And the ball I'm speaking of is the one I first wrote about on Friday -- the one used to make the final out in Boston's World Series clinching win over the St. Louis Cardinals last October.
Instead of wandering far and wide on the Web, it's better you just get yourself over to Boston Dirt Dogs, which, along with Sons of Sam Horn, are simply the best places for Red Sox news and gossip on the Web today.
Start here, go here, and finish here. Then check back all day long for updates. And if that last link is any indication, Red Sox Nation isn't exactly happy with the guy, and in particular, his wife Jodi.
Bottom line: The potential for much ugliness exists here.
Some other thoughts: While others have looked at the legal issues involved, I think what's really happened here is that the explosion of the baseball memorabilia industry over the last two decades has dramatically changed the perception of the value of the ball and other items like it.
In this piece by Tyler Kepner of the New York Times, we discover that the whereabouts of similar balls are completely unknown, while others were handed about rather casually:
Larry Shenk, a longtime Phillies vice president, said he did not know what became of the ball from the final out of the Phillies' only title, in 1980. Catcher Bob Boone got it after a strikeout, but Boone's son Aaron, the former Yankees playoff hero, does not know where it is."No clue," he said yesterday.
The Royals won their only title in 1985, but the team said it did not have the ball from the final out. The Mets, who won the next year, do not have that ball, either.
The ball from the Los Angeles Dodgers' last championship, in 1988, belongs to Fred Claire, who was their general manager. Rick Dempsey had promised Claire that if he signed him as a backup catcher, he would catch the final out of the World Series and give Claire the ball. That is exactly what happened.
One last thought: As I've said many times before in reference to the NHL lockout, disputes like this occurring in the sports world often pit the haves against the have mores -- in this case, a first baseman who makes about $2 million per year against an ownership group whose total net worth is somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Would it kill Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner to write Mientkiewicz a check and end this story in a New York minute?
UPDATE: And for a look around the Blogosphere for other reaction, check out Technoratri.
