Home run ball returned

A lifelong San Francisco fan had a piece of team history in his hands Thursday night: the home run ball that sent the Giants to the World Series. Then he gave it back. Frank Burke, who owns a transmission repair business in Oakdale, Calif., said he wanted the hitter, Travis Ishikawa, to have the ball. So after having it authenticated by a Giants official and learning Ishikawa wanted it back, Burke went down to the clubhouse area and handed it over. Ishikawa gave him a signed bat in return. Burke said he had asked for World Series tickets but was told that might not be possible. “I was going to give the ball back either way,” he said. After doing a media interview the next morning, he received a call from the Giants. Burke now has four tickets to Game 3 of the World Series at San Francisco’s AT&T Park on Friday night. It will be the Giants’ first home game against the Kansas City Royals.

Developers plan to break ground this fall on a series of replica Major League Baseball stadiums for Little Leaguers in the southwest Missouri tourism mecca of Branson. Backers of the Ballparks of America project are banking on being able to lure the growing number of youth traveling teams to the two-thirds-scale versions of stadiums. They’ll include Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Boston’s Fenway Park, St. Louis’ Busch Stadium and Detroit’s former Tiger Stadium. Ballparks of America CEO Hamilton Chang says work on the $15 million first phase is scheduled to be finished in May. It will include building six stadiums and converting part of a former outlet mall into a cafeteria and dorms for traveling teams. In future phases, developers plan to build another 10 stadiums at a cost of $9 million.