Around 10 years ago, Dave Edlund — known colloquially as McCovey Cove Dave — printed out a paper that said, “1st Ever Right-Handed SPLASH” and laminated it. He has brought it to hundreds of Giants games since.
Over the weekend, he finally got to show off the placard.
Heliot Ramos, the Giants’ first homegrown All-Star outfielder since Chili Davis in 1986, made more history on Sunday afternoon. Against a 100.2-mph Robert Suarez fastball in the ninth inning, Ramos went the other way for the first Splash Hit by a right-handed batter in Oracle Park’s 25-year history.
“I always knew that I had that oppo juice, but it looks impossible just by looking at the wall and the weather here,” Ramos told reporters. “I was always positive that I was going to do it. And I wanted to do it.”
Edlund, as he’s wont to do, paddled a few feet over to collect the historic ball. The super fan has collected more than 60 home-run balls, many of which are Giants Splash Hits, since he started kayaking in McCovey Cove in 2001. But this was the elusive one he’d been waiting for.
“I didn’t know exactly when it would be hit, but I knew it would be a special home run,” said Edlund, 68. “It would be very rare. And it would take someone like Heliot Ramos who is really strong to hit it from the right-handed side. I’ve talked about that ball with the regulars in McCovey Cove so many times.”
Edlund, as he normally does, intends to keep the souvenir. An uproar on social media ensued. But the outrage misses some context.
As of Monday afternoon, the Giants had not reached out to him about acquiring Ramos’ ball, Edlund said. A Giants spokesperson couldn’t confirm whether the team ever approached Edlund for the Ramos ball.
Yet that hasn’t prevented controversy from swarming Edlund like piranhas around his kayak.
As Edlund and Giants fans of a certain ilk know, McCovey Cove Dave has become polarizing. Edlund prefers to keep the Ramos ball instead of exchanging it with the Giants, though he’s open to lending it to the team or to Cooperstown for temporary display. Earlier this year, he held onto Braves outfielder Michael Harris II’s first grand slam when negotiations with the Giants and Braves went south — and then got misconstrued publicly.
One national media member described Edlund as the “aquatic Zack Hample,” referring to the notorious home-run thief who is known to be aggressive with fans — including children — in the bleachers. A Giants fan with a significant following on Twitter/X called Edlund a “LOSER.”
“Sorry Dave, but you’re a grifter and an attention seeker,” wrote Andrew Baggarly, a long-time Giants reporter who previously wrote for this news organization and now works for The Athletic. “Congrats, you now have more attention. I hope it’s everything you ever dreamed of!”
Many fans believe Edlund should return the home run balls to the players who hit them. Others note that fans like Edlund are the lifeblood of any sports franchise. Ramos, in particular, said to reporters postgame that he’d like the ball back.
Edlund doesn’t want to have a bitter relationship with the Giants organization. But the way he sees it, home run balls like Ramos’ are like compensation. He’s happy to share them, and even give them up — for the right price. And too often, he feels, he hasn’t been able to set the terms for negotiations when he has the leveraged position.
“I’m not going to give away balls that are really precious to me for kind of a pittance,” Edlund said. “I’m just not.”
Much of the animosity from fans toward McCovey Cove Dave stems from a month ago, on Aug. 15, when he snagged Harris’ grand slam. Edlund held on to the souvenir; accounts differ on what led to that decision.
The standard offer, delivered by a representative from each team for away home runs, is a signed bat and ball from the player who hit the home run.
A lifelong Giants fan, Edlund had no interest in Harris memorabilia, so he said he asked the Giants’ representative for discounted parking in the Pier 30/32 lot. He said he pays between $40 and $60 for parking every game.
The Giants employee, through a team spokesman, said Edlund asked for a lifetime parking pass.
Edlund sees himself as an unofficial ambassador of the team, someone who organizes fan events and has generated myriad attention for the Giants. Sunday was his 737th game in McCovey Cove and his goal is to reach 1,000 — more than any Giants player has played at Oracle Park. Discounted parking, he thought, was fair. But the Giants stuck to the classic bat-and-ball offer.
Complicating the drama was an erroneous report from The Athletic that said Edlund asked for a job in San Francisco’s front office in exchange for the ball. Edlund didn’t want a job, he wanted to use the parking lot that team employees and media members use. But the story nevertheless went viral, painting Edlund as a bad-faith negotiator.
The Ramos ball hasn’t even drawn a negotiation.
Edlund didn’t have trouble getting the ball because there wasn’t much competition in the water. Many regulars stayed home because the Padres had a left-handed starter on the mound, Edlund said. Even Edlund wasn’t planning on going to the game, but he’d auctioned off a day with him on the water to a local high school’s charity.
Edlund is considering offering the Giants a year of displaying the Ramos ball in exchange for a year of parking. He also plans to ask if the National Baseball Hall of Fame would want to display it temporarily.
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Edlund is fairly certain of how a possible negotiation would go. In his experience, the Giants have always been hard-lined at the bat-and-ball offer. In 2014, he retrieved Tyler Colvin’s Splash Hit — No. 65 all-time — and was declined when he offered to give it to the team for an alternate orange Friday jersey.
“There’s only been (65) and you can’t even get a jersey for it?” Edlund said. “What that tells me is that ball doesn’t really mean that much, it means a lot more to me.”
Edlund has made deals with the Giants before, like with Carlos Beltran’s 300th home run or Charlie Blackmon’s 200th, he said.
Some of Edlund’s most prized possessions are Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt home run balls. Since he has developed relationships with each — at charity functions and fan events — he said he wants those balls to go to the players, if they’re interested, when he dies. Others will go to fellow kayakers and friends. He plays favorites.
It’s not a conventional system, but the way Edlund essentially sees it: his baseballs, his prerogative.
Edlund is a big fan of Ramos and hopes to get to know him, too. Roberto Clemente was Edlund’s favorite player growing up, and Ramos — a Puerto Rico native — hit the homer while wearing Clemente’s No. 21 on Roberto Clemente Day.
But Edlund said he doesn’t plan on giving Ramos the ball anytime soon. And if the Giants eventually approach him, he said his negotiating position has changed; he wants free parking now, not reduced price.
“I feel like I’ve earned it by giving love to my fellow fans, and I actually create value for the Giants,” he said. “The franchise value, the park, is impacted by the activity in McCovey Cove. If it’s a fun destination, it makes the park more iconic. And I try to do that. If they threw me a few peanuts along the way, it’s OK.”