Wyoming rep gets last HR ball at Yankee Stadium

[September 24, 2008]  CASPER, Wyo. (AP) -- The man who wound up with the last home run ball at Yankee Stadium is more than Steve from Colorado -- he's really a state legislator from Wyoming.

Rep. Steve Harshman, a Republican from Casper, said he got Jose Molina's homer Sunday night after landed near him and his brother. He made the comments and displayed the souvenir in a video posted on the Casper Star-Tribune Web site Tuesday.

At the ballpark, Harshman only provided his first name and said he was from Colorado.

Molina's homer in New York's 7-3 win over Baltimore came in the final regular-season game at Yankee Stadium.

Harshman got the ball after a skirmish under the netting covering Monument Park in left field. Another fan, Paul Russo of New York, has said that he caught the ball after it was removed from the netting, but security officers handed the ball to Harshman.

In a story posted Tuesday on the Web site of Casper TV station KCWY, Harshman said he caught the ball in the netting and then handed it to a security guard.

"So I gave it to him and then he (the security guy) let it down to a guy, another security guy, then a guy jumped up kind of in front of him, grabbed it and they just put him down right away and made him give it back to him," Harshman told the station. "That's how that all happened, that guy never did have it."

Calls placed by The Associated Press to Harshman's home and work numbers in Casper were not returned Tuesday. Harshman also is a high school football coach.

Harshman was keeping the ball in a safe deposit box at a Casper bank, the Star-Tribune reported.

[Associated Press]

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