Picking Up No. 61 Is Not One in Million

Mike Davidson said that he would rather give the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire the 61st home run ball that Davidson caught Monday than receive $1 million for it.

Honest.

Of course, it was easy for Davidson to say that because nobody had actually offered him $1 million for the ball that he held with a death grip as he was being pummeled in the first row of the first deck of the left-field seats at Busch Stadium, a ball McGwire had smashed in the first inning to tie Roger Maris’ major league, single-season home run record.

“It would mean more to Mark McGwire and baseball than a million dollars would to me,” said Davidson, a 28-year-old, lifelong resident of St. Louis who estimates that he works 40 to 80 hours a week in his job as a catering manager.

But, Davidson added, the thought of a big payday also scares him.

“I figure it would be more aggravation dealing with people that come out of the woodwork,” he said, “like when people win the lottery.”

Davidson didn’t even want to take batting practice with the Cardinals or season tickets from the club, two requests by the man who caught ball No. 60 that are going to be honored by the Cardinals.

At first glance, Davidson, sitting in seats owned by his brother-in-law, had no chance at the ball, which was headed for a stadium restaurant on the second level. But the field side of that restaurant is encased in glass, normally a good thing on a hot, humid day like Monday, but not in this case when a historic baseball caromed away from the diners.

It banged off the glass and plunged straight down to Davidson’s section.

“It bounced off five people’s hands,” he said, “and rolled underneath my seat.”

As he dove after it, Davidson said he got hit a few times, but wasn’t about to back off.

So Davidson was happy and McGwire would soon be happy. Perhaps the only person who wasn’t happy was Mike Izo.

He is Davidson’s brother-in-law, who, if he hadn’t had to work, would have been sitting there when a piece of American history rolled under his seat.