Home Run Hounds
After he hits, fans on kayaks search the waters near San Francisco's AT&T Park.
July 25, 2007 — -- To truly appreciate the lengths baseball fanatics will go to to catch a piece of history, you need a boat and the stamina to meet them on their turf.
"It gets real competitive out here. … They get real aggressive," said Gary Faselli, one of the fans who sit on kayaks in the cove outside the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park and wait for incoming hits from Barry Bonds.
Like sharks to guppies, this rag-tag armada of ball chasers is known as Bonds Navy, as no one hits more home runs out of the park and into McCovey Cove than this player.
Now that Bonds is on the verge of breaking Hank Aaron's all-time home run record of 755, each splash hit, as they call them, is potentially worth enough money from collectors to retire on.
It's actually a strange little community that sits just outside the ballpark. Everyone's pretty friendly. They share information about the game and even share food. But all that changes as soon as Bonds steps up to the plate.
One of the kayakers, Gene Pointer, told ABC's Neal Karlinsky he's looking for a catch, as he's been on a dry spell lately.
"I'm hoping to redeem myself," Pointer said. He's known as the Kayak Man — he caught five Bonds balls out of the water and is one of the favorites for the big one.
One of the people trying to prevent that is Tom Hoynes. He's known simply as the Mayor and has caught nine splash hits in seven years, and just missed Bonds' home run number 660 — the one that broke Willie Mays' record.
The guy who did get it may be the finest splash hit catcher McCovey Cove has ever seen. "It's a matter of being competitive," explained software salesman Larry Ellison.
He caught the Mays ball, turned down free tickets from the team's owners so that he could stay in the cove, and went on to catch another one the very next night.
Members of Bonds Navy often end up in the water, but for those willing to take the challenge, this watery extension of the outfield has the best seats in the house.
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