Robservations: $450,000 for Bonds’ ball a bargain?
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Question 1: How much would you pay for a baseball?
a.) One dollar.
b.) Four dollars.
c.) Half a million dollars.
All right, pencils down, let’s see how you did.
If you said “A,” your kids are obviously grown up. A good baseball hasn’t been that cheap in a while.
If you said “B,” congratulations. You’re probably a parent or coach who has been shopping for sporting goods lately.
And lastly, if you said “C,” you’re insanely, ridiculously wealthy — and you’re probably Todd McFarlane.
McFarlane, the comic book creator who brought the demonic superhero “Spawn” to life, recently shelled out $450,000 for Barry Bonds’ record 73rd home run ball in an auction.
While the price may seem steep for most of us, it’s a far cry from the $3.2 million McFarlane coughed up for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball back in 1999. And it’s even less than the price it was predicted to fetch — somewhere over $1 million.
The funniest part of this story comes at the expense of Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi, who were the co-owners of the historic ball before this week’s auction.
You see, Popov caught the ball when Bonds hit it, and Hayashi ended up with it after a brief scuffle in the stands among several fans. Since then, the duo has clogged up the courts for roughly 20 months, deciding who owned the ball and who didn’t before ending up in a tie as co-owners.
Now that it’s all over, however, what do these two guys have to show for it? Fame? Notoriety?
Try 20 months worth of lawyers’ fees.
Even McFarlane was sympathetic to their plight, although he wasn’t about to make any donations to either Popov or Hayashi’s legal funds.
“These two guys have two sets of lawyers that they’ve got to pay court costs,” he told the Associated Press. “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.”
The other funny thing about this whole tale is what McFarlane plans to do with the ball now that he owns it. In fact, it’s the same thing he did with McGwire’s 70th homer.
“I’ll make a quick call to the Hall of Fame to put it on display,” he said.
What? You’re giving it to the Hall of Fame?
OK, sure. It’s a great gesture, and that’s where the ball belongs. But why shell out $450,000 to buy something, then just give it away?
You see, that’s what I mean by “ridiculously” wealthy. He’s spent almost $4 million total on baseballs. Two baseballs. That’s money that could have gone to the homeless, or Jerry’s Kids, or to make comics that aren’t about souls returning from H-E-double-hockey-sticks to seek revenge, or to any number of worthwhile causes. And he’s spent it on two baseballs.
Ridiculous.