The Enron of sports memorabilia goes on the block

Posted Aug 22nd 2007 4:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Scandals, Business of Sports

That didn't take long. Matt Murphy initially suggested that he would consider keeping the Barry Bonds home run ball, but now he's come to his senses. He's putting it up for auction.

Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) will handle the sale and expects the ball to sell for at least $500,000. But as I said in a prior post, the ball seems likely to decline in value. There are several current stars who seem to have a good shot at breaking the record, most notably Alex Rodriguez. And who wants a ball that's number 2 on a record that was broken just a few years later? I don't think too many people care about the Mark McGwire ball anymore, and I'd be willing to bet it would sell for a lot less than the $3 million it initially brought.

Ya know what I'd like to see? I'd like Mark Cuban or Warren Buffett to buy the ball... and burn it at a gala to raise money for drug prevention and awareness programs for youth.

Maybe then some good could come out of Bonds' cheating.

Tags: Barry Bonds, BarryBonds, Baseball