Steroids Allegations May Cut Value of Bonds Record Ball by Half, By: Erik Matuszewski
July 23, 2007
The baseball Barry Bonds hits for his record 756th home run will sell for a maximum of $500,000, about half what it would fetch without the steroids allegations surrounding the San Francisco Giants outfielder, according to sports memorabilia sellers.
The 42-year-old Bonds already holds Major League Baseball's season record of 73 home runs and is three homers shy of breaking Hank Aaron's career mark of 755 that's stood since 1976.
Bonds was the catalyst of baseball's crackdown on the use of performance-enhancing drugs after the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2004 that he told a federal grand jury he unknowingly used steroids. While Bonds has publicly denied using the illegal drugs, the taint will drive down the value of the ball.
``It should be a million-dollar baseball,'' Mike Heffner, president of Leland's Sports Auction House in Seaford, New York, said in an interview. ``Because it's Barry Bonds, there is a dark cloud that is cast over the ball. The value is not the same as if someone else was hitting it.''
The Giants open a four-game series against the Atlanta Braves, Aaron's former team, at home in AT&T Park tonight.
Aaron's final home run ball sold eight years ago for $650,000. He kept the one he hit on April 8, 1974 to pass Babe Ruth's career mark of 714.
Never Sanctioned
While Bonds never has been sanctioned for steroid use, a USA Today/Gallup poll in May found that only 34 percent of major-league fans said they would acknowledge him to be baseball's greatest home run hitter when he passes Aaron.
``There are some who obviously believe he did use performance enhancers,'' said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions in Exton, Pennsylvania. ``Whether it's true or not, it will unfortunately affect the price of the ball and the perception of Barry.''
Bonds was among several athletes to testify in a federal grand jury probe of nutritional supplement maker Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or Balco. Bonds's trainer, Greg Anderson, and four others tied to Balco were convicted of illegal distribution of steroids.
Since the report of Bonds's testimony in 2004, the U.S. Congress has held hearings on the issue, and baseball toughened its steroid policy and started its own investigation.
Another Record
The value of Bonds's record-setting ball also may be held down by speculation some younger players, including Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, may pass him. Rodriguez, 31, has 498 career home runs.
``Those are all factors in it not being a million-dollar baseball,'' David Kohler, president of Mission Viejo, California-based SCP Auctions. ``It's historic, it's still very valuable, but we're not talking about a Ty Cobb game uniform or Honus Wagner's tobacco card that sold for $2.35 million. This is new, and every home run he hits after that is the new record.''
The real prize for collectors is the final home run ball of Bonds's career. That one might be worth more than $1 million, a price surpassed by only one baseball in history.
``The true ball for me is the last one he hits,'' comic- book creator Todd McFarlane, who paid $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run of the 1998 season, said in an interview. ``That's the new number. To me, 756 is a nice ball to have because you can tell a story. But it's not the sexy ball.''
The 46-year-old McFarlane, creator of the ``Spawn'' comic- book series, has 12 balls in his collection, including McGwire's then-record 70th home run and the one Bonds hit for his 73rd homer in 2001. He paid $517,500 for that ball.
Bonds's 756th homer will be a record, though, and McFarlane said he's more concerned with milestones than public perception when the ball goes on the auction block.
``Those of us who would be interested and bid on those, we don't attach emotion to it,'' he said. ``We just go, `That's a record.' Whether people like it or not, that's a record, and it's going to be in the record book.''
