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June 10, 2008
BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON -- There’s been some controversy surrounding who owns Ken Griffey’s Jr.’s 600th career home-run ball.
The Reds slugger notched the historic homer at Florida Monday night and already a few different fans say they caught the ball. Certainly a piece of memorabilia like Griffey’s ball will draw a lot of attention and could make some fan instantly rich.
Damon Woo doesn’t see it that way.
Woo, 40, is best known around these parts as the New York City resident and Red Sox fan who caught Manny Ramirez’s 500th career homer in Baltimore on May 31. Even before that game was over, Woo and his and brother, Jason, were escorted to the Sox’ clubhouse because Woo felt the honorable thing to do was to return the ball to its rightful owner.
The Brothers Woo presented Ramirez with the ball, took pictures and were able to meet the rest of the Red Sox players. The next day the brothers were invited by the club to sit right behind the visitors' dugout at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Along with the club’s hospitality, Damon Woo received a number of signed balls and bats from other Red Sox players, but ironically, he didn’t get anything signed by Ramirez.
It wasn’t that Ramirez wouldn’t sign anything; it was simply that everyone got caught up in all the excitement and Woo forgot to ask. The team told him to send along any pictures he had of himself and Ramirez in the clubhouse that night so Manny could sign them.
Everyone on the Red Sox, including bench coach Brad Mills, spoke the next day about how rare in today’s world it is that a person would give up a sure lucrative pay day to do the right thing as Woo did.
Woo spoke with the Journal this afternoon and he has some advice for the person who caught Griffey’s ball – give it back. He's confident he did the right thing and many people are telling him as much. He just hopes the lucky fan in Florida follows his lead.
"It’s better for baseball if people followed the course," said Woo.
In the days and weeks following his historic grab, Woo said his life has been filled with a lot of nice surprises.
"It was certainly an interesting week, to say the least," he said. "It’s been really great."
He’s received a ton of e-mails from friends around the globe, some of whom he hasn’t spoken with in a while.
"As [the story] slowly circled the globe, folks I have lost touch with over the years have called or dropped me an e-mail," he said. "People have been telling me I did the right thing and I’ve certainly been on a high from that."
That was the biggest question Woo faced over the last week-and-a-half. Newspapers and websites have asked readers to answer survey questions whether or not Woo did the right thing by giving Ramirez the ball back.
"The company I keep, [people approve by] about 98 percent," Woo said. "The responses from friends has been overwhelmingly that I did the right thing. That put me on a life’s high as well."
Still, there’s been that little dugout devil on his shoulder telling him he should have kept the ball.
"The first couple of days it hit me once an hour where I had the reflex, ‘Oh, God! What did I do?’ I’m now happy to say it’s down to about once a day."
His brother would call him at least once a day just to remind him that he did the right thing.
"He provided that moral support," said Woo. "The entire moment was priceless and God bless my brother was there to share the whole experience with me. We talked to our mom three days later and she was saying how proud she was of us. It would have been a tremendous event had I been there on my own, but having my brother to share it with me real made it special."
Since that special weekend in Baltimore Woo has not had any contact with the Red Sox organization, but he has an open invitation to Fenway Park later this summer. When that time comes he plans on bringing his girlfriend’s 15-year-old son, Ryan, to whom he dedicated the historic catch.
"It’ll be his first to Fenway and he’s looking forward to it," said Woo.
It will probably take a while for all of this to actually sink in for Woo and everyone involved. He’s just thrilled that he was sitting in Section 94, seats 15 and 16 at Camden Yards on May 31.
"They are memories of a lifetime," he said. "I will preserve them."
Posted by Joe McDonald 
at 6:20 PM | Permalink
