Expensive Sunglasses 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
I searched for "Todd Adams" and "baseball" and didn't find this story...
Sorry, but I'm working to a deadline and don't have time to write this up - contact me in a few weeks and I'd be willing to give it a try if this story interests you!
Mike
As copied from the news story in the SF Examiner:
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Barry Bonds had just made his last out in the eighth inning when "knothole gang" fan John Lewis decided to take off and beat the crowd to the N-Judah.
But it was not to be. As he left, Lewis -- who regularly watches Giants games for free from the walkway adjacent to McCovey Cove -- witnessed a man fall to his death from the Arcade port walk 25 feet above.
"He came down like a pancake," said Lewis, who was smoking a cigarette five feet from where the man landed. "Flat. Face-first."
The victim was a 38-year-old Santa Cruz County man, Todd Edward Adams, who was originally from Hilo, Hawaii. Witnesses say Adams was leaning back against the port walk railing drinking a beer when his shades slipped off his head and drifted down.
A homeless man who was standing next to Lewis picked up the glasses and lamely tried to toss them back to Adams, to no avail. After several attempts, Lewis heard someone yell, "He's coming down to get them," and assumed the sunglasses owner would walk down the stairs.
Instead, Lewis watched in horror as Adams -- a small man at 5 foot 6 and 150 pounds -- tried to take a short cut. He climbed over the railing, and attempted to hang-drop on to a light sconce which was more than five feet below him.
"He didn't even come close to landing on that light," said Lewis. Lewis said the impact sounded, "like a real good watermelon busting wide open." It was followed by an eerie silence.
"It was like a horror movie, that scene that's got everyone mystified," he said. "You can't say nothing. Nobody screamed, nobody hollered."
Police spokesman Dewayne Tully said the victim was drinking a beer when he fell and police smelled a strong odor of alcohol on him when they treated him. He died at San Francisco General Hospital.
"Mr. Adams made an ill considered decision to climb over the rail and it proved fatal," said Tully.
In an interview on Thursday, Lewis said he was still baffled that the man would do something so risky for some sunglasses. "They looked cheap," he said. "I don't know sunglasses brands."
Submitted on 09/19/2003
Submitted by:
Mike Davison
Reference:
SF Examiner - Sept 19th 2003
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