Bonds Baseball Battle

ALEXANDER POPOV: I reached up and actually caught it like this above my head.

IRWIN KRAMER: Alex Popov may have caught the ball but after a scuffle it ended up in the hands of Patrick Hayashi, and two guys who once rooted for the same team wound up on opposite sides in court. Now the court had possession of the baseball.

Just how would the judge field the question of ownership?

The judge himself had trouble making up his mind.

JUDGE KEVIN M. MCCARTY: We will never know if Mr. Popov would have been able to retain control of the ball had the crowd not interfered with his efforts to do so.

Mr. Hayashi was not a wrongdoer. He was the victim of the same bandits that attacked Mr. Popov. Their legal claims are of equal quality and they are equally entitled to the ball.

IRWIN KRAMER: The verdict even left Barry Bonds scratching his head.

BONDS: Because I told the lawyer I think that it is ridiculous, you know those two guys could have just said, here take it to an auction and what we get we will just split it.