
Demian Bulwa and Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 8, 2007




Once again, the polite disagreement over who exactly is the rightful owner of one of Mr. Bonds' baseballs produced blood, bruises and bedlam.
Somebody ended up with the ball and, apparently, he fled the ballpark as quickly as he could.
Once again, it seemed that just about everyone in the center-field bleachers either touched the ball, almost touched the ball, might have touched the ball, or was touching someone who was touching the ball.
The arrival of the baseball with a secret mark set off a wicked scramble that could have passed for a goal line stand or the attack on Little Round Top.
When the big moment came, the ball flew into the third row of bleacher section 144. That's where Scott Johnson of Oakley was standing with three friends, who had agreed before the game on a four-way split of the proceeds from the ball if any one of them caught it.
Johnson said he got shoved by his friend, Brian Herman of Sacramento. Herman said he felt the ball glance off his fingertips.
"If I would have had a glove on tonight, I would have caught it," Herman said.
Before the game, a friend of Herman had offered him a glove, but he turned it down.
Randy Finley of Mountain View, just behind Johnson, said he touched the ball, too. Then he watched in horror as a woman got knocked over and her husband disappeared into the scrum, leaving their 4-year-old son to cower with his teddy bear. Finley said he never found out who they were but that it did not appear to be the pinnacle of responsible parenting.
Meanwhile, the ball was tipped from row 3, to row 4, to row 5. A fellow named Bryant Toth of San Francisco said he had "three fingers on the ball" before he lost it. He did not come away empty, however. For his efforts, he wound up with a cut on his right shin.
And then the ball struck the ground and a guy in a New York Mets jersey plopped down on it and wouldn't budge, while one fan after another tried to pull the ball away from him.
Some people pushed others to get to him. There was shoving, elbowing and possibly worse.
Security guards and cops showed up and began pulling children away from the grown-ups who were doing battle.
"Who has the ball, who has the ball, who has the ball?" the guards were hollering.
Then the security people dug into the pile, grabbed the guy in the Mets jersey and spirited him away. About six guards and cops escorted him in a phalanx worthy of a prince or potentate.
One woman, Amanda Nunez, a season ticket holder from San Francisco, admitted that she tried to pull the ball from the guy in the Mets jersey.
"I was holding on to his arm, I was trying to get the ball," she said.
After failing, she was thrown back in the scuffle and bumped her head, leaving her with a headache. She was one of about half a dozen fans injured in the scuffle, mostly with bruises, along with Toth's bloody shin.
Nunez said she ended up holding a flip-flop that she believes belongs to the guy in the Mets jersey. It wasn't the ball, but it was something. Maybe, she said, it was even a collector's item.
"Maybe, but that's kind of gross," she said.
About two hours later, a spokesman for the Giants said all that was known about the man with the ball was that his name was Matt Murphy, 22, of Queens, N.Y., and that he had purchased a ticket to the game on a whim. He was in San Francisco on his way to Australia, where he was headed Tuesday night.
It was not known what Murphy had done with the ball or what he plans to do with it, although money is probably involved.
There was plenty of heartbreak to go around. One young fan, 15-year-old Mark Jackson of Philadelphia, said he was sure he was the guy with the ball. But Jackson had fallen for the fake ball trick - during big home run scrambles, mischievous fans are known to toss other balls into the area to watch the resulting chaos.
Jackson picked up one of the fake balls, stuffed it into his pants and then headed below the bleachers to consult with security guards, who broke the bad news.
If Jackson had inspected the ball, the guard pointed out, he would have seen it was marked "CIAC" - which stands for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, not generally known as the supplier of Major League baseballs.
The rest of section 144 was aghast at the spectacle of the ball scuffle.
"Fists were flying, elbows were flying, people were digging, swinging, pulling on stuff, nobody cared about anything," said Chris Goelkel of San Francisco. "It was madness."
Alan Azem of San Mateo said, "It got to the point where people pushed other people just to get on him."
"They were pushing grandmothers to the floor," said Susan Kitchens of Campbell. "I was just trying to get away from it."
Maybe a million dollars rolling around down there, can you imagine!!

I was talking with some buddies the other night about how to get the ball if we were in the stands.
One guy said he would take in a collapsable net. I figured no way would he ever get the ball back to him. For me, I would take a football helmet and a big glove and go after anything close. crazy

Which reminds me, do you remember the Bears fan that jumped into the tunnel for the football on the extra point. Horizontal Dive 20ft up. Hilarious!
quote:
Originally posted by spizzlepop:
...during big home run scrambles, mischievous fans are known to toss other balls into the area to watch the resulting chaos.


These mischievous fans must be international travelers as well...look at the result when they tossed a ball from the visitor's balcony onto the floor of the Taiwanese Legislature last May!

I don't think there is any question who owns the ball - the guy who came up with it owns it and he can do whatever he wants with it.

My reasoning is this - when a guy hits his 17th homerun of his career or season who owns the ball then? Does MLB or the team or player ask for the ball back - no. Who owns the ball when it's fouled back into the stands? Nobody goes after those guys to take back the ball.

You can't all of a sudden say one ball now belongs to another person when 1000's of other balls belong to the fans who get them.

I wish I could sit here and say I would do the right thing and give the ball to the Hall of Fame. That is where the ball belongs and the right thing to do is give it to them. But if I can get a million dollars from it - I am selling it for a million dollars. I can help relieve myself of several financial responsibilities I have.
I agree with coach2709. They were talking about this on the radio the yesterday, who owns it and what would you do with it. I don't believe the ownership is in doubt, the fan owns the ball. However, plenty of people were saying they would either give it to the HOF or to Bonds. If presented with the opportunity for a million dollars, I doubt it. I just don't believe I could give it away.

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