Oh balls
January 7, 2005 12:42 PM   Subscribe

So, should he give back the ball or not? Of course, I say "give back" as if the Red Sox owned it in the first place, which they didn't. So is it up to Major League Baseball?
posted by braun_richard (28 comments total)
 
It'd Dougie Baseball's baseball. He can do with it what he wants. The Red Sox have every right to think he's a jerk for not donating it to their trophy case though.
posted by Arch Stanton at 12:52 PM on January 7, 2005


Be sure to check out this article on BostonDirtDogs. It's about the only thing out there right now that has his response to this whole thing.

He made a joke to a reporter that he could be 'bought out' and the reporter took it and ran.

Noone from the Sox has contacted him about the ball, so it's not even an issue until they do.

Here's the root story. It's put together by the same guy (Dan Shaughnessy) who also create the whole "Curse of the Bambino".
posted by ruthsarian at 12:56 PM on January 7, 2005


I'm sure after he auctions it off to the highest bidder, he'll give the money to the teachers and nannies who are making mid-five figures for raising his kids while he plays baseball for a quizillian wing-wangs a year.
posted by ba at 12:58 PM on January 7, 2005


WTF Doug? Dude has no right to the ball. He hit like .215 all year and was only put in the game for defense. Had it been like Manny or Ortiz then I could see it, but Mieneneneizkz? What crap.

He just got the ball due to his duties at first. If you want to consider that a "game ball" then you have to hand that to Derek Lowe.

And this crap about his retirement fund and the ball representing "four years at Florida State" for his kid(s)... I hope that's a joke. If he can't manage his money with his 2-3 million dollar a year salary (TO HIT .215!), then he's a bigger joke than I thought.

Of course, if this is just a joke that was taken out of context and blown up by the media, my apologies Doug.
posted by xmutex at 1:12 PM on January 7, 2005


Calling the ball, "my retirement fund," Mientkiewicz stored it in a safety deposit box.

You'd think, given the guy's salary, that he already has something of a retirement fund set away. I might have some sympathy if it was some Joe Schmoe in the stands who had caught the ball and wasn't giving it back, but not so much for Mr. Mientkiewicz.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:12 PM on January 7, 2005


It's Malphabet's ball. He can do whatever he likes with it. Don't listen to Dan Shaughnessy.
posted by sohcahtoa at 1:23 PM on January 7, 2005


Sportsfilter sez...
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:23 PM on January 7, 2005


He has no right to that ball. If he sells it (which I'm sure he will) then every employee of the Sox should get an equal share. What a dork.
posted by Specklet at 1:25 PM on January 7, 2005


I'm a Twins fan and Doug was more or less run out of town after having numerous fits over years with two coaches. This is already the second time he's gotten on the nerves of Boston, the first when he complained about playing time in the middle of the run up to the playoffs.
posted by Arch Stanton at 1:29 PM on January 7, 2005


He has no right to that ball. While I will always have a place in my heart for Minky and his golden glove, the ball belongs among red sox archives. The fans paid his salary in order to some day look at the ball through a bullet-proof case and weep.
posted by willns at 1:36 PM on January 7, 2005


He has plenty right to the ball, and apparently MLB agrees. It's MLB property (and they authenticated it), and their rep clearly stated it's now his property. This sounds like a "whisper campaign" to pressure him to turn the ball over for free, especially as they have yet to actually ask him for it.
If the Red Sox really want the ball, why not just buy it off of him? His joking aside, I'm sure he has a price for it.
posted by FormlessOne at 1:37 PM on January 7, 2005


I'm not sure if Doug M. has the rights to the ball, but I don't really see how the Sox can think they "own" it. It's a ball supplied by MLB, not by the Sox. Shouldn't they be the final decision-maker (assuming, of course, that they would even get involved - maybe Doug M. is in the right and MLB wouldn't even get involved).
posted by braun_richard at 1:37 PM on January 7, 2005


And this crap about his retirement fund and the ball representing "four years at Florida State" for his kid(s)... I hope that's a joke. If he can't manage his money with his 2-3 million dollar a year salary (TO HIT .215!), then he's a bigger joke than I thought.

Look, if someone can't even feed his family on 13 million a year, how do you expect Doug to send his kids to school on 2-3 million?
posted by casu marzu at 2:01 PM on January 7, 2005


I doubt he'll get as much money as he's expecting, as I don't think Todd McFarlane will get into any bidding wars anytime soon, with his company's bankrupcy and all.
posted by bobo123 at 2:03 PM on January 7, 2005


The MLB spokesman already said it's Doug's ball. Yeah, it's pretty crummy of him to hold on to it, but shit, that ball is worth millions. I can completely understand his attitude. Fans don't have to relinquish "important" HR balls. At the point of the final out, the ball became anyone's property.

