George Lombard will never forget July 7, 2002. And he won't forget his mother's heroic accomplishments as a civil rights activist alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., either.
Recently traded to the Detroit Tigers, a 1-0 Sun-woo Kim pitch off Lombard's bat carried to deep center field in the third inning at Fenway Park. It bounced off the cameraman's leg and back onto the field, idling near Johnny Damon. A trainer retrieved the baseball, and the trainer's wife "did a lot of artwork" before turning it over to Lombard, who gifted it to his maternal grandfather.