"Do what's right for you," Ozersky said while taking in Bonds' chase for Hank Aaron's home run record from the Busch Stadium press box. "But I definitely am happy with what I did.

"I benefited financially, but a lot of other people benefited, too."

A lot has changed for Ozersky since he cashed in on a lucky bounce that left the prize ball in his grasp on the final day of the 1998 season. Comic book auteur Todd McFarlane paid $3 million for the ball and Ozersky, then a 26-year-old genetic researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, took home $2.7 million after paying a $300,000 auction commission.

Ozersky is married now, and with two young daughters, ages 4 and 2. He's traveled the world and moved into a larger house in the St. Louis suburbs.

But the windfall hasn't gone to his head. He's still working the same job at the school's genome sequencing center and married the woman who accompanied him to a luxury box just above the left field wall in old Busch Stadium. He chose his new residence largely because his sister lives across the street and has a 13-year-old daughter who can babysit.

And rather than pocket all of the money, he's spread the wealth, donating $250,000 to charities including the Cardinals' own Cardinal Care.

"I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping grounded and not changing life too much of how I expected it to play out," Ozersky said.

The Cardinals had wanted it all, sequestering Ozersky in a meeting room and trying to persuade him to just hand it over to Big Mac. There was an impasse when Ozersky asked to meet McGwire and the Cardinals' representative said he'd have to relinquish the ball first.

"I was really adamant about just wanting to meet the guy and they were like, 'The Cardinals and McGwire don't negotiate,"' Ozersky said. "It was pretty testy, and they basically made the decision for me.

"If I had met McGwire, I might have gone 'duhhh' and given him the ball. I might have gotten caught up in the moment."

Other lucky fans during McGwire's season, which shattered Roger Maris' 37-year-old home run record, did get caught up. Tim Forneris, a member of the Cardinals' grounds crew, handed over No. 62 and got a trip to Disneyworld and a minivan.

In 2004, a southern Illinois man caught Ken Griffey Jr.'s 500th home run ball at old Busch and gave it to the Cincinnati Reds' star, no questions asked. His reward was being lavished with memorabilia plus a trip to the All-Star game.

"I don't think McGwire would have done that for me," Ozersky said. "He would have been, like, 'Thanks."'

Glimpsing the business side of the game didn't take the fan out of him. Ozersky has had season tickets about 20 rows behind the Cardinals' dugout since the year after his big catch, and has seen every playoff game this decade. He wore a polo shirt with the Cardinals logo to Friday's game.

His dedication paid off with another foul ball — a well-scuffed souvenir off the bat of Ronnie Belliard in Game 3 of the World Series. The ball ricocheted off the facade several rows back and dropped into his waiting arms, a nice break to be sure, but nothing like the circuitous route of McGwire's money ball.

Several years later, Ozersky has memorized the sequence of events. He remembers the improbability, given that most of McGwire's home runs were majestic shots and only No. 62 and 70 among his record drive were liners over the wall. Nevermind he was one of about 100 people in the box.

"It came in, hit a guy on the hand — black and blue mark — bounced up, hit a girl in the hand, and I started to turn and saw her eyes looking one way. So I turned, and the ball was there," Ozersky said.

There's no chance he'll catch Bonds' record-breaking ball, which is likely to be worth a lot less than what he made off McGwire's shot. After all, Bonds' record 73rd home run ball in 2001 fetched only $450,000.

Of course, 1998 was a different time — a summer of love before the steroids scandal.

"The stock market was at its peak and everybody in the country was glued to it," Ozersky said. "People were wanting to get away from the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, too. There was a lot to draw on."

Not that Ozersky wouldn't love to be there when Bonds, who needed four homers to tie Hank Aaron's record on Saturday, finally breaks it.