The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page C006

CCYYMK Major League Baseball Strategy, luck help fans catch home run balls Baseball glove comes in handy. Injuries part of battle in the stands By Geoff Mulvihill Associated Press When Barry Bonds slammed his 756th home run and Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th, sound toughness and a littleluck were at play. Not for the players, but for the fans scrapping for the balls. Crowds at sportingevents are known to battle for the chance to catch a rolled up T- shirt. So, of course, a lot of people are willing to throw a few elbows to grab the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket.

Historic home runballs have always captivated. On the last day of the 1961 season, Sal Durante, then19, got tickets in the right field stands at Yankee Stadium.He failed in his modest dream of grabbing a batting-practice ball. But in the fourth inning, Roger Maris hit a home run his 61st of the season, which broke Babe season record right at him. Durante stood on his seat, reached as high as he could and plucked it from the air. No scrum.

He sold it for $5,000 a huge windfall for a young man making $60 per week. difference todayis everybody knows if youcatch or retrieve a famousbaseball, going to be worth hundreds of thousands, maybe said Durante, nowa 65-year-old retired bus driver. out there to Few home runs have been as anticipated as Barry 756th, hit Tuesday at Park in San Francisco to make him the all-time leader. The biggest questionswere when would Bonds hit it and who would catch it? More important, what would he do with it, andhow much would a wealthysports fanatic pay for it? The record-breaking ball hit the stands, then tooka sharp bounce toward the right field foul pole and back a few rows. Chaos ensued asfans scurried for the ball.

Matt Murphy, a 21-year-old New Yorker, emerged from the scrum with his clothes torn, his face bloodied and the ball in his hand. minute ofmy Murphy said Thursday on Today how. think one gentlemankicked me in the back of the head. There were people on top of people on top of I really understand. The San Francisco Police Department really helped me outby getting there Memorabilia experts estimate the ball could be wortha half million dollars in an auction for Murphy, who attended the game during alayover on a trip to Australia.

Murphy was lucky, said Zack Hample, a 29-year-old ball-collecting savantfrom New York who, through Wednesday, had snagged 3,143 balls at big-league games in every big league park in use and has written a book about how to do it. With a seat in the middle of a row, the only way Murphy was going to get the ball was if it came right to him. Hample, who last year grabbed 724thhome run, would never leave it to chance like that. Fanswho want a ball must have the right equipment, plan and technique. His first rule: Take a baseball glove, even if an affront to your machismo.

it unmanly that I caught a Barry Bonds home run because I wore a asked Hample, who hires himself out to attend baseball games with fans for $500 a pop and guarantees a batting-practiceball. got to put your pride on the To craft a plan, fans should go to batting practice tolearn how the balls bounce. And they should study where players tend to hit their homers. Before snagging of home run balllast year, his research on the exhaustive home run dataWeb site http://www.hittracker online.com told him that he had a decent shot at getting a ball if he stood fartherback than most guys with gloves. That strategy worked.

And for the super-coveted balls, he said, essential to protect the prize. a famousreason why: In 2001, when Bonds slugged his 73rd and final homer of his record-setting season, it landed first in Alex glove but ended up in the possession of Patrick Hayashi. There was a lawsuit(and a documentary film) over who was the rightful owner. A judge ordered the two mento split the $450,000 proceeds from the sale, but thatamount be enough to cover legal bills. For the much-anticipated home runs, stadiums also have plans.

At Petco Park in San Diego, where Bonds hit his755th homer last week, the Padres closed some standing-room-only sectionsto avoid brawls, had extra stadium security, including uniformed police, and had a secure place to take thelucky ball grabber. In that case, it was 33-year- old plumber AdamHughes, who got the prize on a ricochet off a sign. said team spokesman George Stieren. was a typical laid-back San Diego Hughes said he thinking about gettingthe ball, even when it was coming his way. was kind of thinking if it caroms straight for me and all these people dive on me, what am I going to he said.

He picked up the ball and said, got and have to fight anyone off. Hughes, who has since chosen an auction house to handle the sale, was taken to aprivate spot near the suites to watch the rest of the game in peace. not always so smooth. Trying to catch batting-practice balls on Aug. 1 at Yankee Stadium, Hample was knocked down by another tenacious fan.

