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Eric
07-23-2006, 09:35 AM
From today's New York Daily News

The Score hears ...

By MICHAEL O'KEEFFE

Bonds not only one happy with grand jury

When a federal grand jury expired last week without indicting a certain embattled slugger for perjury or tax evasion, nobody not named Bonds was happier than Andrew Morbitzer, the San Francisco fan who caught the embattled slugger's 715th home run ball two months ago.

Morbitzer will be at Mickey Mantle's on Central Park South tomorrow to show off Barry Bonds' historic ball to TV crews and promote its sale on eBay. The auction begins tomorrow afternoon and runs for 10 days. Morbitzer says he thinks the ball could fetch $500,000 or more, although some memorabilia experts have told him it could go for much less, thanks to Bonds' starring role in baseball's steroid scandal.

"The fact that there was no indictment takes away some of the doubts about the value of the ball," Morbitzer tells The Score.

Morbitzer left his wife Megan to fend for their seats in the bleachers while he went for refreshments on that historic day. He heard the public address announcer say that Bonds was at the plate, but Morbitzer was more focused on beer, peanuts and a barbecued sandwich than the BALCO poster child.

And then the crowd roared.

Morbitzer looked up through a gap in the bleachers. He saw an ocean of outstretched arms and a baseball headed his way. He leaned back, stuck out his hand and caught the ball barehanded on a dead fly. "It didn't hurt at all," Morbitzer says. "I was in the moment."

Morbitzer says a "V-chested guy in a beautiful suit" grabbed him, identified himself as MLB security and swept him away. "I'm 6-2 and the guy just lifted me off the ground and carried me down the hall, with the TV crews and the media chasing us," Morbitzer says.

The security guy - a moonlighting San Francisco police lieutenant - took Morbitzer to a room, when MLB officials affixed a hologram to the ball that identifies it as genuine. Morbitzer and his wife spend a whirlwind few weeks doing press interviews and showing off the ball that passed Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list. They even thought about keeping the ball.

"It was fun to have it, but then reality set in," Morbitzer says. "San Francisco is an expensive place to live, and we decided we'd like a down payment for our own place."

Morbitzer says he may use some of the cash to take his wife to Italy. They've already decided to donate 10% of the proceeds to a charity.

"We have to do something for charity," he says. "This is such a lucky thing to happen to us. It's karma."

Eric
07-23-2006, 09:38 AM
Full coverage of this auction can be found at
http://www.mpire.com/research/marketing/themes/715.html