Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 1555
Location: clawing my eyes out, praying for sleep. booyah.
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:45 pm Post subject: the ultimate souvenir
i wasn't sure where to put this -- gonzo isn't part of the team anymore and all -- but the team section still felt right. weird article i stumbled upon last night.
Quote:
The ultimate souvenir
How the most important ball hit in D-Backs history wound up in the hands of the man who brought baseball to the desert
Bob McManaman
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 28, 2006 12:00 AM
The moment is frozen in time: Luis Gonzalez's bloop single wins the 2001 World Series. No Diamondbacks fan can forget it.
But does anyone know what happened to the ball Gonzalez hit over a drawn-in New York Yankees infield on Nov. 4, 2001, to win Game 7?
"Where did that thing end up?" said Glenn Sherlock, the Diamondbacks' bullpen coach, who has been with the team since its inaugural season in 1998.
As he prepared for his last hurrah in a Diamondbacks' uniform - tonight will mark the first of his final four home games with the team he helped put on the map - Gonzalez revealed what became of the ball.
Some suspected Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams may have picked up the ball and kept it or gave it away. Did it get lost in the celebration on the field that day at Bank One Ballpark? Could it have ended up in the hands of one of the umpires?
No. No. And no.
"I know where it is," Gonzalez said.
Technically, he doesn't. He knows who has it, but he doesn't know where it's being kept.
He gave it to Jerry Colangelo, the Diamondbacks' managing general partner at the time and the man who brought Major League Baseball to Arizona.
But how did Gonzo get the ball? And why did he give to Colangelo?
After Gonzalez's bases-loaded hit off celebrated Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, the stadium erupted in wild celebration. Gonzalez leaped up and down on his way to first base as Jay Bell scooted home with the Series-winning run, and the Diamondbacks raced out of the dugout for a mob scene.
"What stuck for me," Gonzalez recalled, "was when I got that hit, I was yanked off the field to go do interviews. I didn't get to celebrate like I wanted to with my teammates or the fans that managed to get out there. If I had to do it all over again, that's my only regret that I have."
The celebration eventually moved into the clubhouse, and there, Gonzalez was able to soak up the atmosphere. Amid the spraying of champagne over plastic-protected lockers, the crush of more and more media, and the dizzying sequence of hugs and high fives, a sobering moment stopped Gonzalez in his tracks.
"I'm standing there," Gonzalez said, "and a guy from Major League Baseball walked over to me and said, 'Here, this is the ball from your game-winning hit. It's been authenticated. Take it.' "
He did. He took it home.
"I stared at it for a couple of days," he said.
Nobody asked him about it, perhaps because nobody knew about it. It's not like there was some definable protocol to follow when you're handed the best souvenir of your career.
"But then I started thinking," he said. "And I talked it over with my wife. Christine and I went over it and I told her, 'I think I'm going to give this to Jerry.' She thought it was great. She thought it was a good idea."
A few days later, Gonzalez took the baseball with him when the team assembled for a massive parade downtown. An estimated 300,000 fans watched a motorcade of fire engines move through Copper Square, leading to a massive celebration inside the ballpark.
"In my heart, I just knew that the right person to have that ball was Jerry," Gonzalez said. "If I had two, I would have given one to (then-general manager) Joe Garagiola Jr., because those are the two guys that gave me the opportunity to come here and play and believed in me."
Gonzalez and Colangelo are a little fuzzy as to how the exact exchange went down. Gonzalez remembers walking into then-manager Bob Brenly's office and asking Colangelo to step inside. Colangelo thinks a third party may have actually given him the ball after he met with Gonzalez somewhere inside the stadium.
But one thing is certain: Colangelo, ousted from power two years ago, has the baseball.
"The mere thought he would give the ball to me was extraordinary," Colangelo said earlier this week. "It's something I'll always cherish."
So where is it? Is it in Colangelo's oval office at US Airways Center? Is it in a trophy case at his residence? Is it locked away in a safety-deposit box?
"I'd rather not say," Colangelo said, although he did retrieve the ball on Wednesday and agree to pose with it for The Republic.
Most of Gonzalez's teammates never knew what happened to the ball but are happy it ended up where it did.
"He deserves more than the ball," said pitcher Miguel Batista, who was on the 2001 team and returned to the Diamondbacks this season. "Nobody worked harder to bring baseball here than Jerry Colangelo did. He risked everything and he made people mad at him (mostly over stadium financing), but he stuck to his word.
"He said to give him four years to bring the championship here, and he did."
The Diamondbacks won a World Series more quickly than any expansion team, and although Colangelo built up a steep franchise debt in the form of so many deferred player salaries, Arizona had its first major champion- ship.
"I think it tells you what Gonzo thinks of Jerry," said infielder Craig Counsell, who was hit by a Rivera pitch in the at-bat right before Gonzalez's game-winner. "From my perspective, and probably Gonzo's, too, we all kind of looked up to Jerry. I don't know if 'father figure' is the right word, but he was just somebody you wanted to please, a guy you wanted to do good by."
Gonzalez and Colangelo will see each other at the stadium for the first time in two years this Sunday, when the former boss comes to watch his favorite left fielder play one last time in purple pinstripes.
"I'm glad he's going to be there," Gonzalez said, "(and) I know I did the right thing. He deserves that ball."
edit:
forgot to cite my sources...
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0928gonzoball0928-CP.html
_________________
Hank, you're dead to me.
Joined: 10 Aug 2006
Posts: 1871
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 1:55 pm Post subject: Re: the ultimate souvenir
McCray wrote:
i wasn't sure where to put this -- gonzo isn't part of the team anymore and all -- but the team section still felt right. weird article i stumbled upon last night.
Don't worry! You've found the right forum....
I remember seeing this article about the time it first came out. It's probably embedded in one the the numerous Gonzo threads. IIRC, it was never pointed out on its own.
The baseball in question apparently has some "totem" powers... Why else would so many people be pursuing it?
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Is It Next Season Yet?
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Posts: 23
Location: Gilbert AZ
Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:42 pm Post subject:
Wasn't the game-winning hit baseball in the ballpark lobby display with the trophy, caps and Greg Schulte's scorebook, etc.? If so, the following sequence:
Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 149
Location: phoenix, az
Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:02 am Post subject:
It's a different ball, obviously. I'm not sure which one that is in the square case, but isn't Richie Sexson's Jumbo-Tron HR ball in that display as well?
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