Donation idea had very little spice for taco bell.

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Jacoby Ellsbury's stolen base in Game 2 of this past World Series will go down as a minor footnote in the annals of baseball history. For Boston Red Sox fans, the stolen base ended up meaning little in the context of a four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

For America, it meant a free taco at Taco Bell as part of a "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion. Three guys in New England, however, tried to give that meaningless stolen base a little more meaning.

Mike Esordi, Ed Northby and Jeremy Milner work together at Care New England, a Providence, R.I.-based health system. They were at lunch having burritos--at Taco Bell no less--when the discussion turned to the previous night's Sox game. One conversation led to another and www.donateyourtaco.com was born.

The online petition asked people to forgo their free taco, which retails for less than $1, and instead ask Taco Bell to donate the equivalent to the American Red Cross for relief efforts for the San Diego wildfires.

The petition doubled from 2,000 to 4,000, on the morning of Oct. 30, said Escordi, and reached more than 9,200 before the 5 p.m. deadline while the Web page had 15,000 unique visitors that day, representing all 50 states. Escordi, who used to live in Southern California, said Taco Bell basically turned them down, but they're working on Plan B. He's open to suggestions.

Ellsbury walked and stole second base in the bottom of the fourth inning. Julio Lugo grounded out to end the inning, stranding Ellsbury at second base and leaving the score tied at 1-1.