Breaking News -- Bonds' beneficent visitor apparently a wild 'n crazy former soccer star
Andrew Clapp, the barefoot gent who blithely strolled out to left field during Friday night's Giants game to offer an in-game wazzup to Barry Bonds may have been conversing about the pressures of organized athletics.
It strongly appears that Clapp, described by San Francisco police as a 24-year-old tourist from Fargo, N.D., is a former player on the Minnesota State University at Moorhead men's soccer team. The soccer player Clapp, who last suited up in 2006, is listed as a native of Fargo as well. Moorhead is only about a mile from Fargo (as any fan of the Coen brothers knows well).
Calls and e-mails to the university were not answered on Saturday. Calls to the San Francisco Police were not immediately returned and attempts to reach Clapp were not successful.
Yet the photographic evidence seems hard to refute.
Here's the Clapp who met with Barry in a Chonicle photo:
And here's the soccer player:
With media reports on roid rage and Bonds' illegitimacy to carry Hank Aaron's jock spawning fears that the Giants left fielder may become a marked man as he approaches Hammerin' Hank's record 755 homers, Friday night's encounter was almost charmingly benign.
"He just wanted to shake my hand," Bonds told MLB.com in the hallway outside the clubhouse after the Giants dropped a 4-3, 10-inning decision. "I told him to come with me so he didn't get into any more trouble."
Bonds put his arm around Clapp and calmly walked him off the field. If Barry was shaken by the incident, he didn't show it. He went on to hit a game-tying home run shortly thereafter, his 750th.
Clapp was taken to San Francisco County jail, where he was charged with public intoxication and trespassing, both misdemeanors. He apparently spent the night in jail and his whereabouts could not be ascertained on Saturday. -- Joe Eskenazi