Finally, in Bonds Ball case, Someone Shows Some Class
San Francisco Chronicle (December 30, 2003)
My picks for Sportsmen of the Year don't play a sport. They don't coach. They don't own a team.
Their ventures into the sports world generally cost them money, one to attend A's games, the other to see the Giants. They did have a chance to make some cash off a great moment in baseball history. But when it came time to collect their money, they ended up giving most of it away.
They are the lawyers who represented Patrick Hayashi, who was sued over Barry Bonds' 73rd home-run ball of the 2001 season. The case came to define the madness and crassness of modern sports. One fan, Alex Popov, got his mitt on the ball and then lost it amid a scrum of fans. Hayashi plucked the ball from the pile, without realizing that he'd entered a whole new ballgame.
Within weeks, Popov was suing, claiming to be the rightful owner of the ball. For more than a year and a half after it landed in the right-field promenade at Pacific Bell Park, the fate of No. 73 remained up in the air.