He twisted his ankle and spent a few days on crutches. Three days later, he at the ballpark when Rodriguez nailed his 500th. Instead, that ball went to Walter Kowalczyk, a 27-year-old Rutgers University graduate student. Although Sonny has a build 6 feet 4 and 250 pounds, said his Kowalczyk he was in the fetal position by the time police officers pulled other fans scrambling for the ball off him. His prize for the pain? Experts say worthabout $100,000.

heldon I know you guys are sick of talking about it five years later, but take (about Jim home was his apparent unwillingness to accept a trade in 2002.H ejust want the inconvenience of having to move his family potentially twice In other words, his convenience was more important than this franchise, and this attitude was not consistent with the guy he had been perceived as. I know he earned the no tradeclause this really got me steamed at how selfish he was. The prospects we could have gotten could be helping us now. Di dit ever get to the point that the Indians asked him and he said rdid they not try because he made it clear that he would be difficult? eteT ibaldi winsburg earPe irst you complain about Th to accept a trade, then you ask if there was a deal on the table. If there was no prospective trade, there was nothing to ask him about I recall that Thome ever said it would be inconvenient to move his family to another city.

I asked several other media members who covered the team in those years and they remember that either. Di dit occur to you that he didn want to accept a trade because he preferred staying in leveland the time, he had no way of knowing the ribe offer would fall short of the hillies million. To my knowledge, the I ndians never had a trade in place for home but not because they feared he wouldn accept it. heldonO cker heldon Th eI ndians are sure playing some ragged baseball lately and losing half of them. Have you stopped to think the start of this ragged play coincided with the announcement of a three year extension for Mr.

Wedge aybe the players are disgusted with his methods as much as we are. Victor artinez was hotter than a two dollarpistol and Wedge made him set out a game with oston and Martinez has done practically nothing since. Of course I know you and erryP luto have written edge is the greatest, but you write what you have to, to remain friends. Ro nB ibbee uyahogaF alls earRo Ar eyou suggesting that as soon as Wedge got a contract extension he decided he could get away with being a lousy manager dwho says the players are disgusted with his methods you know any of them I guess you would never ictor for an entire game. ake the guy earn all that money by playing 162.

Makes sense to me. Th elast brilliant point about me and Pluto is the one that really hits the nail on the head. ours S.O. heldon amazed and somewhat alarmed uwere civil in answering at least two of the three letters you received on Au g.5. Di dthe writers owe you money eyou not well? lease tell me that you will stay the same snide and sarcastic cker that we all enjoy reading I like to think of you as the Pete Franklin of print news.

ickB entley uyahogaF alls earDi Ge ta job. S.O. Ocker on the Indians Hitting slump sours spirits Trade not the answer. Wedge yelling prompt players to hit better. We sit and wait CLEVELAND: This is not the way we think the world should work, but if the attack continues to languish in One- runsville and Two-runstown, there much anyone can do about it.

I already hear you shouting, Shapiro can make a Sure he can. General Manager Mark Shapiro, one of the most powerful men in the Tribe organization, can snap his fingers, utter an incantation or two and suddenly Alex Rodriguez, Ichiro Suzuki and David Ortiz will be standing at attention in front of his desk, asking, way to wardrobe? We need a couple of extra caps to send to Cooperstown when we win the It that easy. The best Shapiro could do before the trading deadline was make a deal for Kenny Lofton. Who do you think he could pry loose now, when players must clear waivers? Chris Gomez? Shapiro already snapped him up. the height of fantasy to think that an impact hitter will show up in Cleveland by the end of the season.

Eric Wedge is paid to deal with all manner of problems on the field, and an entire team that stops hitting is a problem. Fine. What do you want him to do? He could yell and stomp his feet. Jim Leyland did that last year after his team was thrashed by the Indians, and the Tigers went on a tear that lasted for months. Of course, Leyland has done the same thing a couple of times in the past month or so, and Detroit has continued to lose.

