Barry Bonds gives gift to Bryan Stow

ESPN.com news services

Donations, contributions and other efforts have poured in after San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on Opening Day.

But one quiet gesture has especially touched Stow's family, something that will affect his two children years down the line.

Former Giants star and embattled figure Barry Bonds has volunteered to pay for the college education of 12-year-old Tyler and 8-year-old Tabitha.

"It was extraordinary of Barry Bonds, I thought," Stow family attorney Thomas Girardi told NBC Bay Area KNTV. "He didn't say anything about it to the press. This was just a gift he gave the family because he knew that it was going to be pretty important to the kids."

According to KNTV, Bonds spent an hour with Stow on April 22, when the 42-year-old paramedic was still at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. Stow was moved May 16 to San Francisco General Hospital, which is closer to his family and where he remains in critical but stable condition under heavy sedation to prevent seizures caused by the traumatic brain injury.

Bonds also left a signed baseball bat for Stow's children, according to KNTV.

Stow's family filed a civil suit against the Dodgers in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday, seeking unspecified damages to cover Stow's future medical care and as compensation for the economic damages to Stow and his children. The family wants to return money that has been donated to the Bryan Stow fund, but will accept Bonds' gift because it "means so much to them."

Other members of the Giants have visited Stow as well, including pitcher Jeremy Affeldt, and Tim Lincecum has given $25,000 to the Bryan Stow fund.

Los Angeles police arrested Giovanni Ramirez, 31, on Sunday but charges have not yet been filed against him. They have not identified a second attacker or a woman suspected of driving the pair from the scene. Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck called Ramirez the main aggressor.

Ramirez was being detained on a parole hold, with bail set at $1 million. Detectives still had not presented their case to the district attorney's office. Detective Pjai Morris said additional investigative work was being carried out, but he was confident the case would go forward.

Bonds, a seven-time MVP, was convicted April 13 of one count of obstruction of justice for giving an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.

The jury deadlocked on three counts charging Bonds with making false statements when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and when he said only his doctors injected him. Prosecutors have not said whether they will retry Bonds on those counts.

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