Public to decide fate of home run ball

NEW YORK: The man who bought Barry Bonds's 756th home run ball for more than $750,000 is letting the public decide its final resting place.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko is allowing Internet users to vote to either give the ball to the Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk before sending it to the Cooperstown (N.Y.) museum or place it in a rocket ship and launch it into space.

"We all have opinions about this ball," Ecko said in a statement on Monday. "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."

Bonds hit the historic homer at San Francisco's AT&T Park on August 7, passing Hall of Famer Hank Aaron as major league baseball's all-time leader.

Matt Murphy, 21, from Queens, New York, emerged with the ball from the outfield seats and put it up for auction, which Ecko won with a bid of $752,467.

Bonds, a 43-year-old outfielder with the San Francisco Giants, is suspected of using steroids during his career. Many feel the home run record, arguably the most cherished in all of US sport, is tainted because of his alleged use of drugs.

The public can go to http://www.vote756.com for the vote, which ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on September 25.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/19/2007 page23)