Obscenity-laced tirades have their place, if used sparingly and if the guy on the spewing end is perceived to be genuinely ticked off and not just playing a role to get a reaction. In other words, not the way Wedge normally operates. That tactic seldom has a lasting effect, even when Lou Piniella, the master of the technique, pours it on. Players would see right through the ploy if Wedge tried that, which is not to say he always makes happy talk when addressing his troops. Wedge already has tried to periodically rest the worst of the slumpers in an effort to clear their minds and relax their bodies.

In fact, the manager has gone out of his way to ensure that his players remain fresh. After the Tribe lost its first four home games to a snowstorm, Wedge took note that virtually the entire schedule would be made up mostly of long stretches of games broken up by more long stretches of games. Victor Martinez has been given time off and has played a few games at first base, a less demanding position than catcher, but he still is dragging. Martinez could benefit by a week in Hawaii, and that going to happen. Travis Hafner will be out of the picture for a while with an injury, but maybe a good thing.

He can pretend starting the season over. Hey, you never know what might work. Oh yes, I forgot to blame the hitting coach. How does Derek Shelton get a pass. his responsibility to see to it that the 13 position players do their jobs at the plate.

They so by definition, his fault. Yeah, that makes sense for a talk show host on a slow day. Otherwise, give me a break. I hear anyone praising Shelton when the team was near the top of the rankings in runs scored, either this year or last. Now that the offense is in the tank, because of Shelton.

Take this to the bank: Derek Shelton is working with each and every hitter daily, instructing, advising, maybe conning those who need an ego boost. And racking his brain trying to invent new ways to dispel mass slumps. So all I know. If another way to deal with an inoffensive offense, news to me. Oh yes, I forgot one time- tested method.

As a last resort, wait until the hard times pass. Works every time. The only question is whether the slump will end before the final game of the schedule. Risky business There is an inherent danger in a contending team carrying three raw rookies on its roster. And until they optioned Aaron Laffey to Buffalo on Thursday night, what the Indians were doing, at least for a little while.

Just what is a compared with any other kind? Franklin Gutierrez, Edward Mujica and Tom Mastny are novices, but they are not wide- eyed first-timers total newcomers to the big-league experience. Jensen Lewis, Asdrubal Cabrera and Laffey never played a game in the majors until getting the call smack in the middle of a pennant race. This is not a commentary on their baseball skills. All three might go on to have long careers in the big leagues. They earned their promotions.

But this is the wrong time. To expect them to contribute to the cause immediately and not make the kind of mistakes that can cost the team a precious victory or four is bucking the odds. It would be different had these players shown up in Cleveland two or three or four months ago. In April and May, there is no division race. The pressure really build until July.

A raw rookie who makes his big-league debut early in the season has a chance to become comfortable with his teammates and let the speed of his brain catch up with the speed of the game. Only two raw rookies remain on the roster. After a fifth starter returns from Buffalo to pitch Aug. 25, maybe there will be only one, a manageable situation. It all depends on who that starter is.

Will it be Cliff Lee, Jeremy Sowers or Laffey? The conventional wisdom is that it will be Lee or Sowers and that Cabrera will end up back in Triple-A. But the risks build with each additional raw rookie who survives on the roster. Sheldon Ocker can be reached at C6 Akron Beacon Journal unday ugust1 2,2007 www.Oh i o.c SHELDON OCKER SHELDON THE WRITE STUFF INDIANS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TONY DEJAK A ssociatedP ress file photo ravisH afner watches a solo home run against Oakland on June 27. Given his struggles this season, heldonO cker suggests that when he returns from an injury, he pretend his season is starting over. NAM Y.

HUH A ssociatedP ress I ndians starting pitcher Aaron affey who made his major league debut last weekend, earned his first win on Thursday night, then was optioned back to uffalo could return in two weeks. BRANT nF ranciscoC hronicle via AP fficers escort Matt Murphy from the stands after he caught the record home run ball hit by Barry onds urphy clothes were torn and his face bloodied in the struggle for the ball. Story 8-12 c6 System AKRE by SFAGERST Time 18:54:54 Date Color layer: Black 64X Pg. Date 8-12 c6Topic: 8-12 spt Keyword 8-12 c6Page 1 C6, Black, EDITION 4X, DAY 12.