By Sandra Varner | SPECIAL TO SACOBSERVER.COM

As baseball season gets under way, Barry Bonds starts the season on the bench. But Giants fans can relive Bonds' historic 73rd homerun hit of the 2001 baseball season and the heated scuffle over that ball in the aftermath in a new documentary.

"Up For Grabs" is a new film from Stanford University graduate Mike Wranovics (pronounced ran-o-vicks) and television cameraman Josh Keppel, who just happen to catch on film Bonds’ 73rd homerun.

"Up For Grabs" presents a candid and entertaining viewpoint of the controversy between Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi, both claiming ownership of Bonds’ historic homerun ball. The highly publicized litigation surrounding the 2001 record-breaking homerun makes for an interesting account on film.

The Kensington, CA, native recounts how the film developed.

“It was the day after Bonds hit no. 73, and I was flipping through a special section of the local sports pages devoted to Bonds and his record season," Wranovics said. "There was a small blurb with the header: ‘Fan Loses Fortune at Bottom of Pile.’ As I read it, I couldn’t help thinking about all of the people who had missed out on becoming millionaires during the short-lived dot-com boom that had taken over San Francisco. Thousands of people, who had only recently experienced the dot-com bust, had stationed themselves behind the right-field bleachers at Pac Bell Park, hoping that they might catch the ‘million-dollar baseball.’ It was as if this ball was the last drop coming down from the dot-com boom. Right away, I felt there were some documentary possibilities with this story.”

Wranovics’ 88-minute “docu-comedy” was a winner of the Best Documentary (audience award) in the Los Angeles Film Festival and winner of the Best Documentary (jury prize) in the Phoenix Film Festival. The film was also selected as the opening night film for the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.

We spoke about his first effort from Crooked Hook Productions. The film is currently playing at The Presidio Theatre in San Francisco and at The Parkway in Oakland. The movie opens at Crest Theatre on May 13.

Sandra Varner: With everything swirling around Barry Bonds and the heated debate over steroid use, how do you think this will impact the appreciation of this movie?

Michael Wranovics: I think it can only help just because the more people talk about Barry, the more attention it will bring to the fact that he’s in the story. It’s still his record and the fact is, he had to hit those balls (73 times in 2001) and no one is ever gonna take that away from him. So I’m no expert on this whole steroid scandal but I think people have come down a little hard on the guy.

SV: As a first timer, you bit off quite a bit with the telling of this story. Why did you want to make this film?

MW: I saw this as a great story but not one to be taken too seriously. I didn’t see this as an opportunity to make this huge statement but rather the main message is, ‘Greed is not good.’ It’s kind of a nod and a wink because we’re really having fun with this story. That’s why we’re calling it a “docu-comedy.” We saw a potential for a lot of laughs with these two guys fighting over a baseball. As a first timer, this is certainly the biggest challenge I’ve ever taken on and I couldn’t have done it without a great team of people working with me, particularly Josh Keppel.

SV: Do you have an active relationship with Barry Bonds?

MW: No, not really. He’s a hard guy to get to and I don’t think he really put much thought into what ever happened to this ball. He was more focused on hitting them. We did talk to his publicist who saw the film and thought it was enjoyable.