Guest starvenger Report post Posted June 26, 2003 Story is right here, on Sportsline NEW YORK -- At $450,000, the sale price of Barry Bonds' record 73rd home run ball was a relative bargain -- and a financial bust for the two men who waged a long, expensive battle for it. For Alex Popov, who caught the ball, and Patrick Hayashi, who grabbed it off the ground after a scrum dislodged it, the sale price Wednesday had to be a bitter disappointment, even if they didn't say so. With auction house Lelands.com predicting a purchase price of between $1 million and $2 million, the bidding never approached that price. "It wasn't about money," said Popov, a Berkeley, Calif. restaurateur. "It was about history. It's not about greed. Patrick and I have become friends. I've got 20 months of joy out of the experience. It was unpredictable. I had no expectations." Hayashi, a graduate student at San Diego State, had hoped the proceeds from the sale would help pay some student loans. Instead, he'll be using it for lawyer's fees. "In the end, it's probably going to be a wash," he said. The winning bid was placed by comic book icon Todd McFarlane, the same man who paid $3.2 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball in 1999. He was happy to get off so cheaply this time but also had the legal bills of the co-owners on his mind. "The funny thing," McFarlane said. "These two guys have two sets of lawyers that they've got to pay court costs. These two guys could actually be in debt when it's all said and done. "They could actually be worse off for having that ball. Add up two sets of lawyers. I'm being generous if those lawyers fought in court for a combined total of less than $500,000." McFarlane, on his way to Arkansas for a business meeting, bid for the Bonds ball by phone from Dallas. Michael Heffner, president of Leland's handled his call. "I knew it would go for a fraction of the other ball," he said. "I think we did well tonight." With all commissions included, the official purchase price will be recorded as $517,500. With auctioneer Cathy Elkies running the sale, bidding began at $200,000 and moved in increments of $25,000. There were 12 registered bidders, some of them in the room at the ESPN Zone restaurant. McFarlane said he hoped that his presence in the auction would scare off other bidders. "I'm hoping that they all know that I'm bidding and they'll go, 'Oh, it's the psycho, he's got too much money,' and nobody will bid and I'll get it for the minimum amount. I'm hoping I'll just scare them by my presence and get it at low value." It might have worked that way. The second-highest bidder was former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier's doctor, cardiologist Nicholas De Pac. Accompanied by Frazier and the fighter's son, Marvis, De Pac said he was prepared to spend up to $500,000 including commissions and planned to contribute the ball to the Yogi Berra Museum. His last bid was $425,000. Also in the room was John Doyle, the brother-in-law of tie manufacturer Irwin Sternberg, who bid $2.7 million for the McGwire ball. Doyle said he had bid for the Bonds ball on the Internet. "We thought it was worth $275,000 and we would have gone as high as $300,000," he said. Sal Durante, who as a teenager caught Roger Maris' then-record 61st homer in 1961, was at the auction and expressed surprise at the selling price. "I'm shocked it went so low," said Durante, who sold the Maris ball for $5,000. Bonds watched the auction from a leather easy chair in the Giants' clubhouse, struggling to keep his eyes open during the time reserved for his usual pregame nap. When he saw the final price, he chatted with friends, but when reporters approached for comment, Bonds turned away and held up his hand. "Don't come over," he said. "I saw it." Bidding was sluggish right from the start. At one point, Elkies tried to encourage the bidders, saying, "What's another $25,000?" Later, as the bidding seemed to stall, she taunted the potential buyers, saying, "You'll be so sorry in the morning." For McFarlane, that was a good sign "Going in, I would be surprised if it went for between $600,000 and $800,000. You could see they were struggling to get bids," he said. "I thought, `Wow, this is going cheaper than anybody thinks.' I could sense it quickly." Finally, it became clear that no one would top the bid by McFarlane, creator of the Spawn comic strip. McFarlane said he had set a limit of $2.1 million when he went into the auction for the McGwire ball. "We went well past that number," he said. "That limit didn't stop me last time." This time, McFarlane said his limit was $400,000. "I pushed it a bit but, I was not going to get silly," he said. "I would not have gone past a half." He said he wasn't sure congratulations was appropriate. "I haven't called my wife yet," he said. "The goof did it again. "I wish I didn't have this compulsion but that guy, Barry, broke the record, so now I'm in a position where, to some extent I've got to potentially protect my assets here," McFarlane said. "It's tough to say you've got the second-best ball." He said he would use the Bonds ball much as he did the one from McGwire. "I'll make a quick call to the Hall of Fame to put it on display," he said. Busy week for Todd. Wins a MuchMusic Video Award on Sunday and the Bonds ball on Wednesday. Hey, maybe he'll actually DRAW something as well now... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest CanadianChris Report post Posted June 26, 2003 "The funny thing," McFarlane said. "These two guys have two sets of lawyers that they've got to pay court costs. These two guys could actually be in debt when it's all said and done. "They could actually be worse off for having that ball. Add up two sets of lawyers. I'm being generous if those lawyers fought in court for a combined total of less than $500,000." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest kkktookmybabyaway Report post Posted June 26, 2003 Ditto that... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest the pinjockey Report post Posted June 26, 2003 I think they said earlier in the day that the ball had to go for at least 700-750 thousand to make up for all of their expenses. I like this guy buying all of these baseballs. He seems to care about the game. He said in an interview he would be talking to the HOF and see what they could do together. I like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted June 26, 2003 MacFarline's going to tour the country with his new 'juggling act' Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest El Satanico Report post Posted June 26, 2003 He said he's going to use the balls as a negotiating tool in getting the rights to do a vintage players line of figures. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Vern Gagne Report post Posted June 26, 2003 That is a riot these two idiots likely won't make any money from this ball. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest geniusMoment Report post Posted June 26, 2003 From what the guys on sportscenter said they each are going to lose about $100,000. Now thats the kind of comedy you can't make up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MaxPower27 Report post Posted June 26, 2003 He said he's going to use the balls as a negotiating tool in getting the rights to do a vintage players line of figures. Like these? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest undisputedjericho Report post Posted June 27, 2003 I've seen McFarlane baseball figures around... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest El Satanico Report post Posted June 27, 2003 He said he's going to use the balls as a negotiating tool in getting the rights to do a vintage players line of figures. Like these? Yes like those, except with MLB players. I've seen McFarlane baseball figures around... Yes they already make MLB figures, but he was talking about a vintage players line of figures Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
