San Francisco ? With the crack of the bat a brief stillness settled over the right-center field bleachers at AT&T Park as Barry Bonds’ record-breaking homer rocketed toward the crowd.

Then the scrum was on.

As the specially marked baseball landed a few rows up, dozens of fans wrestled for it and the promise of riches it carried.

In the middle of it all was 22-year-old Matt Murphy, of Queens, N.Y., who emerged from beneath the pile holding the ball Bonds hit for career home run No. 756. His face was bloodied and his clothes stretched and torn from his battle in the bleachers.

As he high-fived other fans, Murphy, wearing a New York Mets jersey, slid the ball into the back pocket of his plaid Bermuda shorts.