ON THE BALL: Ben Yagoda of Slate writes what I've thought for a long time: that Sports Illustrated's Gary Smith is not only the best sportswriter in the country, but is the best magazine writer in America. Smith may only write two or three pieces a year, but they're always worthwhile, which is more than I can say for the juvenile, highly overrated Rick Reilly.
Smith's written some highly memorable pieces in the last couple years: the Allen Iverson/Larry Brown "virgin birth" story, an award-winning profile of deposed Notre Dame football coach George O'Leary, a recent look at the world of competitive deep-sea diving, and a fascinating piece on the two men fighting over Barry Bonds' 73rd home run ball from 2001.
The dispute covered in that last piece was finally resolved last week with a downer of a public auction. The two men, Patrick Hayashi and Alex Popov, had been feuding over ownership of the ball ever since late September of 2001, when Popov caught the home run, was gang-tackled by several other spectators, lost it, and Hayashi scooped it up. For nearly two years the men sued and countersued one another, until finally a judge imposed a Solomonic compromise: the ball would be auctioned off, with the proceeds being split between Popov and Hayashi. But the joke was on both of them- expected to fetch millions, the ball only sold for $450,000 (to "Spawn" creator Todd McFarlane), and after legal fees the two men each essentially broke even. Popov had even quit his job to devote his full-time energies to the ball fight.
Now there are a few things I don't understand about this case, and probably never will: why is the 73rd home run ball so important, when it was Bonds' 71st a few days earlier that actually broke McGwire's record? If it is such an important ball, then why isn't it in the Hall of Fame? And even more strangely, why in the world would McFarlane, who paid more than $3 million for McGwire's 70th home run ball and later saw its value whittle down to nothing when Bonds broke the record, make the same mistake twice? Bonds' record could fall at any time, and when it does won't the 73rd ball will be worthless too?
Had Hayashi and Popov settled their feud two years ago, they'd both likely be millionaires right now. Instead, they've devoted two years of their lives in order to essentially break even- utterly embarrassing themselves in the process. One of the saddest recent developments in baseball has been the devolution of memorabilia into one big cash grab; let this be a lesson to ball-hoggers of the future.