Projo Sox Blog

By Joe McDonald
Journal Sports Writer

BALTIMORE _ The Brothers Woo literally caught history last night.

Sitting in Section 94, seats 15 and 16 Saturday night at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, Damon and Jason Woo caught Manny Ramirez’s 500th home run ball. Actually Damon, 40, was the one who ended up with it. He caught the ball on the fly and dropped to the ground as his brother covered him until Baltimore police quickly made their way to their seats and escorted the two to the Red Sox clubhouse.

“Nobody was going to take it away from us,” said Woo.

The two brothers played golf earlier in the day at Andrews Air Force Base and Damon joked that he would be the way to catch it. He’s not going to hang onto it, however, because as soon as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 6-3, Damon gave it back to Ramirez.

“It belongs to him,” said Woo. “It’s his accomplishment. It’s his achievement. It’s his ball. He said I could borrow it for the night, but it’s his. That’s the right thing to do.”

Actually Woo and his brother were hanging around the Sox’ clubhouse waiting for it to clear out so he could officially give it back to Ramirez, who plans on giving it to a local children’s charity in Boston.

A ball of this significance could make Woo a nice sum of money, but the Nahant, Mass., native and Manhattan resident felt it best to return it to the rightful owner.

“They are so nice, and I’m just happy to have the ball,” Ramirez said.

He said he wanted to take a picture with it with his children before handing over to his local charity. In fact, Ramirez is donating $1,000 for every homer he hits this season. No. 500 was his 10th of 2008.

Manny might have his ball back, but teammate Julio Lugo has the bat that Ramirez hit the homer with. Ramirez promised Lugo the bat a while ago, and before anyone could talk to Lugo he placed the bat in a white sanitary sock, tied it up and scooted out of the clubhouse.

Woo and his brother made a few phone calls, but they couldn’t get in touch with anyone back in Boston and New York.

“They must be out drinking in the bars, watching the game and enjoying it,” said Damon Woo. “Hopefully they saw me for a moment.”

---