It's My $752,467 and I'll Do Whatever I Want With It - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

al76slc · #1 09-27-2007, 12:25 PM

Or, what a waste of a good can of spray paint.

Bonds Baseball to Be Branded With Asterisk
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/sports/baseball/27ball.html

LUVMBDiesels · #2 09-27-2007, 12:57 PM

September 26, 2007
Bonds Baseball to Be Branded With Asterisk

By KEN DALEY
DALLAS, Tex. -- Fashion designer Marc Ecko announced Wednesday that the baseball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk before being donated to baseball's Hall of Fame.
Speaking on NBC's "Today" show, Ecko said donating an altered ball to the game's Cooperstown shrine reflected the overwhelming desire of fans voting on a Web site established after he purchased the ball for $752,467 at an online auction on Sept. 15.
Ecko said more than 10 million votes were cast on his vote756.com site, with 47 percent favoring branding the ball and another 34 percent preferring to see it donated to the Hall untouched. The remaining 19 percent chose the third listed option: "Launch it into space forever."
Bonds, a seven-time National League Most Valuable Player, has been dogged in recent years by allegations that he used steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, suspicions that greatly diminished the celebratory mood when he broke Henry Aaron's career record of 755 home runs on Aug. 7.
Ecko said his poll results prove that fans believe Bonds' feat was "shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn't necessarily the clearest it could be."
Bonds has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
Dale Petroskey, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, said the Hall would accept and display the baseball, even if it is marked with a permanent asterisk.
"It's coming to Cooperstown, and we're thrilled that we now have the opportunity to preserve it forever and to share it with everybody who wants to see it," said Petroskey, who was in Texas for the opening of the Hall's latest traveling exhibition.
"I don't presume to know why (fans) voted the way they did, but we'll take it. It's still a very important part of baseball history."
Petroskey said there was no precedent for the Hall receiving an artifact that had been intentionally defaced before its donation.
"But I think what Marc did with buying the ball, doing the online poll, giving people options, nobody's ever done that before, either," he said. "So, it's all sort of a first. My feeling is that baseball belongs to the fans, and I thought giving the fans a voice was a pretty neat idea."
The four Hall of Fame players attending Wednesday's exhibition in Dallas expressed mixed feelings about the historic baseball's fate and its potential impact on Bonds's legacy.
"Why brand it?" asked former pitcher Ferguson Jenkins. "I mean, that's an achievement, an accomplishment of 21, 22 years."
Ferguson noted that it has not been proven that Bonds used steroids."It's a cruel world we live in," he said.
Former Chicago Cubs slugger Billy Williams said, "I don't know about the asterisk, but I'm glad it's winding up in Cooperstown. A lot's been said about Bonds as an individual. A lot's been said about his use of steroids. But nothing has been proven. This guy, I look at him as a great player. Before the 'Steroid Era,' he was having great years. ... I guess if you pay that kind of money, of course you can do what you want to it."
Former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer hinted that a tarnished legacy represented by a defaced baseball could be Bonds's just reward.
"I think time will sort out how you want to view it," Palmer said. "But the fans, they must have a pretty good sense of what has gone on, or at least what they think might have gone on."
Ecko and his associates have been in contact with the Hall since his purchase was finalized. Ted Spencer, the Hall's vice president and chief museum curator, said Ecko was sensitive to whether the Hall would reject the ball if it arrived altered. Spencer said Ecko still was unsure whether the asterisk would be branded by a burn mark or applied with paint or ink.
"We did tell them that if they couldn't burn it and they had to paint it, there was no danger of us taking it off, even if it was reversible," Spencer said. "Because, as a museum, you take an artifact, you photograph it and register it as it comes in, and it doesn't get altered.
"If there's something on it like fungus or something that was detrimental to the whole museum," said Spencer, "you might clean it or take steps to preserve it. But other than that, you don't touch it. It comes in the way it is, and it stays that way forever."