One Saved; One Smashed?

And so it's come to this. Not only does the Baseball Hall of Fame have to battle collectors and fans for memorabilia, they have to put up with whatever the gift-giver wants to put on the ball.

Marc Ecko left it up to the public which decided in an online vote that the ball Barry Bonds hit for his 756th home run would be 'branded' with an asterisk and turned over to the folks in Cooperstown. The Hall and Ecko seem to have formed a cozy relationship so it's hard to believe someone actually putting a permanent mark on the ball. I suspect whatever is applied will not be difficult to remove--even though the Hall may choose to leave it on so as not to ruffle feathers. It worked out for both: Ecko got his publicity, didn't get any flak for destroying it and the Hall got the ball.

#755's fate may not be as solid. In fact, the ball may be anything but solid unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the voting. The guys who bought the record-tying ball have a scoreboard on their site and right now, it's more than 2-1 voting for one of only two starkly contrasted options. Save it as is or smash it into pieces in protest of Bonds and the steroid era. Since all of the furor over #756 will be gone by the time #755 gets sentenced, it's not likely to cause much of a stir if and when it's destroyed.

I've been to the Hall of Fame and even though the baseball is a nice artifact, one ball pretty much looks like any other. They had a display of perfect game balls when I visited a few years ago. The signatures on the ball varied with whomever happened to be the League President at the time, but there isn't much magic in a ball. It's white and it has stitches. I'd rather see the player's uniform, unwashed and maybe stained with champagne. Or maybe the dugout lineup card.

There is no denying the memorabilia business has gotten to be a monstrous deal. I get huge catalogs from a variety of sports auction companies about every month or so. Now, there is a new network starting that will televise auctions and features on collectors, collecting and the business itself. Auction Network will debut online next month, then head for cable and satellite next year. Sports memorabilia will be one of their primary focuses, but with most auctions not currently run in a 'live' format, there will be some work to do.