This just in....

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Marc Ecko announced today his acquisition of Barry Bonds' 756th home run ball and plans to allow the public to determine its fate. The ball was purchased for $752,467 at Sotheby's/SCP Auctions this past Saturday.

Beginning now, the public can go to http://www.vote756.com and choose to (a) give the ball to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; (b) permanently brand the ball with an asterisk (*) before sending it to Cooperstown; or (c) put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into space.

"We all have opinions about this ball. Some feel it is a piece of history that belongs in the Hall of Fame. Others believe it is the embodiment of a cheating culture - not just in baseball, but in professional sports generally. I bought this baseball to democratize the debate over what to do with it and allow the public to decide," stated Mr. Ecko.


www.vote756.com I VOTE A BRAND, TAKE THAT ASSHOLE!

9/17/2007 2:09:17 PM

+







then send it to the MLB HOF for exhibit.

9/17/2007 2:10:52 PM

Threw my vote in for the branding

Will be AWESOME if this happens

9/17/2007 2:11:06 PM

lol, I didn't even read the website when I posted my first reply.


hahaha

9/17/2007 2:12:47 PM

*


what could be a bigger embarrassment for Barry and baseball, but a *?

9/17/2007 3:23:56 PM

*

9/17/2007 3:32:28 PM

makes me wish ecko had caught the fucking ball and given it back to bonds and publically called him out as a roider

9/17/2007 3:34:49 PM

*

9/17/2007 3:38:44 PM

brand a huge fucking * on it, take pictures/video of it, burn the fucking thing, then launch it into space.

9/17/2007 3:45:06 PM

get qntmfred on this to skew the poll.

9/17/2007 4:16:25 PM

I find it amusing that any of you think Barry Bonds will care at all.

Give it to the hall as it is. The only thing marking it with a * based on an internet poll will do is show how much nerd-rage one man can generate.

9/17/2007 6:22:19 PM

^ yeah cause having your greatest accomplishment in your professional life forever marked as shit and on display in the most prestigious sports hall of fame is so trivial!

9/17/2007 6:26:50 PM

9/17/2007 6:52:45 PM

^hahah yeah i was just about to tell you one of your skews could have some pretty sweet results this time but i should've known you'd have already done your research

looks like you'll have to write a random IP generator to attach to each vote as part of the script or somethin

9/17/2007 6:58:16 PM

Quote :

"^ yeah cause having your greatest accomplishment in your professional life forever marked as shit and on display in the most prestigious sports hall of fame is so trivial! "

He didn't even want the ball to begin with. Not to mention that I'm sure the greatest accomplishment in his professional life, right now, is probably 762.

9/17/2007 7:08:21 PM

^ I bet its not.... and the ball isnt the point... its the ball being on display with a fucking asterisk on it forever. I dont think he would mind the rocket it to space at all... but this...

9/17/2007 7:11:38 PM

How about we brand a big * to the top of his bald big ass head?

9/17/2007 7:44:27 PM

^^^ dumbass, you know nothing if you believe that 756 won't be more important than his final homerun ball.

715 was held in much higher regard than 755.

[Edited on September 17, 2007 at 8:29 PM. Reason : .]

9/17/2007 8:28:46 PM

who gives a fuck

9/17/2007 8:57:38 PM

the internet

9/17/2007 9:50:19 PM

^^ its worse to give a fuck about people giving a fuck

9/17/2007 9:52:47 PM

http://www.vote756.com/marcecko/

space, fuck that guy

9/18/2007 12:53:09 PM

Just give it to the HOF. Let it serve as a reminder. No * needed.

9/18/2007 1:02:01 PM

i voted to donate it... asterisks are for pussies who can't accept that the game changes, and cheaters break records...

but the asterisk will win... that or sending it into space, which is equally stupid

9/18/2007 1:03:40 PM

hank aaron must be a huge pussy

9/18/2007 2:13:45 PM

The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame, its owner said Wednesday.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball's fate, and the decision to brand it won out over the other options, sending it to the museum unblemished or launching it into space.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/09/26/bc.bbn.bonds.756ball.ap/index.html

Its been decided.

9/26/2007 8:35:18 AM

I wonder if the Hall of Fame will even accept it? Also I wonder what type of display they'll put it in?



[Edited on September 26, 2007 at 9:54 AM. Reason : t]

9/26/2007 9:54:08 AM

Fist pump!

9/26/2007 10:46:33 AM

i didn't think they'd accept it, but apparently they will.

Quote :

"Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey, also interviewed on the show, said accepting the ball did not mean the Hall endorses the viewpoint that Barry Bonds used drugs. "We're happy to get it," he said. "We're a nonprofit history museum, so this ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown without Marc Ecko buying it from the fan who caught it.""

9/26/2007 11:09:57 AM

Awesome.









[Edited on September 26, 2007 at 11:35 AM. Reason : *]

9/26/2007 11:31:38 AM

they need to put multiple * on it so the HOF can't "position" the ball so one * can be hidden.

9/26/2007 11:45:13 AM

I didn't vote, but I like the result

9/26/2007 11:58:32 AM

I still wonder how they will display it. They'll obviously have to mention the reason the asterisk is on the ball and the steroid controversy surrounding the whole ordeal.

They should just go ahead and add a wing called the steroid era and put that damn ball in a display case in the center of the whole wing. They could then have display cases for all the great steroid users such as Bonds, Canseco, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeroid, Brady Anderson, the Giles Brothers, Clemens, Ron Gant, Juan Gonzalez, etc.

9/26/2007 12:00:09 PM

the Giles Brothers and Ron Gant? Haven't heard the stories behind these...


Tell the story or it's a lie.

9/26/2007 12:41:06 PM

i've heard gant and brian giles' names tossed around, but never marcus

on that note, man does marcus giles suck ass these days

9/26/2007 12:59:12 PM

i picked him up as a bench 2B, he did alright for a while, I didn't keep him very long though.

9/26/2007 1:05:13 PM

I pretty much said the Giles brothers because both of them showed huge drops in HRs, slugging, etc right after the baseball began testing for roids. Both were muscled up too to the point where you had to suspect something anyway.

I can't believe I forgot the Jason Giambi spotlight feature in the Steroid wing of the HOF.

9/26/2007 1:16:38 PM

9/26/2007 3:14:48 PM

^ good addition. I guess everyone who played for the Mets in the 90s as well since their gopher clubhouse boy became a huge supplier. Dennis Cook always had some roid rage going on.

9/26/2007 3:26:55 PM

^ Don't forget the C. Shilling Bloody Sock Memorial. Socks everywhere weep at the grand heroic red sock.

Honestly I cannot wait to see who else is busted on this US DEA HGH steroid ordeal. I wonder how huge it will be.

9/26/2007 4:49:17 PM

^ Schilling's bloody sock is already in the hall. I am proposing new steroir focused exhibits to help compliment the new Bonds asterisk ball.

Now if you are suggesting that Schilling was on roids, then that's the first I've heard of that.

9/26/2007 5:39:30 PM

There's no way Ron Gant was on steroids. He was always injured and was only good during the final month of the season/first month of the playoffs.

9/26/2007 6:13:55 PM

^so you're saying his career modeled Jose Conseco?

9/26/2007 6:32:20 PM

he's pretty jacked now, wouldn't surprise me really

9/26/2007 7:35:07 PM

bret boone

9/26/2007 7:47:28 PM

Jeff Bagwell - possibly

9/26/2007 7:55:40 PM