Who saved the trophy?

Published Oct 31 2007, 03:50 PM by Adam Reilly

If Boston were a one-newspaper town, Mayor Tom Menino might be basking in heroic martyrdom right now. Here's how the Globe describes his stumble and near-drop of the World Series trophy yesterday:

As he walked off a stage set up at the park, Menino, still holding the prize, failed to see the stairs that were obscured by the golden trophy. He tripped and injured his leg....
Luckily, the trophy did not hit the ground during the mayor's mishap.

"He saved the trophy," Joyce said [emph. added]. "He was more concerned about the trophy than himself."

But wait. The Herald suggests things may not be that simple:

An alert radio producer standing nearby says he caught the mayor, who apparently missed a step on the stairs, and helped save Menino from dropping the trophy in front of a sea of cameras.

“I see the mayor coming down and next thing I know, the mayor is in my arms as I’m trying to hold him back up,” said James Stewart, a producer for WEEI 850 AM’s “Dale and Holley Show.”

Here's a possible solution: Menino gets partial credit for saving the trophy by clinging to it as he careened toward the ground, and Stewart gets partial credit for saving both the trophy (which could have been damaged if the fall continued unabated) and Menino (who escaped with just a hyperextended knee). Would that make everybody happy?