Nothing Sweet About Battle for No. 62 Ball

When Sammy Sosa launched his 62nd home run onto Waveland Avenue on Sunday, Chicago Cubs fans bit, kicked and punched one another until one guy emerged with the baseball and had to be whisked away by police for his protection.

“Usually, somebody gets a ball, the struggle stops. But in this situation, I think there were dollar signs,” said one of those in the crowd, Bob Milkovich.

Three people claim to be the owner. But police said whoever has the ball now can keep it.

As Sosa closed in on the home run record broken by McGwire last week, the crowd outside Wrigley Field had swelled to the hundreds. Among those outside the ballpark when Sosa hit No. 62 was Milkovich, who left behind his 8 1/2-months-pregnant wife and brought a tiny TV set.

Fans were crowded around Milkovich’s TV when Sosa hit the ninth-inning blast.

The battle for the ball began and continued until one man emerged with the ball hidden under his shirt and took off. “As he’s running away from me, 500 people took off after him,” Milkovich said.

One man who claimed he was the first to grab the ball showed up at a police station to report a robbery. Police said he had been bitten and appeared to have a broken hand.

There may be no way to prove who has No. 62. After McGwire broke the record, baseball stopped putting a secret code on the balls pitched to him and Sosa.