On October 7, 2001, Barry Bonds hit his 73rd home run for that season. Bonds thus broke the record set by Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa. Bonds sent the ball sailing into the night. San Francisco fans in what was then called Pac Ball Park scrambled for that ball.
As to be expected, a reporter from a local paper was in the stands on that night. San Francisco residents read the next morning about the controversy concerning exactly who had caught Bonds’ ball. This was before the media had issued reports about Bonds’ alleged use of steroids.
According to the paper, a man named Alex Popov had seen the ball approach him in the stands, and had instinctively raised his hand. Popov had caught the ball, but he had as soon as he had taken possession of the ball, he had been pushed by dozens of excited baseball fans. One push had forced Popov to the ground, and it had caused him to drop the ball.
A second fan, Patrick Hayashi, saw Popov release what he had acquired, by his spectacular catch. Hayashi had access to a baseball glove. He used that glove to retrieve the lost ball. Hayashi then rose up in the crowd, claiming that he, not Popov, had caught the ball struck by Bonds’ bat.
Michael Wranovics was not seated in the ball park on that night. San Francisco papers gave Wranovics the first news about the controversy concerning the identity of the man who had caught Bonds’ 73rd home run of the season. Wranovics read the paper before reporting to his job in the Silicon Valley. Wranovics saw in that controversy an interesting plot line.
Wranovics was not interested in putting the controversy into some sort of computer game. Wranovics secretly longed to become a filmmaker. Wranovics decided to make a movie about the two men and their competing claims to the ball that Bonds had sent into the stadium crowd.
By Mid-May of 2002, reviewers in Los Angeles County were writing about Wranovics movie. His movie was shown in three Los Angeles area theaters during the week of May 9th. That week, on Friday the 13th, movie goers could discover for themselves which San Francisco fan had had bad luck on October 7, 2001, and which fan had been lucky enough to take possession of Bonds’ ball.
Bonds had entertained a stadium of people on one October night. San Francisco papers and Bonds had given Wranovics a way to entertain several halls of movie goers for a number of nights. The story about the controversy between Popov and Hayashi also provided at least one web writer with some interesting content.
In that way Bonds 73rd hit managed to entertain more than baseball fans and movie goers. It also entertained all of those Internet surfers who hit on a web site that carried content about Popov’s and Hayashi’s competing claims.