choked in gruesome, horrible, gut-wrenching fashion, there is some joy in Mudville a judge ruled that Steve Williams, the man who walked home with Barry Bonds' homerun ball #700, is - allowed to sell the ball. After a ninety-minute hearing on Friday, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay ruled that there was insufficient evidence to rule against Williams for Timothy Murphy, the man who brought forth the suit. Thus drawing a conclusion to our local nightmare.

During the trial, Williams' three (three!) pro bono attorney's played video tape of the actual melee that broke out over the ball proving that Williams got the ball fair and square. Murphy's attorney, David Kornbluh, however, tried to argue that Williams could not have possibly gotten the ball fair and square because if he did, the ball would have would have had to go upward, turn right, then go downward at an angle of 27 degrees and thus would have had to have been a "magic baseball." Despite the court loss, Kornbluh told reporters that Murphy will continue to sue over the ball using the not-very-well known legal principle of Finders Keepers, Losers Litigators.