My story cannot match yours, but I was walking by Capital City Stadium in Columbia, SC in late September 2004. My purpose was to buy advance State Fair tickets and get some exercise, as we live about a mile from the stadium which is about a half-mile from the Fairgrounds beyond it. By the roadside, about three yards in on the shoulder, I saw a "South Atlantic League" ball. It was certainly from the League playoffs that had been played at the stadium about 3-4 weeks before. It was wet from rains that had occurred since the playoffs.

I recall that a HR had been hit into that area by an opponent during a playoff game, but I hadn't looked for it because there were ball hawks outside the stadium at the time and I figured they'd gotten it. Furthermore, the ball was historic because Columbia had just lost its minor-league club after the playoffs (the Mets, in the process of changing to the Red Sox and moving to Greenville, SC.) Thus, my find was probably the last minor-league ball ever recovered at that stadium which was built in 1927 for minor-league play.

They've just annouced that the stadium ( now being used by amateur teams), will be demolished in the fall and replaced by a Wal-Mart. Thus, my roadside ball will probably remain forever as the last minor-league ball ever from that stadium, where Hank Aaron played games he describes in detail in his autobiography. Many others, fron Frank Robinson to Derek Jeter and hundreds of others MLB players since 1927 played games there (usually as opposing players though Robinson was local).I'm amazed that it survived for 3-4 weeks, but it wasn't visible from passing cars and there are no buildings by it.