And forget about the "well they pay him millions," load of crap. If the Sox are serious about the ball, they can damn well cough up a few million for it -- I'm sure they've got the cash now that Pedro's on the Mets.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:12 PM on January 7, 2005


Maybe the Cards will pay him a few bucks for it and do some voodoo anti-choke ceremony with it for next year.
posted by lemoncello at 3:01 PM on January 7, 2005


He has no right to that ball. (x2)

Wound up in his glove. If the game had ended on a home run you caught in the stands, would you feel the same?
posted by yerfatma at 3:08 PM on January 7, 2005


Why is this ball so goddamn important?? It was just the last out of the series, for fuck's sake! So what?

Seriously, are there fans who want to go to a Red Sox museum of some sort, and see this ball? 'Well, Jimmy, this ball broke the curse.'

It's one fucking ball, of like, 200 that were used in the entire series! Quit'cher stupid bitching!
posted by graventy at 3:26 PM on January 7, 2005


Why is this ball so goddamn important??
Like said above, game ball and this post is not the full facts.
posted by thomcatspike at 3:45 PM on January 7, 2005


i have no idea what thomcatspike means, but i'm with graventy. i've never heard of the ball used in the last out of a World Series being worth anything. can anyone track an example down?

i don't think the ball's worthless, but i can't imagine it will fetch anywhere near what the home runs balls have. a home run is one pitch, one swing, one ball, one moment. a world series victory is a season's accomplishment. i don't get it.
posted by mrgrimm at 4:01 PM on January 7, 2005


a world series victory is a season's accomplishment. i don't get it.

The point is what the ball represents. As any Red Sox fan will tell you, the Sox have been one pitch, one swing, one ball, one moment away from winning the series before, only to have their hopes quashed like a bug at a rave.

This ball seals the whole season. That's why it's gonna be worth so much.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:17 PM on January 7, 2005


mrgrimm: There hasn't been a World Series before where a team won for the first time in 86 years, and where that team and its fan base had long labored under the cloud of a "curse".
posted by xmutex at 5:05 PM on January 7, 2005


Why is this ball so goddamn important?

It's way more important than the baseball which Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman caught in 2003! And that ball was sold at auction for $113,824.16 and then publicly exploded on February 20, 2004.
posted by ericb at 5:39 PM on January 7, 2005


There hasn't been a World Series before where a team . . .and its fan base had long labored under the cloud of a "curse".

And there hasn't been one now. The whole "curse" thing was manufactured by Dan Shaughnessy. Ask any longtime Sox fan about whether they "labored under a curse" ten or twenty years ago. If they're honest, they'll scoff. The players have already scoffed.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:06 PM on January 7, 2005


And there hasn't been one now. The whole "curse" thing was manufactured by Dan Shaughnessy.

Who is now off trying to create yet another story out of thin air.
posted by theonetruebix at 9:27 PM on January 7, 2005


Why is this ball so goddamn important??

That's like asking why the Shroud of Turin is so important to Catholics.
posted by jesourie at 10:25 PM on January 7, 2005


OK, but the ball is -- apparently -- not a medieval-era fake.
my idea, as a faraway Red Sox fan? tradition indicates that the balls is his, but it'd be classy for him to donate it to the team, so that fans can see it. after all he's a millionaire already
posted by matteo at 12:20 PM on January 8, 2005


It doesn't matter if we think it was an important ball. Many do and are willing to pay to have it. That makes it worth something.

He has stated the "retirement" comment was a joke. I believe him. And who cares if he is a millionaire? Every player on the field was a millionaire.

Players get the balls on important plays all the time. MLB has said often the player "owns" the ball in such cases. Feel sorry if one of the bat boys had grabbed a tossed away ball. He would have been forced to give it back.

Doug had the brains to hold on to it and keep it safe. He deserves some compensation for it. The owners sure as hell don't have a right to it. If they want it -- cough up some cash. If they players had wanted a "game ball" given to someone they would have decided it already.

Personally I think he should loan it to the Hall of Fame. Let it rest among the other Sox memorabilia. If he really needs the cash some day then he still could sell it.
posted by ?! at 1:23 PM on January 8, 2005


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