The saga of the Giants' 10,000th team HR

[sox83cubs84]

In response to calgrad1999 on a Giants-related Wanted thread, and others who may care, here is the story of the contested 10,000th home run in Giants history.

The ball (hit by Earnie Riles) made it to the right field seats and bounced back on the field. The right fielder (Tom Brunansky of St. Louis) tossed the ball back into the stands, where a man with a 5-year old kid caught it.

Enter the Bad Guy (I don't remember his name). The Giants offered a chance to throw out the first pitch at a future game for the fan who turned in the baseball to the team, and the Bad Guy wanted that honor. He sped down to where dad and son were sitting, and spun a fib about how he had a sick little brother he wanted to give the home run ball to. He persuaded the man, unaware of the baseball's significance, to sell it to him for $50, and then sped away. Shortly thereafter, other fans told him what the true status of the ball he had just sold was, and the man was so disheartened that he grabbed his son and left the game.

The Bad Guy openly admitted to his deception to the media, and even justified his deception by saying that the man was not a true Giants fan (Bad guy was), and that if he was, he wouldn't have sold the ball in the first place. Bad Guy's own reasoning was that such a prestigious honor should go to a real Giants rooter such as himself, and not someone out of the loop on team history.

Although aware of the situation, the Giants themselves balked at intervening, explaining that they had no team personnel that witnessed the dupe.

Then...the fans took over. The Bad Guy strated receiving crank calls, as well as ones by fans claiming that they were going to throw tomatoes and other potentially messy food items at him if he went through to actually throwing out the first pitch.

The Bad Guy then told the team he'd be willing to have both the guy's kid and him walk to the mound together, but the kid's dad nixed the joint appearance. Finally, sensing that he had dug himself into a hole he couldn't escape, he relinquished his claim, leaving the youngster as the sole honoree.

The ending was happy for all involved except the Bad Guy...and that's the way it should be.

Dave Miedema

[calgrad1999]

Thanks Dave

Hard to believe back then a ball like
that could be turned in for so little.

I remember following the story, but
either never heard or forgot about how
it ended.