UPDATE:
'Plinko' episode gets interrupted posted
10/27/06
The campus was ready and waiting
at 11 a.m. on Oct. 25 when Mike Ballard's big
effort to get on the "The Price is Right"
was finally supposed to pay off. However, the
show was interrupted by a speech by the President.
“The Bush speech ran over
the first half of the Price is Right…the
half I was on,” Mike reports. "I think
they are going to re-run my show in February sometime.”
At least he can tell what
he won now: a toaster, ice cream maker, electric
toothbrush, a jug for iced tea, a vegetable cutter,
and a $2,200 scooter.
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‘Plinko’ is his middle
name…really posted 10/17/06
Adrian student legally changes
his name to get on ‘The Price is Right’
 ADRIAN,
Mich. – How much do you love TV game shows?
Mike Ballard loved them enough to
change his name to try to get on one. Fortunately for
him and his disappointed mother, it worked.
“‘The Price is Right’
is my favorite game show, and ‘Plinko’ is
my favorite game on the show,” Mike said. “It’s
always been a dream of mine to play it, so I thought
I’d try something unusual.”
Mike made plans for a court hearing
near his home in Gladwin County to legally change his
middle name from “Walter” to “Plinko.”
At first his mother thought it was a joke, but when
she found out it was true she was horrified. His father
even contacted the judge.
Here’s how the scene unfolded
in court, as recounted by Mike.
 Judge:
State your name.
Mike:
Michael Walter Ballard.
Judge:
State your order of business.
Mike:
A petition to change my name to Michael Plinko Ballard.
Judge:
Are you aware your father wrote me a letter stating
that he thinks this is the most asinine idea he has
ever heard?
Mike:
Yes, sir.
Judge:
I can't say I disagree with him. We’re done.
With the name legally changed, Mike
had a T-shirt made to wear on the show. The front reads,
“Plinko is my middle name,” and an enlarged
image of his reissued driver license is on the back.
On Aug. 15, 2006, he and a friend drove to Los Angeles
and camped out at the studio, hoping all his trouble
would pay off and he would be selected out of the hundreds
of other hopefuls. After 15 hours in line, his story
started to spread.
What happened next is still a big
secret. The network will not allow Mike to give anything
away until the show airs on October 25 at 11 a.m. on
CBS. However, he will say this: “I did what I
came to do. I got up on stage, I shook Bob’s hand,
I won big, I lost big, and when it was all over I almost
cried on national television!”
A member of the Adrian baseball team,
he also held up an Adrian College baseball shirt on
air.
 After
the show, a producer approached him and said he’d
like to interview Mike, for possible inclusion in a
book on the show’s best contestants ever.
As for Mike, he says his antics weren’t
about money.
“I just wanted to do it to show
everybody I wasn’t crazy,” he said.
As for his mother, Mike said she eventually
came around and is now his biggest fan. He made her
a shirt that says, “Proud Parent of Plinko,”
and she went with him when he went back to court in
September to change his name back.
“‘Walter’ is Mom’s
dad’s name,” he said. “I still got
to tell Grandpa the entire story, and promised if it
turns out I won a Winnebago, I’ll give it to him.”
A recording of the show will
play for students in Caine Student Center all day on
Oct. 25.
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